{{Short description|Canadian magazine}} {{italic title}}{{Infobox magazine | title = The Canadian Forum | category = {{hlist|Literary|political}} | format = Magazine | publisher = Canadian Forum Limited | founded = {{Start date and age|1920}} | finaldate = {{End date and age|2000}} | country = Canada | language = English | issn = 0008-3631 | oclc = 1553097 }}
The '''''Canadian Forum''''' was a literary, cultural and political publication and Canada's longest running continually published political magazine (1920–2000).<ref name=ce>{{cite encyclopedia|last=Granastein|first=J. L.|title=Canadian Forum|url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/canadian-forum|encyclopedia=The Canadian Encyclopedia|publisher=The Historica-Dominion Institute|accessdate=15 September 2014|location=Toronto|year=2011}}</ref>
==History and profile== ''The Canadian Forum'', A Monthly Journal of Literature and Public Affairs, was founded on 14 May 1920<ref name="roy">{{cite book|author=Roy Macskimming|title=The Perilous Trade: "Book Publishing in Canada, 1946–2006"|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7GRGg5WxNjYC&pg=PA76|accessdate=1 November 2015|date=11 January 2012|publisher=McClelland & Stewart|isbn=978-1-55199-261-7|page=76}}</ref> by Barker Fairley<ref>{{cite book |last1=Dault |first1=Gary Michael |title=Barker Fairley Portraits |date=1981 |publisher=Methuen |location=Torinto |isbn=0458951501 |page=xi|url=https://library.gallery.ca/search~S1?/adault%2C+gary/adault+gary/1%2C1%2C50%2CB/frameset&FF=adault+gary+michael&11%2C%2C50 |access-date=11 February 2026}}</ref> at the University of Toronto as a forum for political and cultural ideas. Its first directors were G. E. Jackson, chairman, Barker Fairley, literary editor, C. B. Sissons,<ref>Charles Bruce Sissons (1879–1965)</ref> political editor, Peter Sandiford,<ref>(1882–1941)</ref> business manager and Huntly Gordon, press editor.<ref>''Canadian Forum'', vol. 1, No. 1, Oct. 1920, p. 14 and No. 2, Nov. 1920, p. 45</ref> Throughout its publishing run it was Canadian nationalist and progressive in outlook.<ref name=ce/>
Politically, it was a forum for thinkers such as Frank Underhill, F. R. Scott, Ramsay Cook, Mel Watkins, John Alan Lee, Eugene Forsey<ref name=ce/> and Robert Fulford.<ref name=fulford/> Poetry and short stories by Irving Layton, Earle Birney, A. J. M. Smith, Helen Weinzweig, Margaret Atwood,<ref name=ce/> Al Purdy and E. J. Pratt,<ref>E. J,. Pratt, "The Ice-Floes". The Canadian Forum vol. 2 (April 1922), pp. 591-593</ref> appeared<ref name=fulford>{{cite news|last=Fulford |first=Robert |authorlink=Robert Fulford (journalist) |title=''The Canadian Forum'': alive or dead? |url=http://www.roberfulford.com/CanadianForum.html |accessdate=16 August 2011 |newspaper=National Post |date=2001-04-17 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110728082329/http://www.robertfulford.com/CanadianForum.html |archivedate=28 July 2011 |location=Toronto |url-status=dead }}</ref> as well as editorials,<ref>"Editorial".The Canadian Forum 1 (November 1920 ), p. 27.</ref> reviews and articles discussing art and artists, sometimes written by the artists themselves, such as A. Y. Jackson,<ref>A. Y. Jackson, "Sketching in Algoma". The Canadian Forum vol. 1 (March 1921), pp. 174-175.</ref> or Lawren Harris.<ref>Lawren Harris, "Modern Art and Aesthetic Reactions". The Canadian Forum vol. 7 (May 1927), pp. 239-292.</ref> J. E. H. MacDonald<ref>J. E. H. MacDonald, "Poems". The Canadian Forum, vol. 2 (May 1922), p. 624.</ref> and Bertram Brooker<ref>Bertram Brooker, The Canadian Forum, vol. 10 (April 1930) p. 252p. 399; vol. 11 (Nv. 1930), p. 61.</ref> even contributed their poetry. From 1928 on, critic Robert Ayre began to contribute reviews.<ref>{{cite thesis |last1=Valliant |first1=Lois |title=Robert Hugh Ayre (1900-1980), art -- a place in the community : reviews at The Gazette, Montreal (1935-1937) and at The Standard, Montreal (1938-1942), Masters Thesis, 1991 |url=https://spectrum.library.concordia.ca/id/eprint/4139 |website=spectrum.library.concordia.ca |date=1991 |publisher=Concordia U |access-date=20 September 2024}}</ref>
