bout de papier, Vol. 8, No. 1 (1990), pp. 43–45
Shadow of Heaven: The Life of Lester
Pearson. Volume One: 1897-1948, by John
English, Lester & Orpen Dennys, Toronto,
1989, 414 pp., $28.95.
The perfect title for this biography of Lester Pearson would have been simply “Mike, but, since Pearson had already used it for his own memoirs, John English had to cast around for something different. He hit upon an expression used by Milton in Paradise Lost, in a rhetorical question addressed to Adam by the angel Raphael:
…..What if earth
Be but the shadow of Heav ’n, and things
therein
Each to other like more than on earth
is thought?”
=C
“Shadow of Heaven” is a curious and unsatisfactory title. In explaining it, English writes that “Raphael’s history emphasizes, as Milton himself did, the imperative and the danger of free human choice, the essence of British liberalism, and the interdependence of all creatures, the foundation of Pearson’s internationalism”, and that the biography of Lester Pearson reflects the transformation of the British Canadian Protestant tradition as it became increasingly secular in this century.
Having got the foregoing off his chest in the first paragraph of his book, English proceeded to write a clear, lively, readable account of Pearson’s life and times, from his birth as the son of a Methodist minister in 1897 to his entry into politics in 1948.
The author has succeeded to a remarkable degree in describing the Empire-minded Canadian Protestant society that produced Lester Pearson. Older readers will be reminded vividly of the Canada they knew in their youth, and younger readers will be struck by the contrast between the political climate that prevailed between the wars and that of more recent times.
Never having met Pearson, English has based this account of his lite entirely on meticulous scholarship. He has had access not only to official documents and innumerable published works, but also to family papers; and he has interviewed many people who knew and worked with Pearson. He acknowledges the generous cooperation of Geoffrey Pearson and his sister Patricia Hannah, who did not ask him to change a single word of his manuscript. The book contains one page of notes for every six chapters of text.
The early chapters of the book reveal some fascinating details of Pearson’s younger years: the trauma he suffered towards the end of World War I, when an accident — he was struck by a London bus during a blackout — deprived him of the opportunity of testing himself, and sharing his comrades’ risks, in combat; a religious point of view expressed in articles written for the Christian Guardian (equivalent of the latter-day United Church Observer) when he was a student at Oxford; his prowess in baseball, hockey, football and lacrosse; and the tension between his coaching activities and his academic work when he was a history lecturer at the University of Toronto.
Current members of the Foreign Service will be interested, but probably not surprised, to find that Pearson and his contemporaries faced problems, and expressed complaints, not unlike their own. In 1928, when for the first time a civil service competition was held for the recruitment of Foreign Service Officers (at the First Secretary level), he led the field, ahead of Robertson, Keenleyside and an old flame of his wife, Kenneth Kirkwood. Like hundreds who followed in his footsteps, he had his share of frustration and disappointment — and also of luck. He was highly intelligent, hard-working, personable and ambitious. Having honed his diplomatic skills in a variety of assignments, he was posted in 1942 to Washington as Minister-Counsellor, under a non-career head of mission, and soon proved to be the right person in the right place at the right time. (Early in 1945 he became Ambassador. English writes, incorrectly, that he was the first career diplomat to be appointed as Canada’s representative to the United States: Loring Christie, a career officer, had served as head of mission in Washington from 1939 until his death in 1941.)
In the book, English describes in considerable detail Pearson’s deep involvement in the negotiations that led to the establishment of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, the Food and Agriculture Organization and the United Nations itself. During and after World War Il, he was at the forefront of efforts to ensure that Canadian representation in war-time and post-war organizations should be commensurate with Canada’s contributions to their effectiveness. When he was in Washington, and subsequently when he was Under Secretary of State for External Affairs, he became a national figure more widely recognized than any other Canadian civil servant, before or since.
English notes that some of Pearson’s closest associates did not really know what was the driving force behind the easy, affable manner. There is no indication in the book that Pearson was possessed by a compelling mission to reform the world. Nor are there any positive indications that he fashioned his career with the long-term aim of entering the political arena. There is no discussion in the book of domestic issues or, for instance, of the French fact in Canadian life, which would seem to suggest that they did not bulk large in Pearson’s field of interests: his field was foreign affairs.
In assessing Pearson’s intellectual makeup, English concludes that he was thoughtful, perceptive, and very intelligent, but he was not an academic in approach;” and that, whereas some of his associates constructed their analyses through a reasoned assessment of information and experience, his conclusions came from his senses and his heart. One is left with the impression of a very able man who sincerely believed that what he was doing was in the best interests of his country and of the wider world, whose ambition was to reach the top of his profession, and who did not shun politics when the opportunity offered.
The references in the book to Maryon Pearson, who died this year after a long illness, are sympathetic. English portrays her as an intellectual with strong opinions, somewhat frustrated by her life in the shadow of an increasingly public man, but always fiercely supportive of him and his causes.
John English teaches history at the University of Waterloo. The second volume of his excellent biography of Lester Pearson is eagerly awaited.
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Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 8, No. 1 (1990), pp. 43–45. Read the rest of this issue →
