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The Well-Tempered Critic (Davies book)

book by Robertson Davies

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJan 25, 2026
Entity authorityQ7774198 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Well-Tempered Critic: One man's view of the theatre and letters in Canada is a collection of essays by Canadian novelist and journalist Robertson Davies. The collection was edited by Judith Skelton Grant and published by McClelland and Stewart in 1981.

The collection deals with Canadian literature and theatre.

References

Davies, Robertson. The Well-Tempered Critic: One man's view of the theatre and letters in Canada; ed. by Judith Skelton Grant, Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1981.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “The Well-Tempered Critic (Davies book)” as book by Robertson Davies. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Well-Tempered, Critic and Davies.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1981—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1981-01-01. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Well-Tempered, Critic and Davies providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “The Well-Tempered Critic (Davies book)”, the useful work is to connect “book by Robertson Davies” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7774198. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1981.

Critical limits

Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “The Well-Tempered Critic (Davies book)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow The Well-Tempered Critic (Davies book) primary sources, The Well-Tempered Critic (Davies book) archive and Well-Tempered research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “The Well-Tempered Critic (Davies book)”?
  2. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
  3. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “The Well-Tempered Critic (Davies book)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.