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GORDON RAYMOND ELLIOTT, ACADEMIC: 1920-2006
Special to The Globe and Mail
TORONTO -- Professor Gordon Elliott was to Margaret Laurence what Ira Dilworth was to Emily Carr: A steady, persuasive literary editor guiding the writer towards excellence.
It was a 1950s literary match made in heaven. Ms. Laurence's first novel, This Side Jordan, had just been rejected and Prof. Elliott, who was then teaching at the University of British Columbia, recognized a gleam of brilliance and stepped in to help. Realizing she was financially strapped, he offered the young writer a job marking English essays and then typed her revised manuscript. Halfway through, he wrote to his publisher friend, Jack McClelland, and urged him to get in touch with his new protégé. In his 1997 biography of Margaret Laurence, author James King credited Prof. Elliott with effectively launching her career and helping introduce generations of readers to the charms and challenges of fictional Manawaka, Man.
In a way, Ms. Laurence represented vindication for Prof. Elliott. As a student at UBC, he had been greatly influenced by author and academic R.E. Watters, who had introduced him to the secret riches of Canadian literature.
"Who'd ever heard of Canadian literature?" Prof. Elliott once said. "If the literature's not American, or it's not English, there's no such thing. We didn't even have a flag until around 1964."
In 1962, Prof. Watters published A Checklist of Canadian Literature, a book that moved the genre well beyond the first page. Prof. Elliott had worked as his research assistant on the project and got to air his opinions about which authors should be included and which should be dropped.
An impassioned defender of Can Lit during a time when Canadian writers were not considered worthy, Prof. Elliott was a crusty, irascible and exacting teacher, said Daryl Wakeman, a former student.
"Sometimes a nasty glance in your direction felt like a thousand lashes. Or he'd parade you in front of the class as though you had a dunce cap on your head," said Mr. Wakeman. "But in his demanding style, he was also a supportive teacher and editor."
Gordon Raymond Elliott was a British Columbian, through and through. Other than brief jaunts to distant shores, he never really left the province. He spent his earliest years in Pemberton and in Williams Lake. His father, Raymond, was a nearly illiterate butcher and his mother Margaret (née Mellish) was a schoolteacher and a devotee of the public library who encouraged her only son's voracious appetite for books.
In 1937, the family moved to Revelstoke, B.C., and it was there that young Gordon finished high school, having read his way through all the book shelves in town. He was well on his way toward a search for Canadian literary content when the Second World War interrupted his studies.
Shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbour in 1941, he joined the Canadian army and was soon transferred to the RCAF. He served as a navigator on Lancaster bombers based at an airfield in England and was seriously hurt in the crash of a plane in 1945. He was sent home to Vancouver where he spent two years in a body cast in hospital. Once released, he attended UBC and graduated with a master's in history in 1954.
After a brief period of teaching in Williams Lake, B.C., Prof. Elliott decided to go back to school and went to Harvard University. He graduated in 1957 with a second master's in history and went home to join the faculty at UBC, where he soon began making his mark on Canadian literature as a teacher, editor and writer.
In 1965, he was hired by the newly created Simon Fraser University to confront the abyss that was Canadian literature at that time. Part of his job was to choose a curriculum.
"After we had accepted courses in Chaucer and Shakespeare and Tudors and Romantics and the English novel, a sensitive American quietly reminded us we had not made room for American literature," he once wrote in describing the process. "He was right, but an arrogant Englishman then not-so-quietly countered by saying that no real American literature existed and that American writing is merely a poor relation of English literature . . . The nationalistic Yankee shot him down in a shower of stars and stripes. He at last capitulated.
"He unfortunately went on to add that there was certainly no such thing as Canadian literature, that Canadian writing was merely a poor relation of American writing and we were already aware of what he really thought of American writing."
