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Henry Seidel Canby

An illustration of Henry Seidel Canby on the cover of Time magazine (May 19th 1924).

Henry Seidel Canby (1878-1961) was a prominent literary critic during the 1920s and 30s, and is best known for his role as a founder and editor for the Saturday Review of Literature. He was also a professor at Yale University.

In That Summer in Paris, Canby's role is minimal, though in the few times he is mentioned he comes off as something of an antagonist, with Callaghan taking exception to articles he has written multiple times, firstly with regards to Hemingway's book, In Our Time, and secondly on some of Callaghan's own pieces.

In one particular scene during Callaghan's visit to Sinclair Lewis, Lewis decides to call up Canby in order to complain about his review and is able to convince him to have it rewritten:

"Sitting down, and serious now, he said Canby would publish another review by anyone he suggested." (Callaghan, 1963)

This sudden willingness to oblige perhaps indicates that Canby is either easily swayed or anxious to avoid making an enemy of Lewis. Either way, he does not come across as a particularly strong character.

 

Works Cited:

Image:

http://img.timeinc.net/time/magazine/archive/covers/1924/1101240519_400.jpg

References:

Pearson Education, publishing as Infoplease. 2000-2007. Canby, Henry Seidel - Infoplease.com.
http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/people/canby-henry-seidel.html. (accessed Nov 27th, 2012).

Callaghan, Morley. 1963. That Summer in Paris: Memories of Tangled Friendships with Ernest Hemingway and Scott Fitzgerald. http://fitzgerald.narod.ru/bio/callaghan-thatsum.html.