Remembering Herb Wyile (BAHons/83)

Canadian literary studies suffered a significant loss with the sudden passing of prominent critic and Carleton alum (1983) Herb Wyile on July 3rd, 2016.

The beginning of July marks the close of conference season and most Can lit scholars had seen and spent time with Herb at the Atlantic Canada Studies conference in Sackville and at the Congress of the Social Sciences and Humanities in Calgary, both of which had taken place just a few weeks before news spread that he had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. It’s hard to measure what this loss means for the field of Canadian literature. To name just a few of his accomplishments, Herb published groundbreaking work on regionalism and on Canadian historical fiction; he served as the co-editor of Studies in Canadian Literature; and he completely reoriented the study of Atlantic Canadian literature with his award-winning Anne of Tim Hortons: Globalization and the Reshaping of Atlantic-Canadian Literature in 2011, a book that has one of academia’s great titles. Herb’s writing is characterized by sharp turns of phrase, comfort with complicated theoretical concepts, and a strong sense of justice and concern for people marginalized on the basis of their ethnicity or gender, their economic circumstances, or the region they inhabit. Anyone who ever saw Herb give a conference presentation will remember his infectious enthusiasm as he laid out his arguments and the kick he got out of the lines he quoted, especially the bawdy ones. Herb’s impact on the field of Canadian literature goes beyond his scholarly contributions, though, as he was an outstanding mentor, colleague, and friend. Herb constantly checked up on people to see how their work was coming along and to offer words of encouragement. He was particularly generous with junior colleagues, offering to write letters for them, commiserating about the job market, and keeping an eye out for opportunities that might help them. In other words, Herb was a model colleague: he had a great sense of humour and never took himself seriously, and his spirit of kindness and generosity was truly special and unique. His commitment to collaboration transcended specific projects, as he saw scholarship as a shared enterprise and seemed to believe that all of us were working towards a common goal. While that work will be tougher without his observations, his good humour, and his ability to bring people together, scholars in the field of Canadian literary studies are lucky to have Herb’s insights to build on and his example to follow.