Autobiographies of the Imagination

The subtitles of these books, “Selected Non-Fiction” in the case of P.K. Page’s The Filled Pen and “An Autobiography by Other Means” in the case of Don Coles’s A Dropped Glove in Regent Street, suggest two very different kinds of books. Yet they are equally accurate designations; indeed, each could have been used for the other. In one sense, the books offer themselves as scholarly collections of miscellaneous prose pieces compiled to assist critical understanding of two distinguished writers. Page and Coles can reasonably be regarded as Canada’s two finest living poets, and both are decidedly senior citizens: Page at the beginning of her tenth decade, Coles at the end of his eighth. Naturally, serious students of their work will need to consult their occasional writings—articles, book reviews and the like. But the two books are of far greater (and wider) interest than this, and can appeal to a larger readership than the now diminished company of poetry...