Latin Graces

As a piece of modernist architecture, Massey College is remarkable. A blend of brick and concrete that manages to evoke a medieval cloister, it looks inward on a quadrangle that seems a world away from the busy campus that surrounds it. As an institution, Massey is equally noteworthy. When it opened a little over a half century ago, it was known as a bastion of anglophile tradition. Over the years it has transformed itself into an up-to-date centre of scholarly life within the University of Toronto, while still owing a strong debt to its distinctive origins.

These origins are the subject of A Meeting of Minds: The Massey College Story, the college’s official history published to commemorate its 50th anniversary. Author Judith Skelton Grant is well placed to write it, having dealt with aspects of college history in her biography of founding master Robertson Davies. This new volume does suffer some of the drawbacks of an officially sanctioned history...