I9OI-2 TRANSACTIONS. ^^ 



lected in Canada, but it is impossible to more than touch upon 

 it here. Two or three successful writers of boys' stories may 

 - be mentioned in passing. 



James DeMille, whose work itl fiction has already be?ii 

 dealt with, brought out a number of excellent boys' bo ks, 

 in two series, "The B. O. W. C." (Boys of V/olfville' 

 College), ^ and " Young Dodge Club," " the former in six 

 volumes, and the latter in three. Most of these books have 

 run through several editions. 



Mr. J. Macdonald Oxley, who has devoted himself almost 

 exclusively to this class of fiction, promises to be almost as 

 prolific a writer as the renowed Mr. Henty. Since the pub- 

 lication of his first story, " Bert Lloyd's Boyhood,' in 1887, 

 he has brought out some fifteen or sixteen books of adven- 

 ture, all good of their kind. 



Mr. E. W. Thomson, until lately editor of the Youth's 

 Companion^ has done excellent work in this field. 



It is interesting to note how very generally our Canadian 

 poets have dabbled in fiction, and with, comparatively speaking, 

 what scant success. Mr. Roberts has certainly produced some 

 very fair romances and short stories, and he must be taken as 

 an exception to the rule. Charles Heavysege, the old Montreal 

 dramatist, whose splendid drama " Saul " received such warm 

 praise from Longfellow, Hawthorne, Emerson, Bayard Taylor, 

 and Coventry Patmore, once tried his hand at a novel, but the 

 result, which he called " The Advocate," ^ was a most lament- 

 able failure. John Hunter-Duvar, the Prince Edward Island 

 poet, published a rather dainty piece of imaginative work, 

 " Annals of the Court of Oberon," but the historical novel 

 which he subsequently wrote, and thought to be the best thing 

 he had ever written, is such' a crude and tedious bit of fiction as 

 no publisher would ever dream of putting on the market. It 

 is still in manuscript. Archibald Lampman began an ambi- 



1. Published 1869 1873. 



2. Published 1871-1877. 



3. "The Advocate ; A Novel. Montreal, 1865. 8vo. 