Mr. Wakeman, who studied at SFU, said Prof. Elliott described his predicament as having a "hungry Russian bear to the north, the Asiatic dragon to the west, the British lion to the east and the American eagle to the south. What's a poor little beaver to do?' "
In his typically grumpy style, he attended an academic conference in Kingston in 1974 and challenged a generation of Canadian literary criticism on 19th-century novels, saying standard texts such as those published by the New Canadian Library were abridged, bowdlerized and unreliable. His colleague, Professor Kris Paulson, said the confrontation led to the establishment of the Centre for Editing Early Canadian Texts, a group of scholars who produced and authorized original texts of at least six Canadian 19th-century novels. The centre was responsible for reprinting such classics as Susannah Moodie's Roughing It in the Bush and The History of Emily Montague by Frances Brooke, frequently called the first Canadian novel.
Interestingly, Prof. Elliott believed Canadian authors could express Canadian points of view only while living in the landscape. "Malcolm Lowry, Brian Moore and Arthur Hailey are perhaps fine writers," he said, "but they are not Canadian writers. And Malcolm Lowry was a pain in the ass."
Over the years, Prof. Elliott edited hundreds of Canadian texts including British Columbia: A History by Margaret Ormsby (1958); Pemberton: The History of Settlement (1977). He also wrote Barkerville, Quesnel and the Cariboo Gold Rush (1978), Guide to the Neighbourhood Pubs of the Lower Mainland (1983), and Pick of the Neighbourhood Pubs of B.C. (1986).
After 30 years spent teaching Canadian literature, Prof. Elliott retired from SFU as professor emeritus in 1985. Still on the lookout for excellence, he became a judge on the annual B.C. Book Awards and travelled widely, notably in Greece. Stuffing his pockets with The Odyssey, he followed Odysseus's path along the Aegean Sea, making frequent stops along the way for a flagon of wine.
Gordon Raymond Elliott was born in Pemberton, B.C., on April 19, 1920. He died in Vancouver on Dec. 14, 2006. He had no survivors but leaves a number of families who considered him a central figure in their lives. He left the bulk of his estate to a variety of universities, and a scholarship in his name has been established at Williams Lake Secondary School.
-- February, 2007
TORONTO -- Professor Gordon Elliott was to Margaret Laurence what Ira Dilworth was to Emily Carr: A steady, persuasive literary editor guiding the writer towards excellence.
It was a 1950s literary match made in heaven. Ms. Laurence's first novel, This Side Jordan, had just been rejected and Prof. Elliott, who was then teaching at the University of British Columbia, recognized a gleam of brilliance and stepped in to help. Realizing she was financially strapped, he offered the young writer a job marking English essays and then typed her revised manuscript. Halfway through, he wrote to his publisher friend, Jack McClelland, and urged him to get in touch with his new protégé. In his 1997 biography of Margaret Laurence, author James King credited Prof. Elliott with effectively launching her career and helping introduce generations of readers to the charms and challenges of fictional Manawaka, Man.
In a way, Ms. Laurence represented vindication for Prof. Elliott. As a student at UBC, he had been greatly influenced by author and academic R.E. Watters, who had introduced him to the secret riches of Canadian literature.
"Who'd ever heard of Canadian literature?" Prof. Elliott once said. "If the literature's not American, or it's not English, there's no such thing. We didn't even have a flag until around 1964."
In 1962, Prof. Watters published A Checklist of Canadian Literature, a book that moved the genre well beyond the first page. Prof. Elliott had worked as his research assistant on the project and got to air his opinions about which authors should be included and which should be dropped.
An impassioned defender of Can Lit during a time when Canadian writers were not considered worthy, Prof. Elliott was a crusty, irascible and exacting teacher, said Daryl Wakeman, a former student.
"Sometimes a nasty glance in your direction felt like a thousand lashes. Or he'd parade you in front of the class as though you had a dunce cap on your head," said Mr. Wakeman. "But in his demanding style, he was also a supportive teacher and editor."
