Alden Nowlan will not be remembered as a formative influence on literature in Canada. He has never considered stylistic innovation as necessary to communicate his experience; moreover, his views in themselves are not radically different from those of the tradition of Western humanism which he adopted, albeit in an unusual way. What is important about his work--as poet, novelist, short-story writer, dramatist, and journalist--is his ability to deal honestly and emphatically with personal relations and to put them into a larger context, making unexpected, illuminating connections between events and objects. His best work will continue to be read long after the work of more faddish writers has been forgotten.

To the welter of modern life, Nowlan brings a triple vision of sanity, gentleness, and strength, expressed with such deceptive ease and surface simplicity that the reader is apt to be unaware of the violent, disparate elements that went...