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COhTl3T.S _. ._.... I 4 Voh?le 12 ~~IIW~ Number 5 FEXTURES The Other Sollludc. An outsider’s view of new French-Canadian fiction. By Albeno Manguel. .7 Less Than Conquerors. The British takeover of Quebec was less a conquest than a betrayal. By I.&l. Owen.. .I0 _ Life on theMargin. George Woodcock’sanarchism is founded on personal frustration. By DavidStofJord. .I7 REVIEWS Quebec, the FortiRed City: From the 17th to the 191h Century. by Andre Charbonncau. Yvon Deslogcs. andMarcLafrance.........................................._..................._................... 12 Le Pouvoir? Gmnais Pas!, by Lise Payette.. I2 Ferlr’sPolly,by:ean-CharlesHarvey.............................................................__................l4 Home Game,by Paul Quariington . I4 The Little Drummer Girl, by John lc Carr6 . .I5 The Bblh Contml King of the Upper Volta and Shakespeare’s Dog. by Leon Rooke . .I8 Murder in the Dark, by Margaret Atwood . .I9 Captain Neal MacDougaldr the Naked Goddess. by Millon Acorn . .28 Night Travcllers, by Sandra Birdsell; Fifly Stories and q Piece of Advln. by David Amason; In lhe Bloud. byHelenRos~;FromrHlghThinWire,byJoanClark .__.._...,.....,....__.._.........._____..................... 22 Labyrlnlbs olVolcz Conversations wilb Robert Kroesch, by Shirley Neuman and Roberl Wilson. .23 Generations: Selected Poems, by Rachel Kern . 24 BacehanalisRevirited,byJamesH.Gray . ...25 DEPARTMENTS Field Notes In Translnlion, by PoulS~uew, . .29 WaitingforLeonard,byDavidHomel................. 3 Children’s Books, by Mury Ains/ie.Smirh . .31 A Terrible Intimacy, by Gary Fagan. .4 Paperbacks. 6.v.4nne Collins . .32 Elysium’s Lap. by Jc$f Miller . S CanWitNo.83 _..............,.____._______.._...... 33 English, Our English, by Bob Blockbum.. .6 The Edllors Recommend . ,34 Interview with L&ndre Bergeron, by Daniel Francis. .26 Books Received. .34 The Browser, byhforrir Wove . .28 EDITOR 0 Michael Smith MANAGING EDITOR 0 Wayne Grady ART DIRECTOR 0 Mary Lu Toms GENERAL MANAGER and ADVERTISING MANAGER 0 Susan Traer CIRCULATION MANAGER 0 Susan Aihoshi CONSULTANTS o Robert Farrclly 0 Jack Jensen CONTRIBUTING EDITORS o Eleanor Wachtel (West Coast) o Robert Kroetsch (Prairies) o Doris Cowan 0 Douglas Hill 0 Stephen Scobie 0 Sheila Fischman (Quebec) 0 D.W. Nichol (Europe) Eastern Townships of Quebec. The Dardick declared tbe following day. introductions do their job: Collhts’s is a The stars of the evening were, of short and light-hearted history of the course, the elders. Supported by two magazine from birth to bankruptcy, a canes, cautioning guests not to shake hi cy& familiar to maoy a swcess”r to hand too warmly because of hll arthritis, CIV/n. Layton’s mntrlbution ties in the Frank Scott hobbled in whh hi wife rev& and the literary movenwnt in Marion, a painter. (It’s a commo”ly T?J:INGc.r. cummings’a advice to heart, Montreal in general with the political overlooked fact that Marion Smtt D little magazine called CIV/n. whose scene at the time. “Illusions were helped change the face of Canadian title was draw” fmm Ezra Pound’s manifold and generous,” he recalls - painting in the 1930sand 1940s. and thal “nagran for “civllizati”“,” was launch- but better they should be genemus than at 75 she’s still working.) He joined ed. The place was Moontreal, the year stingy. And Norris puts CIV/” in rela- Louis Dudelt, 65, and Irving Layton. 71. ws 1953, and the participants included tion to Souter’s Toronto-based Conhzct in the living mom, and the tlashbulbs II+= Layton, Louis Dudek. A&en magazine. popped. There was a sase that these Collins, Frank Scott, Leonard Nommn The heart of the Whicule book is the three might not meet again. and the Cohen (who later dmpped bis middle reprinted issues of the otiginal CZV/n. camems were very busy. Dudek. at the name), Phyllis Webb, not to mention After 30 years, they read surprisingly end of the evening, remarked, “Next it’s contributors like the Black Mountain well. There is good writing, daring, and our tombstones that wiIl be talking to ports - Olson and Creeley and Cl Cm- humour, as in Louis Dudek writing each other.” “un - Eli Mandel, Doug Jones. and so under tbe pseudonym of AIexa”der St. There was Eamaraderie. but Little the list continues. They launched the John-Smith, calling hill a “disilht- drama. so little as to prompt one of the nmgzine because, according to Dudek. sioned Canadian poet” in the can- original CIV/n group to say that the “Canada needed a wad ~~ooslng.and ttibutors’ notes. There is aIs critical party WBOa worthy reflection of the got it inCIV/“.” - - _- spirit; the Black Mountain p”ets are Puritan atmosphere of the ‘5?s. There Those old crev zaosers gathered read with respect, but not awe. And was just