Gordon Raymond Elliott was a British Columbian, through and through. Other than brief jaunts to distant shores, he never really left the province. He spent his earliest years in Pemberton and in Williams Lake. His father, Raymond, was a nearly illiterate butcher and his mother Margaret (née Mellish) was a schoolteacher and a devotee of the public library who encouraged her only son's voracious appetite for books.
In 1937, the family moved to Revelstoke, B.C., and it was there that young Gordon finished high school, having read his way through all the book shelves in town. He was well on his way toward a search for Canadian literary content when the Second World War interrupted his studies.
Shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbour in 1941, he joined the Canadian army and was soon transferred to the RCAF. He served as a navigator on Lancaster bombers based at an airfield in England and was seriously hurt in the crash of a plane in 1945. He was sent home to Vancouver where he spent two years in a body cast in hospital. Once released, he attended UBC and graduated with a master's in history in 1954.
After a brief period of teaching in Williams Lake, B.C., Prof. Elliott decided to go back to school and went to Harvard University. He graduated in 1957 with a second master's in history and went home to join the faculty at UBC, where he soon began making his mark on Canadian literature as a teacher, editor and writer.
In 1965, he was hired by the newly created Simon Fraser University to confront the abyss that was Canadian literature at that time. Part of his job was to choose a curriculum.
"After we had accepted courses in Chaucer and Shakespeare and Tudors and Romantics and the English novel, a sensitive American quietly reminded us we had not made room for American literature," he once wrote in describing the process. "He was right, but an arrogant Englishman then not-so-quietly countered by saying that no real American literature existed and that American writing is merely a poor relation of English literature . . . The nationalistic Yankee shot him down in a shower of stars and stripes. He at last capitulated.
"He unfortunately went on to add that there was certainly no such thing as Canadian literature, that Canadian writing was merely a poor relation of American writing and we were already aware of what he really thought of American writing."
Mr. Wakeman, who studied at SFU, said Prof. Elliott described his predicament as having a "hungry Russian bear to the north, the Asiatic dragon to the west, the British lion to the east and the American eagle to the south. What's a poor little beaver to do?' "
In his typically grumpy style, he attended an academic conference in Kingston in 1974 and challenged a generation of Canadian literary criticism on 19th-century novels, saying standard texts such as those published by the New Canadian Library were abridged, bowdlerized and unreliable. His colleague, Professor Kris Paulson, said the confrontation led to the establishment of the Centre for Editing Early Canadian Texts, a group of scholars who produced and authorized original texts of at least six Canadian 19th-century novels. The centre was responsible for reprinting such classics as Susannah Moodie's Roughing It in the Bush and The History of Emily Montague by Frances Brooke, frequently called the first Canadian novel.
Interestingly, Prof. Elliott believed Canadian authors could express Canadian points of view only while living in the landscape. "Malcolm Lowry, Brian Moore and Arthur Hailey are perhaps fine writers," he said, "but they are not Canadian writers. And Malcolm Lowry was a pain in the ass."
Over the years, Prof. Elliott edited hundreds of Canadian texts including British Columbia: A History by Margaret Ormsby (1958); Pemberton: The History of Settlement (1977). He also wrote Barkerville, Quesnel and the Cariboo Gold Rush (1978), Guide to the Neighbourhood Pubs of the Lower Mainland (1983), and Pick of the Neighbourhood Pubs of B.C. (1986).
After 30 years spent teaching Canadian literature, Prof. Elliott retired from SFU as professor emeritus in 1985. Still on the lookout for excellence, he became a judge on the annual B.C. Book Awards and travelled widely, notably in Greece. Stuffing his pockets with The Odyssey, he followed Odysseus's path along the Aegean Sea, making frequent stops along the way for a flagon of wine.
Gordon Raymond Elliott was born in Pemberton, B.C., on April 19, 1920. He died in Vancouver on Dec. 14, 2006. He had no survivors but leaves a number of families who considered him a central figure in their lives. He left the bulk of his estate to a variety of universities, and a scholarship in his name has been established at Williams Lake Secondary School.
-- February, 2007
Submitted on February 13, 2007 in By David.
