Forum: Canadian Life and Letters - 1920-1970
Selections from the Canadian Forum
Granatstein, J.L. Publisher: University of Toronto Press, Toronto, Canada
Year Published: 1972
Pages: 431pp ISBN: 0-8020-6168-0
Dewey: 808.849
Resource Type: Book
A selection of articles from fifty years of the Canadian Forum magazine.
Abstract:
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Table of Contents
Preface
Part One: The 20s
1. November 1920: F H Varley The Colliery Accident
2. March 1921: Huntly K Gordon: Canadian Poetry
3. April 1921: J S Woodsworth: Unemployment
4. June 1921: M H Staples: The Genesis of the United Farmers
5. September 1921: Lawren Harris Slums and Shadows
6. October 1921: C B Sissons: The Farmers' Case
7. October 1921: Frank Carmichael Man with Scythe
8. November 1921: Editorial - Our Next Parliament
9. December 1921: A J Casson Decorative Landscape
10. April 1922: J S Woodsworth - The Labour Movement in the West
11. December 1922: Henry Wise Wood - In Defence of Group Politics
12. January 1923: E J Pratt - 'The Shark'
13. June 1923: R S Knox - A New Canadian Poet
14. November 1923: Editorial
15. March 1924: J S Woodsworth - Besco
16. June 1924: J Addison Reid - Secession in Canada: Quebec
17. June 1924: Thompson-Hardy - Secession in Canada: The Prairies
18. July 1924: David Milne Camp Porch
19. November 1924: J S Woodsworth - Mobilizing Progressive Opinion in Canada
20. March 1925: Roland-Gilles Mousseau - A Letter
21. August 1925: J Ansel Anderson The Coward
22. October 1925: A Y Jackson A Winter's Night
23. January 1926: A Political Correspondent - Politics, Parties, and Leaders
24. February 1926: Editorial - Peaceful Penetration
25. May 1926: Edward Sapir - Advice to a Girl
26. July 1926: Thoreau MacDonald Northern Summer
27. August 1926: Editorial - The Constitutional Issue
28. December 1926: Douglas Bush - Making Literature Hum
29. January 1927: J E H MacDonald Paul Bunyan Takes an Evening Stroll in Algoma
30. July 1924: A J M Smith - The Lonely Land
31. October 1927: B R Brooker 'Energy is Eternal Delight' (Blake)
32. October 1927: Huntly K Gordon - The Nudes at the CNE
33. October 1927: Richard De Brisay - A New Immigration Policy
34. October 1927: Jean Burton Phyllus
35. November 1927: Editorial - Phyllus
36. December 1927: Malcolm H V Cameron - A Letter
37. December 1927: Franz Johnston - A Letter
38. January 1928: Escott M Reid - Canada on the Council
39. April 1928: A J M Smith - Wanted: Canadian Criticism
40. June 1928: Frank H Underhill - Canadian and American History - and Historians
41. August 1928: A J M Smith - Cavalcade
42. January 1929: Carl Schaefer Snowbound
43. July 1929: Frank H Underhill - O Canada
44. July 1929: A S Whitely - The Oriental in British Columbia
45. August 1929: Leo Kennedy - Split Me These Gull Throats
46. September 1929: Dorothy Livesay - Parrot of Night
47. October 1929: Robert Finch - The Metro Breakfasts
48. November 1929: C.L.E. - God's Absolutely Against It
49. December 1929: Frank H Underhill - O Canada
The 30s
50. April 1930: Frank H Underhill - O Canada
51. June 1930: Editorial - The Group of Seven
52. June 1930: E J Pratt - The Fair-grounds, Columbus, Ohio
53. June 1930: A J M Smith - Swift Current
54. July 1930: Dorothy Livesay - If it Were Easy
55. August 1930: Editorial - Unemployment Must Be Tackled
56. August 1930: F R Scott - 'Proud Cellist' and 'Sunday'
57. August 1930: A J M Smith - Testament
58. February 1931: J F White - Police Dictatorship
59. March 1931: Editorial - The Intellectual Capital of Canada
60. June 1931: E A Forsey - Montreal is a Quiet City - And It Must Remain Quiet
61. October 1931: Frank H Underhill - O Canada
62. December 1931: L A MacKay - Fidelia Vulnera Amici
63. December 1931: Edward Arthur Beder Wattman
64. January 1932: F R Scott - Communists, Senators, and All That
65. January 1932: Dorothy Livesay - 'Morning in Autumn' and 'Alienation'
66. January 1932: Mary Quayle Innis Holiday
67. April 1932: Frank H Underhill - The League for Social Reconstruction
68. June 1932: J F White - Socialism without Doctrine
69. July 1932: J F White - Deportations
70. August 1932: A M Klein - Soirée of Velvel Kleinburger
71. August 1932: Frank H Underhill - The Cooperative Commonwealth Federation
