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A DOZEN YEARS ago, Eli Mandel's death would have been news, with tributes, public letters, and a standing - room - only memorial service. But by the time he succumbed to pneumonia last fall, a series of strokes had long since robbed him of the ability to write, and he was pretty much out of the loop. The Family Romance, a gathering of essays published in 1986, was his last book. That was a mere seven years ago, but long enough for his name to slip into limbo. The only acknowledgement of his death I saw was an obituary in the Globe and Mail that drew most of its information from a decade - old review of his selected poems, Dreaming Backwards. The Globe writer also spoke with Ann Mandel, his widow. In the circumstances, she said, the death "was really a blessing. He was just wasting away" in a nursing home. Poor Eli was 69.
The Canadian - studies community had not forgotten him the way ordinary literary readers had, but recalled him as the kind of poet and critic -- a kind...