Acknowledgements
Qualecumquest
The
editor of this volume in the Post-Confederation Poetry:
Texts and Contexts series is all too aware of his own
slender background in Canadian literary studies. On
the other hand, it seemed not impossible even in the
1990s that a Canadian classicist of some sixty years
(who passed his school-days when the poetry of Charles
G.D. Roberts was still taught and admired) might have
some special appreciation of a book published in 1880
by the then twenty-year-old classical graduate of the
University of New Brunswick. The thirty poems contained
in the young Roberts’ Orion, and Other Poems have
never been reissued in their original, quite handsome,
form, and the book’s very centenary (as has been well
observed) passed without notice. (It would be fair to
suggest that this may also reflect a reluctance on the
part of the poet to see them all in print again.)
Reading
and handling in the Queen’s University Library’s Special
Collections the very copy that Roberts had inscribed
to Oliver Wendell Holmes in November of 1880 had very
much piqued my interest. A few years ago I lamented
to Professor D.M.R. Bentley, editor of this series that
Orion, and Other Poems was not available in a
modern edition with commentary, and that it was quite
impossible to appreciate it as disiecta membra
poetae in Pacey’s 1885 edition of Roberts’ complete
poetical works. He coolly replied: "You are absolutely
right. Would you like to do it?" My bluff was called.
Cui
dono lepidum novum libellum?
To
David Bentley, first and foremost, then. To long-time
Queen’s colleagues, Canadianists Les Monkman and Douglas
Spettigue—and a more recent one, Tracy Ware—for their
confidence and encouragement in the project. To John
Adams who gave generously by telephone of his knowledge
of the sources for Roberts’ life. To my classical colleagues
(and deans) who have humoured me over the years as I
gleaned in alien corn. To Norman MacKenzie, who entrusted
the classical works of Gerard Manley Hopkins to my apprentice
care for his magnificent 1990 Oxford edition of Hopkins’
poetry. To the long-suffering, indefatigable and cunning
staffs of Special Collections and University Archives
at Queen’s, who coolly produced treasure after treasure
for me over the years, chasing down classical sources
for Canadian writers: first for Duncan Campbell Scott
and Thomas Chandler Haliburton, later for Sir Charles
G.D. Roberts. To the staff of the University of New
Brunswick Archives at Fredericton, who ferreted out
for me exactly what Roberts studied as an undergraduate,
and when, and with whom, and from what text-book! And
to the editorial assistants at the Canadian Poetry Press,
especially Maya Bevan, Jessica Coffey and Jonathan Stover,
whose formatting skills and talents enabled the creation
of this book.
Finally
to Suzanne, who sacrificed domestic tranquillity during
my administrative leave of 1996-1997, and rescued me
time and again from the toils of Word Perfect 7.
Gratias
maximas. |