The Forum prided itself on reproducing a picture by a Canadian artist in each issue, "selected by competent critics",<ref>The Canadian Forum vol. 3 (November 1922), p. 64.</ref> though leaning towards the progressive side in art, at least in the early years.<ref>Helen Frye, "Portrait of the Artist in a Young Magazine". The Canadian Forum vol. 22 (May 1942), p. 54.</ref> Art editors included Pegi Nicol MacLeod.<ref>G. Campbell McInnes, 'No. 8 - Pegi Nicol". The Canadian Forum vol. 17 (Sept. 1937), p. 202-203.</ref> Among the artists who lent their work to the publication the most often used was Thoreau MacDonald but a pen sketch by Tom Thomson (now lost) also appeared.<ref>{{cite web |title=Tom Thomson Catalogue Raisonné|url=https://www.tomthomsoncatalogue.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=439 |website=www.tomthomsoncatalogue.org |publisher=Tom Thomson Catalogue Raisonné|access-date=3 March 2024}}</ref> It published the art work of the Group of Seven and many other artists in black-and-white, one work per issue. The full range of the artists published in the Forum was discussed in the Fiftieth Anniversary issue in a lengthy article by the then art editor (1970-1975) Joan Murray.<ref>Joan Murray, "Graphics in the Forum 1920-1951". The Canadian Forum, vol. 50 (April-May 1970), pp. 42-45.</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Collection |url=https://archives.trentu.ca/index.php/24-004 |website=archives.trentu.ca |publisher=Trent U, Peterborough, Ont. |access-date=28 April 2025}}</ref>
In 1934, publisher Steven Cartwright purchased the periodical from J.M. Dent & Sons.<ref name="Horn p. 129">Horn (1980), p.129</ref> After owning it for about a year, Cartwright unloaded the money-losing venture for one dollar to Graham Spry a member of the socially progressive think tank the League for Social Reconstruction (LSR).<ref name="Horn p. 129"/> It was printed using Spy's printing press company, Stafford Printers, which also printed the Ontario CCF's newspaper ''The New Commonwealth''.<ref name="Horn p. 129"/> Spry purchased the press with financial help from both the LSR and English socialist Sir Stafford Cripps, hence the name Stafford Press.<ref name="Horn p. 129"/> in 1936, the LSR bought the ''Forum'' for one-dollar from Spry, and assumed all its debts.<ref name="Horn p. 130">Horn (1980), p. 130</ref> University of Toronto Classics professor George Grube, a member of the LSR, became the editor in 1937.<ref name="Podlecki p.237">Podlecki (1994), p. 237</ref> During his tenure, the periodical was the LSR's official organ.<ref name="Hornpp14,202">Horn (1980), pp. 14, 202</ref> Grube stepped down as editor in 1941, about a year before the LSR officially disbanded.<ref name="Podlecki p.237"/> It has also been operated at times as a co-operative and was owned for a number of years by James Lorimer and Co.<ref name=ce/>
Editors have included Mark Farrell,<ref>Horn (1980), p. 131</ref> G. M. A. Grube,<ref name="Podlecki p.237"/> J. Francis White, Northrop Frye, Milton Wilson, Abraham Rotstein, Denis Smith and the final editor Duncan Cameron.<ref name=ce/>
The magazine suspended publication following its summer 2000 issue.<ref name=fulford/> The Canadian Forum Archives (1953–1978) is at Trent University Library and Archives in Peterborough, Ontario.<ref>{{cite web |title=Fonds |url=https://archives.trentu.ca/index.php/82-015 |website=archives.trentu.ca |publisher=Trent U |access-date=3 April 2024}}</ref>
==Notes== {{Reflist}}
==References== * {{cite book|last=Horn|first=Michiel|title=The League for Social Reconstruction: Intellectual origins of the democratic left in Canada, 1930–1942|url=https://archive.org/details/leagueforsocialr0000horn|url-access=registration|year=1980|publisher=University of Toronto Press|location=Toronto|isbn=0-8020-5487-0}} * {{cite book|last=Podlecki|first=Anthony J.|title=Biographical Dictionary of North American Classicists|year=1994|publisher=Greenwood Press|location=Wesport, Connecticut|isbn=0-313-24560-6|editor=Ward W. Briggs Jr.}}
==External links== *[https://discoverarchives.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/gilbert-edward-jackson-fonds Archival papers of Gilbert Edward Jackson], Editor (1920–1925), are held at the [https://web.archive.org/web/20200426160845/https://utarms.library.utoronto.ca/ University of Toronto Archives and Records Management Services]
{{Canadian art}} Category:1920 establishments in Ontario Category:2000 disestablishments in Ontario Category:Visual arts magazines published in Canada Category:Monthly magazines published in Canada Category:Defunct political magazines published in Canada Category:Defunct literary magazines published in Canada Category:Magazines established in 1920 Category:Magazines disestablished in 2000 Category:Defunct magazines published in Toronto Category:University of Toronto publications