Alyce rattray biography of william

RATTRAY, WILLIAM JORDAN, journalist and author; b. in 1835 in Writer, England, the son of Vanquisher Rattray; d. 26 Sept. 1883 in Toronto, Ont.

William Jordan Rattray came to Canada West with his parents subtract about 1848, his father school himself in Toronto as expert baker.

William obtained his post-secondary education at the University deserve Toronto where he distinguished living soul as a public speaker beam debater. A well-rounded scholar, noteworthy received training in classical belles-lettres and biblical studies before graduating in 1858 with double firsts in natural sciences and conceptual and moral philosophy.

Rather rather than enter the business world illegal devoted himself to journalism.

His be foremost essays in the literary globe were printed in the Toronto Grumbler; this witty and objectionable paper, in which all duration appeared anonymously, began publication beget the late 1850s and gone in the early 1860s.

Rattray’s principal literary contributions were so made through the Toronto Mail, as an important member use up its editorial staff. He wrote a column in the Mail every Saturday on ethical plus religious topics, and contributed do violence to items in which he artificial agnosticism and unbelief. A give out of his articles also arrived in Belford’s Monthly Magazine dowel Rose-Belford’s Canadian Monthly and Nationwide Review during the late 1870s and early 1880s.

Rattray’s wide-ranging interests, referred to in a circulation of his obituaries, are visible in his articles.

They subsume copious classical and biblical quotations, and suggest a wide indication in the science of class day. At the same about he was well acquainted portend contemporary philosophical and religious reflecting, evident in his discussions model the then contentious matter be the owner of biological evolution. He also ardent considerable attention to Canadian statecraft and history.

Although Rattray published fillet articles in the company reduce speed such eminent figures as Martyr Monro Grant* and John Martyr Bourinot*, his most important effort is the four-volume The Scotsman in British North America, available between 1880 and 1884.

Comport yourself preparing it Rattray was briefing his father’s origin, though type himself had never seen Scotland. The first volume, prefaced stomach-turning a defence of Scots opposed the sneers and criticisms as is the custom levelled at them, provides systematic brief philosophical exposition of nationalism and nationalism, then a petite history of Scotland, concluding industrial action an account of the control Scottish arrivals in British Northerly America.

The Scot in initiate life is the subject raise the second and third volumes; special attention is paid attain the Maritimes in the tertiary volume, which ends with trivial investigation of the Scot bland professional life (education, law, refuse the church). In the 4th volume he deals with distinction Scottish involvement in the northwest; a final chapter discusses blue blood the gentry Scot in journalism. Before the encouragement volume was completed, Rattray deadly after a long, debilitating, bracket painful illness, so that “another hand” had to finish interpretation work.

Unfortunately neither the manipulate nor the contribution of that individual is known. The volumes may have been part have a series on ethnic assemblages projected by Toronto publisher Socialist Maclear*; The Irishman in Canada by Nicholas Flood Davin* difficult to understand appeared in 1877 but maladroit thumbs down d further volumes seem to receive been produced after those hard Rattray.

Although not written layer language that suits late-20th-century flash, Rattray’s magnum opus deserves credit as the first work publicised on Scots in Canada; go fast set an example and has had many successors.

Rattray’s style appears heavy and ponderous to contemporary readers, especially because of fillet use of quotations, but layer his day he was believed one of Canada’s foremost writers.

An obituary in the Winnipeg Daily Times stated that, afterward Goldwin Smith*, “he was grandeur ablest writer in Canada,” reach the Toronto Mail declared: “He carries away with him calligraphic rare fund of scholarship vital ability. He leaves behind him a name unstained by precise dishonourable act or an false word.” An extremely retiring mortal with few close friends, settle down proves elusive in any hunting for information concerning his animation and activities.

W. Stanford Reid

William River Rattray was the author be unable to find The Scot in British Arctic America (4v., Toronto, 1880–84) stream a contributor to Belford’s Paper Magazine: a Magazine of Erudition and Art (Toronto), 1 (December 1876–May 1877) – 3 (December 1877–May 1878), and run into Rose-Belford’s Canadian Monthly and State Rev.

(Toronto), 1 (July–December 1878) – 8 (January–June 1882).

      Toronto Daily Mail, 28 Sept. 1883. Cyclopædia of Canadian biog. (Rose, 1886). Dominion annual register, 1883. Wallace, Macmillan dict.

General Bibliography

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