Letter 2
Letter from Morley Callaghan to Raymond Knister, August 15
Dr. Duncan Campbell Scott, 1933.
35 Woolfrey Ave
Toronto, August 15.
Dear Raymond,
Today I got a copy of the Canadian Stories. I read the introduction, and then I read D. C. Scott‘s story in the book. What is the matter with you?
Though it will come as a relief to any schoolmarms throughout the country to learn that the venerable Duncan is a great writer, since they have always suspected it, you know better. That’s why I am sore. You really know better. Then why do it? Are you thinking of retiring definitely? You had a chance to point the way in that introduction, and you merely arrived at the old values that have been accepted here the last fifty years: id est, Duncan C Scott, C. G. D. Roberts and Gilbert Parker are great prose writers. In any other country in the world they are not taken seriously. Why do you do it? since you know better and are willing to put your name on the book, or is it the mellowing effect of the soil?
Yours,
[Handwritten signature: Morley Callaghan]