The Tamarack Review

The Tamarack Review
Title	The Tamarack Review
Editor	Robert Weaver, Anne Wilkinson, John Metcalf
Category	Literary magazine
Firstdate	1956
Finaldate	1982
Country	Canada
Language	English
Based	Toronto

The Tamarack Review was a Canadian literary periodical published from 1956 to 1982 that showcased poetry, fiction, criticism, and essays by emerging and established writers. It became a central venue alongside publications such as Canadian Forum, Queen's Quarterly, Toronto Telegram, Maclean's, and Saturday Night for English‑language letters in mid‑20th century Canada. The magazine helped introduce readers to figures later associated with the Group of Seven‑era cultural aftermath, and it intersected with institutions like University of Toronto, McGill University, and University of British Columbia.

History

Founded in 1956 by publisher/editor Robert Weaver with assistance from Anne Wilkinson and John Metcalf, the magazine emerged amid postwar shifts that involved publishers such as McClelland & Stewart, editors from Coach House Press, and reviewers from The Globe and Mail. Early issues featured contributors who were active in circles around Harbourfront Centre, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Yonge Street, and the Toronto literary salon scene that overlapped with figures from Ryerson University and York University. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s the publication navigated relationships with cultural funders like the Canada Council for the Arts and broadcasters such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, while dialogues in its pages reflected contemporary debates tied to events like the Quiet Revolution and policies of the Liberal Party of Canada and Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. The magazine ceased publication in 1982 amid shifting markets influenced by conglomerates such as Southam Inc. and national changes following the adoption of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms era cultural funding reappraisals.

Editorial Staff and Contributors

Editorial leadership included Robert Weaver, whose network spanned critics and editors at Saturday Night and The Toronto Star, as well as guest editors drawn from universities like Queen's University and University of Western Ontario. Regular contributors and early readers included poets and novelists associated with Leonard Cohen, Margaret Atwood, Mordecai Richler, Northrop Frye, Gordon R. Dickson, Milton Acorn, P.K. Page, F.R. Scott, and E. J. Pratt. Fiction and criticism came from names connected to Hugh MacLennan, Alice Munro, Michael Ondaatje, Paul Quarrington, Graeme Gibson, Robertson Davies, Irving Layton, D. G. Jones, Donalda Dickie, and James Reaney. International contributors and correspondents included literary figures who had appeared in The New Yorker, Paris Review, The Atlantic, Encounter, and Granta such as Jean-Paul Sartre, T. S. Eliot, Allen Ginsberg, John Ashbery, Susan Sontag, Philip Roth, Saul Bellow, Octavio Paz, Gabriel García Márquez, Doris Lessing, John Updike, V.S. Naipaul, and Samuel Beckett in contexts of review or translated work.

Content and Literary Significance

The magazine published original poetry, short fiction, critical essays, and reviews alongside translations and interviews. Its pages engaged with movements and works associated with names like Modernism, represented in discussions of Ezra Pound, W.B. Yeats, T.S. Eliot; postwar narratives linked to Vladimir Nabokov and George Orwell; and emergent Canadian modernists connected to Humbert Wolfe‑era legacies and the later careers of Atwood and Ondaatje. The periodical provided early venues for pieces that intersected with prize trajectories such as the Governor General's Awards, the Booker Prize, the Giller Prize, and the Pulitzer Prize, and it fostered conversations about poetic form, prose innovation, and translation practices involving translators of Jorge Luis Borges, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Pablo Neruda. Critics who wrote for the magazine engaged with theoretical currents from scholars active at Harvard University, Yale University, Columbia University, University of Chicago, and Oxford University.

Reception and Influence

Contemporary reception came from reviewers and columnists at The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, Ottawa Citizen, Vancouver Sun, and cultural broadcasters at CBC Radio. The magazine influenced editorial decisions at presses such as McClelland & Stewart, House of Anansi Press, Coach House Press, Cormorant Books, and Tundra Books. Its role in launching careers contributed to later awards and appointments at institutions like Royal Society of Canada, Parliamentary Poet Laureate of Canada, and university chairs at McMaster University, Simon Fraser University, and Dalhousie University. Internationally, its intersections with editors from New York Review of Books, London Review of Books, and The New Republic amplified Canadian literary visibility during cultural moments connected to events like the Expo 67 cultural program and the broader North American literary marketplace.

Publication Details and Format

Published primarily in Toronto, issues appeared quarterly and later bimonthly with formats that combined essays, portfolios, and review sections. Typical issues ran features alongside departments similar to those in The New Yorker, New Statesman, The Spectator, and The Atlantic Monthly, with cover art often by illustrators and painters linked to galleries such as the Art Gallery of Ontario and the National Gallery of Canada. Subscriptions and distribution used networks of bookstores like Chapters, independent retailers on Queen Street West, and academic channels through university bookstores at University of Toronto and McGill University. Printing and typesetting were handled by commercial shops often used by Canadian small presses and mimeograph‑era operations connected to literary collectives that later formed cooperatives modeled on Coach House Press.

Legacy and Archival Availability

Archival runs are held in special collections at institutions including Library and Archives Canada, University of Toronto Libraries, McMaster University Library, Queen's University Archives, McGill University Library, University of British Columbia Library, and regional archives at Toronto Public Library and Vancouver Public Library. Selected issues appear in digitized form in catalogues and union lists used by scholars at JSTOR‑like repositories and research services at WorldCat. The magazine's influence persists in anthologies and critical studies published by academic presses such as University of Toronto Press, McGill‑Queen's University Press, and UBC Press, and in retrospectives organized by cultural centers including Harbourfront Centre and provincial arts councils.

Category:Defunct literary magazines published in Canada