\s mYevtew KALEIDOSCOPE - University of British Columbia

F. R. SCOTT 1899-1985WHETHER ONE KNEW HIM personally ornot, F. R. Scott figured as a senior poetand statesman for generations of Canadianwriters and readers, a role he wasmarvellously equipped to play. Our lastnineteenth-century poet, first among ourearly twentieth-century ones, he was alsoa lawyer, teacher, and political thinkerthe erudition and intelligence of whoseideas will continue to influence the legaland political systems of Canada for along time to come. Readers of CanadianLiterature will be familiar with his manyaccomplishments, which have been mostrecently documented in On F. R. Scott:Essays on His Contributions to Law,,Literature, and Politics, based on the1981 conference, "The Achievement ofF. R. Scott" (which Scott wittily dubbeda "pre-mortem" ). He was a giant amongmen, as the saying has it, but rarely hasa saying seemed so appropriate.Scott towered above most people physically,and also in personality and charm,as well. His immense personal charisma,his unwavering energy and integritycome first to mind when one thinks ofhim. People recalling Frank Scott thinkof the person they knew, and only afterwardsof the major poet, translator,constitutional lawyer, teacher, politicaltheorist, and founding member of theCCF.Few readers of Scott's poetry, while itis Scott the poet they know best, wouldfail to recognize how fully his poems engagethe philosophy by which he livedand worked. That they are poems of tension,that they seldom offer clear andsimple answers but continually interrogatepossibilities, are testament to a mindand spirit which never stopped seekinganswers yet knew better than to thinkany one simple "truth" was the answer.The Collected Poems of F. R. Scott testifiesto the rich and full life of a man whoinsisted on living, in all his variedcareers, the contradictions which hispoems refused to pretend weren't there.Classic in form yet often romantic inaspiration, sometimes satirical, sometimesfull of transcendental yearning, they seeminevitably Canadian in their reflection ofthe contradictions of modern Canadianculture. And it is those poems whichmost fully register the profound moralambiguities of the twentieth century thatwill last as Scott's major contribution toour literature.But all of Scott's various writings, inthe many areas of Canadian culture andsociety to which he contributed so much,will continue to exert their influence.People will remember his work and useit, because its value is clear. But thevalue of his personal involvement is alsoclear: he always put himself on the line,and in the literary community alone, hissupport of magazines and small pressesmade possible the publication of earlywork by some of our best writers. Manywriters were proud to count him theirfriend, but he lives in the memories ofalmost all who ever met him. Indeed, ifthere is ever an Oxford Book of CanadianLiterary Anecdotes, the entriesunder F. R. Scott's name will take up alot of space. Seldom when writers of anygeneration from the 1920's to the 1970'smeet does a story about F. R. Scott notcome up. And all the stories testify tothe man's charm, graciousness, intelligence,toughness, and wit. Truly, he was,in all his varied careers, a "singularman." The writing remains, and we aregrateful for it. The man is gone, and itwill be long before we see his like again.DOUGLAS BARBOUR196