Thomas D'Arcy McGee as a Father of Canadian Literature

The author argues that the Irish-born Montrealer Thomas D'Arcy McGee (1825-1868), a Father of Confederation, was a literary as well as a political figure, not only a poet but a "prophet" of a Canadian literature and a new nationality in the years preceding Confederation. The author points out that McGee argued for revisions in the British Copyright Legislation in order to assist Canadian publishers, and objecting to the dominance of American and British literature in Canada. He realized that the New Dominion could not be satisfied with books produced elsewhere, and recognized the necessity to seek out in other cultures what was most pertinent to a Canadian need to create "a genuine, modest, deep-seated culture" characterized by "northern energy."

Studies in Canadian Literature/Études en littérature canadienne

Vol. 1

no. 1

85-95

1976

en