The Novel Approach

Arthur Tyndall ("a slender man in a brown jacket and grey trousers") had to admit that he was a little disappointed with the University of Toronto. It seemed to have no real character. Was it nothing but a "facts factory"? Tyndall, who had come to Toronto to be warden of Hart House, wrote to a friend back in New Zealand: "I can't seem to make up my mind about this place. It [presents] a nice intellectual problem . . ."

Last week, hundreds of U.S. and Canadian readers were following the intellectual problem of fictional Arthur Tyndall; as he learned more about Toronto University, they learned too. Warden Tyndall was the hero of a new novel by a front-ranking Canadian novelist and short-story writer, 45-year-old Morley Callaghan (They Shall Inherit the Earth, Such Is My Beloved). Actually, Tyndall's purpose (and Callaghan's) was to do more than unravel the character of Toronto: it was to raise money for it.

Morley Callaghan (class of '25) got the idea for this latest twist in university fund-raising last spring. Toronto had set itself a goal of $6,000,000 in gifts from alumni and friends, asked its most distinguished literary alumnus to write "a piece" for the campaign. Instead, Callaghan turned out The Varsity Story (Macmillan; $2.50), a rambling and nostalgic novel filled with crotchety old professors, bright young scientists and eager students.

While creating a novelist's mood, Callaghan drops a few loud hints. An English professor tells Tyndall about the new men's residence that the university needs; other faculty members complain of overcrowded classrooms. Even the university's library is mentioned. "I have to wait in line, and find that I can't get what I want," says a philosophy professor. "If you die with a million, Tyndall, why don't you leave it for a library?"

By last week The Varsity Story had sold some 5,000 copies in Canada (royalties to Toronto). The university was not saying just how many of Callaghan's and other hints had been picked up by wealthy alumni. But if & when Toronto got the money, it would go (together with a $7,000,000 appropriation from the Ontario government) for such things as a men's dormitory, a women's building, a medical research center to be named after Charles H. Best, co-discoverer* of insulin, and the addition to the library that the philosophy professor wanted.

* With Toronto's Sir Frederick G. Banting.

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