Archibald MacMechan

(1862–1933). Born in Berlin (Kitchener), Ontario, Archibald McKellar MacMechan was educated at the University of Toronto and Johns Hopkins University, and was professor of English at Dalhousie University, Halifax, from 1889 until two years before his death. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1926 and was awarded the Lorne Pierce medal for distinguished service to Canadian literature in 1931.

MacMechan is principally known for his engaging familiar essays. Three early collections are The porter of Bagdad and other fantasies (1901), a small volume of typically late-Victorian whimsical essays; The life of a little college (1914), the title essay of which deals with MacMechan's affectionate ties with Dalhousie University; and The book of Ultima Thule (1928), essays concerned mostly with the author's personal response to Nova Scotia geography and history. His familiarity with the sea, and the local history relating to it, is central to three historically based collections that represent the writing he considered to be of most lasting value: Sagas of the sea (1923), Old Province tales (1924), and There go the ships (1928). Tales of the sea (1947), edited by Thomas Raddall, is a posthumous collection of essays drawn from these books. MacMechan's critical survey of the principal works of English- and French-Canadian authors, Headwaters of Canadian literature (1924; ncl 1974), sets forth his strongly held views concerning the need for a native literature worthy of international recognition. His adherence to idiosyncratic standards, and his recognition of the dual national culture, make this book an important contribution to early Canadian literary criticism. On local history MacMechan also wrote Red snow on Grand Pré (1921) and The Halifax explosion (unpublished); and on political history, The winning of popular government (1916) in the Chronicles of Canada series. His published verse includes Three sea songs (1919) and the posthumous Late harvest (1934). As a scholar of non-Canadian literature he published his doctoral dissertation, The relation of Hans Sachs to the Decameron as shown in an examination of the thirteenth Shrovetide plays from that source (1889); and he edited editions of two works by Thomas Carlyle, Sartor resartus (1896) and Heroes and hero worship (1901), the Select poems of Lord Tennyson (1907), and the Thoreau chapter in the Cambridge history of American literature (1916). From 1907 until his death, MacMechan was a weekly book reviewer for The Montreal Standard, writing under the nom-de-plume ‘The Dean’.