Published one hundred years ago today, the 1922 Globe round-up of the year's noteworthy books doesn't display much by way of enthusiasm. The three pages – previous years had five – begin with a reference to something once said by long-dead Englishman George Crabbe. It really sets the tone:
The trend may be away from fiction, but fiction makes for nearly half of the Globe's list. And I can't help but note that not one science title features.
The newspaper's greatest focus is on "GENERAL FICTION," by which it means fiction that is not Canadian. Babbit is recognized as the year's big title. I can't quibble because I still haven't read it. I have read The Beautiful and Damned, which doesn't feature.
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| My copies of the first Canadian editions |
God's Green Country is long out of print, as is every other Canadian fiction title selected by the Globe:
The Return of Blue Pete - Luke Allan [Lacey Amy]Flowing Gold - Rex BeachChalk Talks - J.W. BengoughIndian Legends of Vancouver Island - Alfred CarmichaelGod's Green Country - Ethel M. ChapmanKing's Arrow - H.A. CodyCaste - W.A. FraserPagan Love - John Murray GibbonD'Arcy Conyers - Bertal HeeneyMortimer's Gold - Harold HornThe Timber Pirate - Charles Christopher JenkinsThe Bells of St Stephens - Marian KeithThe Dust Flower - Basil KingThe Twenty-first Burr - Victor LauristonOpenway - Archie P. McKinshieOver 'ere and Back Home - P. O'DTillicums of the Trail - George C.F. PringlePoisoned Paradise - Robert W. ServiceNeighbors - Robert SteadThe Prairie Child - Arthur StringerSalt Seas and Sailormen - Frederick William WallaceThe Shack Locker - Frederick William Wallace
Ignore Flowing Gold; a Texas adventure by American Rex Beach, its inclusion is a mistake. Of the twenty-one truly Canadian titles, I've read only Basil King's The Dust Flower. It may be the author's weakest novel – I have ten left to tackle – but I'm not surprised that it made the cut. What does surprise is the absence of Bertrand W. Sinclair's The Hidden Places, which may just be the best Canadian novel of 1922.
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| My collection of the Globe's 1922 Canadian fiction titles. |
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| Four that didn't make the list. |
In its selection of Canadian fiction titles, the Globe demonstrates a certain preference. Hinted at in the praise of God's Green Country, it is stated plainly in the description of D'Arcy Conyers.*
Really?
Most Canadian novels dating from this time have rural settings.
More, please?
The Globe is most complimentary in its opinion of Canadian verse, but not before taking a dig at the Mother Country: "In Britain, during the past year, deflation has not been confined to finance, and poetry scarcely rises above the horizon." But Canada, young Canada, imbued with "national sentiment stimulated by the war, receives refreshing satisfaction from the study of the poet's message."
Nine of the fourteen volumes of verse are Canadian:
Jean Blewett's Poems - Jean BlewettComplete Poems of Wilfred Campbell - Wilfred CampbellContrasts - Lawren HarrisComplete Poems of Archibald Lampman - Archibald LampmanFires of Driftwood - Isabel Ecclestone MackayThe Woodcarver's Wife and Later Poems - Marjorie L. PickthallChrist in the Strand and Other Poems - James A. RoyVerse and Reverse - Toronto Women's Press Club
Impressive... until one realizes that Complete Poems of Wilfred Campbell and Complete Poems of Archibald Lampman do not exist. Going by the descriptions, I'm sure what's being referred to are The Poetical Works of Wilfred Campbell and yet another edition Archibald Lampman's Poems (first published by Morag in 1900). I own two earlier editions of the latter and a very nice copy of Isabel Ecclestone Mackay's Fires of Driftwood. Am willing to trade all three for a first of Lawren Harris's Contrasts.
We Canadians don't do nearly as well in the rest of the list, nearly falling flat in the "JUVENILE" category – two titles in a list of thirty-four – but we hold our own overall in contributing 47 of the Globe's 167 titles.
Of the forty-seven, Over Prairie Trails by Frederick Philip Grove is in print today as a New Canadian Library title. New Canadian Library being no more, it's old stock now housed somewhere in a Penguin Random House warehouse.
What else is in print?
Nothing?
Oh, Canada.
* In researching Bertal Heeney's D'Arcy Conyers, I stumbled upon the work of British actor, director, and screenwriter Darcy Conyers (1919-1973). Amongst his many accomplishments is the screenplay for the 1961 comedy The Night We Got the Bird. The IMDb summary promises an evening of good fun:
Cyril's family is unaware that he and his cabinet-maker employee are making and selling false antique furniture. It is only when he dies and his salesman Bernie marries his widow Julie that the truth comes out through Cecil re-appearing as a parrot, puzzlingly given as a wedding gift. When a local Brighton heavy realises he's been conned the family band together to try and fix things.
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