Spring/Summer 2005 - University of Toronto Press Publishing

GENERAL INTERESTThe Half-Lives ofPat LowtherChristine WiesenthalSince her untimely death in 1975, the life and workof the Vancouver poet Pat Lowther have often beenreferred to as ‘the Lowther legacy.’ In The Half-Livesof Pat Lowther, Christine Wiesenthal seeks to conveywhat that legacy actually entails.Combining biography with an analysis of literaryand cultural history, Wiesenthal examines thecritical legacy of a writer whose remarkable life andpoetry have remained overshadowed by her notoriousdeath. Working within a new form of biography,which employs multiple narrative arcs – or‘half-lives’ – that interpret Lowther’s life and poetrywithin and across several interpretive frameworks,Wiesenthal retraces the influences on the publicmemory of the poet. She charts Lowther’s complexcreative evolution: from her modest beginnings as ahigh-school drop-out and single mother to heremergence as one of the most distinctive poeticvoices of the 1970s.A wealth of previously uncollected andunpublished letters, notebook entries, court documents,interviews, and archival materials illuminatePat Lowther’s manifold achievements in herdomestic, political, and intellectual lives. The Half-Lives of Pat Lowther is the premier work on thisremarkable figure.Christine Wiesenthal is an associate professor in theDepartment of English at the University of Alberta.LITERARY STUDIESApprox. 530 pp / 6 x 9 / June 200512 halftonesCloth ISBN 0-8020-3635-X £42.00 $65.00 EThe Lord ChamberlainRegrets…A History of British Theatre CensorshipDominic Shellard and Steve Nicholsonwith Miriam HandleyTHE BRITISH LIBRARYBetween 1824 and 1968, British theatre was controlledby censorship. Under the dictate of the LordChamberlain’s Office, all new plays were read forunfavourable or corrupting content with the intentionof protecting the ‘vulnerable’ audiences of thetime. Such material was either instructed to be cutor the play to be banned. The effect that censorshipmay have had on the plays that came out of thisperiod, not to mention the ones that never even gotwritten, is crucial to our understanding of the historyand development of theatre in Britain.Revealed here for the first time are a selection ofextensive extracts from key reports, correspondence,and memoranda about some of the most significantplays of the period. Many documents are reproducedin their entirety, allowing the reader direct access tooriginal, unpublished, and unedited archive material.The authors contextualize this material within thepolitical and moral issues of the time, and reveal thefascinating processes and debates that occurred inand around the Lord Chamberlain’s Office.Dominic Shellard is a lecturer in the Department ofEnglish Literature at the University of Sheffield.Steve Nicholson is a principal lecturer in theDepartment of Drama at the University ofHuddersfield.Miriam Handley is a lecturer in the Department ofEnglish Literature at the University of Sheffield.DRAMA / HISTORYApprox. 210 pp / 9 3 /4 x 10 3 /4 / April 200532 illustrationsCloth ISBN 0-7123-4865-4 $38.00 EDISTRIBUTION RIGHTS FOR NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICA ONLY.OTHER RIGHTS HELD BY THE BRITISH LIBRARY7