72. September 1932: Raymond Knister - 'Boy Remembers in the Field', 'The Plowman', and 'The Hawk'
73. May 1933: Frank H Underhill - Canada and War
74. May 1933: Leo Kennedy - Archibald Lampman
75. July 1933: F R Scott - The CCF Convention
76. October 1933: Editorial - Thanksgiving
77. January 1934: H M Cassidy - Is Unemployment Relief Enough?
78. February 1934: Editorial - The Pre-War Era
79. February 1934: Angus MacInnis - More about the British Columbia Election
80. April 1934: F E Keith - The Fascist Province
81. September 1934: Frank H Underhill - The CCF Convention and After
82. November 1934: J H Gray - Battle of the Winnipeg Cenotaph
83. November 1934: Florence Rhein Beauty Parlour
84. January 1935: Alan Creighton - Barbarous Epoch
85. February 1935: J R McLean - Bennett of Tarsus
86. March 1935: F R Scott - Social Notes
87. April 1935: G V Ferguson: An Alberta Prophet - 1935 Model
88. August 1935: Graham Spry - Politics
89. November 1935: Malcolm MacKenzie Ross - Nationale
90. March 1936: Frank H Underhill - On Professors and Politics
91. March 1936: E J Pratt - Silences
92. March 1936: Quebecer - French-Canadian Nationalism
93. June 1936: High Garner - Toronto's Cabbagetown
94. September 1936: A J M Smith - The Face
95. October 1936: L A MacKay - Battle Hymn for the Spanish Rebels
96. March 1937: Frank H Underhill - The Debate on Foreign Policy
97. March 1937: Earle Birney - Grey Rocks
98. June 1937: Felix Lazarus - The Oshawa Strike
99. July 1937: Norman Bethune - Red Moon
100. September 1937: King Gordon - The CCF Convention
101. November 1937: Ralph Gustafson - Rhyme for the Modern Child
102. February 1938: Frank H Underhill - To Protect Our Neutrality
103. February 1938: Anne Marriott - Prairie
104. May 1938: Eugene Forsey - Under the Padlock
105. May 1938: Rufus II - Another Month
106. June 1938: A M Klein - 'To One Gone to the Wars', 'Toreador', and 'Sonnet without Music'
107. August 1938: F R Scott - Canada the Ammunition Dump
108. August 1938: A M Klein - Barricade Smith: His Speeches
109. January 1939: L A MacKay - Glacial Stream
110. February 1939: John Smalacombe - A Protest
111. March 1939: David Andrade - Dust Patterns After Revolution
112. May 1939: Henry Paul - I am a Transient
113. June 1939: Editorial - Canadian Censorship
114. October 1939: Frank H Underhill - Peach Aims
115. November 1939: G M A Grube - Freedom and War
116. December 1939: F R Scott - The Real Vote in Quebec
The 40s
117. Earle Birney - To Arms with Canadian Poetry
118. February 1940: F A Brewin - Conscription in Canada
119. February 1940: H E Bergman Along the New Highway
120. June 1940: Louise Smith Harvey - Anti-Semitism in Quebec
121. August 1940: F R Scott - Social Planning and the War
122. September 1940: Frank H Underhill - North American Front
123. October 1940: Editorial - Winning the War
124. December 1940: Raymond Souster - Last Act, Last Scene
125. February 1941: Carlton McNaught - Democracy and Our Universities
126. October 1941: Fergus Glenn - The Conscription Build-Up
127. December 1941: Editorial - Freezing Injustice
128. January 1942: Editorial - Meighen Redivivus
129. June 1932: F R Scott - What Did 'No' Mean?
130. September 1942: P K Page - Bed-sitting Room
131. October 1942: Editorial - Maligning the CCF
132. January 1943: Editorial - The Pro and Con Party
133. January 1943: James Wreford - Winter Weather
134. January 1943: Irving Layton - Lady Remington
135. October 1943: Margaret Avison - Mutable Hearts
136. December 1943: Northrop Fry - Canada and Its Poetry
137. April 1944: Miriam Waddington - The Sleepers
138. June 1944: Patrick Anderson - Poem on Canada
139. July 1944: A J M Smith - A Letter
140. July 1944: Carlyle King - The CCF Sweeps Saskatchewan
141. December 1944: P K Page - Draughtsman
142. January 1945: Editorial - National Unity
143. August 1945: Editorial - The Boys Come Back
144. May 1946: F R Scott - Labour Learns the Truth
145. September 1946: A M Klein - 'Political Meeting' and 'The White Old Lady'
146. March 1947: Grace MacInnis - Immigration? On What Basis?
147. May 1947: F R Scott - Orderly Decontrol
148. May 1947: John Glassco - The Entailed Farm
149. August 1947: Northrop Frye - Toynbee and Spengler
150. October 1947: L J Rogers - Duplessis and Labour
151. February 1948: Frank H Underhill - Liberalism à la King
