Words and Occasions

In 1924 the magazine of Victoria College at the University of Toronto carried a humorous sports essay, "The Game's the Thing," by a history lecturer named Lester Bowles Pearson. This lively and imaginative piece is the first selection in the present anthology of articles and speeches, interviews and debates by Pearson, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1957 and Canadian Prime Minister from 1963 to 1968. The pieces deal with a variety of subjects: national and international, political and nonpolitical, serious and frivolous. Of special interest are "Canada and the San Francisco Conference" (1945), "Some Principles of Canadian Foreign Policy" (1948), "Politics, Opposition, and the Plight of Democracy" (1960), and "Liberal Leadership Convention" (1968). Pearson's introductory remarks to each selection serve as autobiographical and interpretive links, carrying the reader forward through his career and with him on his travels to the United States, Britain, and elsewhere. The twenty-two photographs that are included add a visual dimension to this valuable record of a distinguished public life.