edward annand corbett

The career of Sidney Earle Smith, Dean of Law, Dalhousie University (1929-34), President of the University of Manitoba (1934-44), President of the University of Toronto (1945-59), had a variety of backgrounds which were significant in determining his impressive achievement in Canada's humanistic tradition. He was reared in the vigorous landscape and living of the Maritimes, rigorously trained in the discipline of the law whose traditions he always enjoyed and respected, challenged and stimulated by very different but equally significant administrative problems as president first of a struggling western university (Manitoba), and then of the largest and most complex in Canada (Toronto), and finally was caught up in the compelling swirl of international politics from the office of Secretary of State for External Affairs. At every stage of these activities Sidney Smith made an indelible impression on his associates. One of these, who knew him intimately in the work of the Canadian Association for Adult Education, is the author of this short but revealing biography.

Mr. Corbett has carefully and vividly sketched in the backgrounds of his subject's story, has woven into the account with ingenious informality reminiscences of the man and his work by a goodly company of his colleagues, and has brought out his personality, style, methods, beliefs in a persuasive atmosphere of personal warmth and strong academic conviction. This is a book of lively charm to read, and also a valuable recording of a public servant who "left a mark upon his time and his country that the passage of the years will further illuminate." Its initial appearance in the year of the opening of Sidney Smith Hall, built to house the Faculty of Arts whose interests he had always served with sturdy devotion, is a happy association.