152. April 1948: James Reaney - Klaxon
153. August 1948: Louis Dudek - Upstate Tourism
154. May 1949: W R Trost The Buster
155. November 1949: Miller Stewart - Canada's Pollution Problem
The 50s
156. September 1950: S W Bradford - The CCF Failure in Foreign Policy
157. October 1950: Frank H Underhill - Canadian Socialism and World Politics
158. November 1950: S F Wise - Canadian Football
159. December 1950: F R Scott - Mr King and the King Makers
160. May 1951: Editorial - The United States: Canada's Problem
161. August 1951: Frank H Underhill: Notes on the Massey Report
162. August 1951: Gavin White - Canadian Apartheid
163. March 1952: Martha Champion Randle - The New Indian Act
164. April 1952: Frank H. Underhill - Power Politics in the Ontario CCF
165. April 1952: Fred Swayze - Spring Song
166. December 1952: Frank H Underhill - Turning New Leaves
167. January 1953: Dorothy Livesay Matt
168. July 1953: Frank H Underhill - How to Vote
169. August 1953: J B Conacher - A Canadian Social Scandal
170. October 1954: Louis Dudek - The State of Canadian Poetry; 1954
171. March 1955: A R M Lower - The Question of National Television
172. July 1955: Curt Lang - History Lesson on Point Grey
173. August 1955: Jean Inglis - And the Green Hills Laught
174. August 1955: Louis Dudek - Keewaydin Poems
175. October 1955 and November 1955: Milton Wilson - On Dudek and Layton
176. November 1955: Paul Fox - The Liberal Party
177. May 1956: Millar MacLure - Poets in Review
178. May 1956: A J M Smith - On Reading Certain Poems and Epistles of Irving Layton and Louis Dudek
179. July 1956: A G Christopher - A Letter
180. July 1956: Eugene Forsey - Pipeline and Parliament
181. August 1956: Phyllis Webb - The Idiot Birds
182. October 1956: Irving Layton - Layton on Layton
183. January 1957: A Vixen - The New Conservative Leader
184. February 1958: Irving Layton - 'Sheep', 'Whatever Else Poetry is Freedom' and 'Côte des Neiges Cemetry
185. June 1958: John Porter - Political Parties and the Political Cheer
186. June 1958: Michael Oliver - Duplessis and Quebec's Intellectuals
187. July 1958: Donald V Smiley - One-Partyism and Canadian Democracy
188. September 1958: E W Mandel - Frye's Anatomy of Criticism
189. November 1958: Milton Acorn - The Tolerant Philistine
190. December 1958: Pauline Jewett - Mr Diefenbaker's Proposed Bill of Rights
The 60s
191. May 1960: Milton Acorn - Restaurant Scene
192. June 1960: Joyce Wieland Circus
193. August 1960: Herbert F Quinn - Defeat in Quebec
194. September 1960: A L Levine - The US and the Canadian Economy
195. October 1960: Milton Acorn - I Will Arise and Go Now
196. February 1961: Alden A Nowlan - Wasp
197. March 1961: Kenneth McNaught - J S Woodsworth and the New Party
198. May 1961: Ramsay Cook - The Old Man, the Old Manifesto, the Old Party
199. August 1961: Malcolm Lowry - 'Tashtego Believed Red' and 'Nocturne in Burrard Inlet
200. October 1961: Paul Standing - Nipples on the Newsstands
201. October 1961: Irving Layton - There Were No Signs
202. January 1962: Laurier L LaPierre - Le Séparatisme and French Canadians
203. February 1962: A W Purdy - Poem for One of the Annettes
204. September 1962: Donald V Smiley - Canada's Poujadists: A New Look at Social Credit
205. November 1962: David Helwig The Winter of the Daffodils
206. May 1963: John Meisel - Election Outcome: A Breather
207. May 1963: Kenneth McNaught - Uncle Sam Again
208. June 1963: Margaret Atwood - Mad Mother Ballad
209. July 1963: Ramsay Cook - a Time to Break Silence
210. October 1963: H Blair Neatby - The Present Discontents: A Proposal
211. October 1963: A W Purdy The undertaker
212. November 1963: Gwendolyn MacEwen - Manzini: Escape Artist
213. December 1963: E W Mandel - Orpheus in the Underworld
214. January 1964: Marshall McLuhan - Murder by Television
215. July 1964: Melville H Watkins - The Canadian Quandry
216. July 1964: Abraham Rotstein - The Canadian Quandry
217. July 1964: David Bromige - The Great Lover
218. July 1964: Padraig O Broin - Railing at Byzantium
219. October 1964: Editorial - In the Bourassa Tradition
220. January 1965: A W Purdy - The Wine-Maker's Beat-étude
221. June 1965: Lionel Tiger Bennett and the Power and the Glory
222. August 1965: Abraham Rotstein and Melville H Watkins - The Outer Man: Technology and Alienation