one incident of canebrmglng, togcthet not lot&g&at Simanbardick there is international breadth with when Lea Kennedy, self-acknowledged and Nancy Matrelll’s house on amiably translations fmm France and Italy, as owner of a “garbage bag full of unpub- run-down Roy Street in Montreal, just well as fmm Yiddish writers. Iished poems” (at 74 he ham’t published down from Wahhnan’s f& market tmd At the book’s launching Siion Dar- a line since 1933). accused Seymour itr; dlstlnctive neo” trout. Dardiek, the diclt made sure to have the new genera- Mayne of having booted him out of a Fublisher of V&icule Press, decided to tion of Montreal poets on hand to salute poetry anthology. But Dudek was there pay homage t” the Montreal poetry to soothe Kennedy with a little quatrain. swne of the past - a scene that is still a Clerlhew that held “ut the promise of a thriving today with different and “ew comeback to Kennedy, harkming back niuncs - by publishll a book on the to his fmt and only book, The Shroud- msgazlne that those times pmduced. ing: The Whicule book, entitled CIV/n: A Leo Kennedy could make a comeback Lirerqv Afagazine of the ‘SOS,is a hand- Awdw some volume with a laminated silver Wilh IIsmall book o/verse cow, a cotumst from the magazine’s About a c&in or (I hearse. original mimeo format with hand- Othetwise, it was business as usual. “tinted covets bv artist/desimter Buddy There were jokes about whore hairline &n&i. CIV/i perished f;om lack df had receded furthest, whose had receded funds in 1955after ntakbuz the transition entirely; Layton proclaimed that Frank fmm mimro to ptit, bit each of its Scott was “tottering into immortality”: seven issues in its two-year existence ls and MarionScott engaged MarleLouise preserved in the book. Gay, a Quebec&e artist 45 years her Added to them are retmspective junior, in a discussion about the pm- rrrcs by Aileen Collins. the magazine’s blems of havinga husband. children, original editor; Irving Layton; and an and still keeping time for painting. Plus acad~ictdly tinged piece by Ken Norris p chan&. on the historlcalsigticanee of the little Other contnItc.rs were present too, msg. Of co”rse, no flashback would be the forefathers there assembledz Roby” like Dominique Clift, the political complete without old snapshots. Sarah, John McAuley, Seymour Mayne. essayist who, under the sngliclzd name Especially nostalgia-inspiring is the Fred Louder, and Ray Filip, who of Don Cllft. published poems in the cover photo shock a ,w”ng Leonard organlres the Phtriels radii series in magazine. Like a latter-day Lefty, every- Cohen in a lumberjack shltt, serenading Montreal that has see” GE%“” Mlron on one was waiting for Leonard Cohen. il gathering of poets in a cottage (eom- the same podium as Al Pwdy. “It was “Where’s Leonard? I wouldn’t mind pletc with stuffed moosehead) in the one of the better parties we’ve had,” seeing Leonard,” Irving Layton ___.. __.-_._ L-s--- -- ._ thundered, but Cohen did not show. That’s not a lot. for a prers that has Apparently he was en voyage. been in operation since 1975. Yet Villa During its short life, CIV/n worked, neuve has gradually developed a reputa- according to Dud&, because the poets tlon not only for good poetry by involved were still flexible and willing to strongty individual voices, but for the cooperate with each other. Everyone simple beauty of their hand-set, hand- was in his 30s; vision war supple, and printed books. One of my cherished career directions had yet to be deter- possessions is a folded broadside by mined. These were people aware of their VUleneuveof two poems by Kleinzahler, mission, which began with Firs1 .%a&- printed (a0 the colophon says) in Caslon ment and Scott and A.J.M. Smith: to and Gaudy open on hand-made paper make ‘Canadian poetry modem. The called “salt & pepper” by Twiirocka of way to do that was through bold state Brookston. Indiana. ment and “bad” taste. “We were the Fred Louder, who comes from In- boys that introduced the four-letter diana, is a natural prinler, with a predse words.” Layton said. He has an eye for clean, elegant design and a explanation of why it all happened in finickiness that demands perfection. Hi Montreal. That city has an “unbmken father was a journalist, and Fred spent record of poetic vitality” beenose of the hi early years in and out of print shops, distinct groups of people inhabiting it but it wasn’t until years later that hll and the social tensions they create. dormant interest began to stir. In the “And one way of resolving tensions,” 1960s he came to Montreal to study at Layton relates, “is to write poetry.” The McGill, and although he wasn’t happy Jewish poets were more effective and there he stayed to avoid the draft.

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