223. March 1966: bp nichol - to islands rowboats stand on
224. March 1966: George Bowering The House on Tenth
225. May 1966: Ramsay Cook - Un Québec fort dans une nouvelle Confédération
226. June 1966: David W Slater - Gordon's New Book
227. June 1966: Dorothy Livesay - And Give Us Our Trespasses
228. July 1966: Melville H Watkins - Is Gordon's Game Worth the Candle
229. August 1966: Helen Gowans An Awfully Mature Person
230. December 1966: Alden Nowlan - Rivalry
231. March 1967: Michael Ondaatje - Peter
232. April 1967: Raymond Souster - Rags-and-Bones Man
233. January 1968: Eugene McNamara To Burn
234. April 1968: Alden Nowlan - The Unnatural Son
235. May 1968: Paul Fox - The Liberals Choose Trudeau: Pragmatism at Work
236. May 1968: Gad Horowitz - Trudeau vs Trudeauism
237. June 1968: Joyce Wieland - cover illustration
238. December 1968: Hans Werner - Sonnet for Monica
239. February 1969: Dalton Camp - Canadian-American Interdependence: How Much?
240. February 1969: Paul Bidwell - God Bless Americaw
241. March 1969: Glen Siebrasse - La Plaza de Toros, Madrid
242. May 1969: Abraham Rotstein - Running from Paradise
243. May 1969: David McFadden - Get Your Feet Off the Coffee Table
244. October 1969: Abraham Rotstein - The Search for Independence
245. January 1970: Colleen Thibaudeau - February 20th
246. January 1970: Kenneth McNaught - The Permanent Colony
Review:
For fifty years the Forum has been just that: a forum for Canadian literary and political expression. Founded in 1920 by some students and faculty at the University of Toronto it struggled through its early years with a low circulation and frequently a deficit. In 1935, it was taken over by the League for Social Reconstruction, the "brains trust" of the CCF. A circulation of 1,000 to 2,000 in the 1930's was doubled by the war years. During this period, it was the sounding board for a good deal of the social criticism of the academics who shaped much of the ideology of Canadian social democracy. When the LSR was disbanded in the early 1940's an editorial board took control.
Perhaps the most consistently enjoyable part of the Forum has always been its poetry. It has encouraged unknown young writers, and has published many of Canada's major poets. Earle Birney, A.M. Klein, Irving Layton, James Reaney, Milton Acorn, Dorothy Livesay, and Alden Nowlan, and many others, can be found in its back issues.
The selection is also fascinating as a mirror of at least one current of development in Canadian political thought. Frank Scott moves from social critic to liberal constitutionalist in its pages. Frank Underhill, seen by some in the 1930's as "the dean of a sinister communist conspiracy among the nation's professors", published much of his work in the Forum. His opinion of Mackenzie King (always a major object of attention in the Forum) moved, over the years, from considering him a manipulator in a phony two-party system which provided a "screen behind which the controlling interests pull the strings to manipulate the Punch and Judy who engage in mock combat," a man who "towered up like a mountain in the House of Commons because of the flatness of the landscape opposite him,", to seeing him as "the representative Canadian, the typical Canadian, the essential Canadian. the ideal Canadian, the Canadian as he exists in the mind of God."
Economic nationalism, too, is a consistently popular topic in the Forum.
One of the more fascinating contributions on this issue comes from the pen of Mel Watkins in 1964. Reviewing a book by Harry Johnson, the continentalist economist now commuting between Chicago and the London School of Economics, but formerly a Canadian - presently considered the arch-enemy of Canadian economic nationalists - Watkins blasts "misguided economic nationalism." He says "Professor Johnson takes Canadian nationalism too seriously. It is, after all, only economic. Though deplorable, it is a relatively harmless variety compared to much of what we see in the world today... more empirical work is necessary on the nature and causes of Canadian economic nationalism in the hope that we can exercise this devil from our midst".
[review by Ulli Diemer]
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