James Reaney's Alphabet Magazine by Betty Jo Belton-Stratford-Perth Archives

On the centenary of James Reaney's birth, the ALPHABET magazine remains as a reminder of how one handmade publication helped create a `magnetic field' for ideas.

In September 1960, ALPHABET magazine announced itself as “A Semiannual Devoted to the Iconography of the Imagination.”A few months later, Maclean's had an article reporting that “Canada's littlest little magazine, now on the newsstands, is the product, literally, of James Reaney. . . (who) . . . set the type, composed the pages, read the proofs, ran the press — did, in fact, all the physical labor involved in the production of a magazine except deliver the finished copies by hand.

James Reaney started on ALPHABET in the autumn of 1959, when he was teaching at the University of Manitoba, by enrolling in the typesetting course at Winnipeg Technical and Vocational School, painstakingly, often working till 2 or 3 a.m., Reaney set his type in page forms and rolled the forms off the press." Reaney eventually paid others to print ALPHABET but continued to handset type for books put out by Alphabet Press and certain shape poems in the magazine.

Eleven years after his first issue, he said “I suppose it's a rather sad thing to write the editorial for the last ALPHABET . . . the end of a decade & almost twenty issues published seemed the best stopping place. ALPHABET started with a flash of electricity suddenly darting out from literature. (i.e. the Narcissus myth) and illuminating some life (i.e. the experience of being a twin, of being a reflection). Readers might wonder if this went on in every issue, if it is going on in these last numbers. I hope so . . . this was why ALPHABET was founded; to set up a magnetic field in which people could get ideas, patterns for almost anything civilized – gardens, ballets, cities, plays, paintings, lives, children.”

Besides articles, ALPHABET published a variety of poets, including Jay Macpherson, Margaret Atwood, Al Purdy and Milton Acorn; and the work of such artists as Tony Urquhart and Greg Curnoe.

James Reaney was born on a farm in South Easthope Township, near Stratford, on Sept. 1, 1926. He was a poet and dramatist, eventually earning three Governor General's awards, the Chalmers Award for drama, four honorary doctorates and the Order of Canada. His works include a wellknown trilogy of plays about the Donnelly family called Sticks and Stones, The St. Nicholas Hotel and Handcuffs. They are listed among the 1,000 most significant plays of all time by the Oxford Dictionary of Plays. Encyclopedia Britannica says that his “works transform Ontario smalltown life into the realm of dream and symbol.”

When Stratford Central high school celebrated its centennial in 1979, organizers gave a gift to the community by inviting “one of our most illustrious graduates, Dr. James Reaney,” to write a new play about a Depression-era furniture workers' strike.

Originally called Stratford: 1933, the play would explore, in Reaney's words, “a time when the people of Stratford weren't just spectators of a parade -- they were in the parade. Students in researching this material would get to know their town a lot better and . . . would also step outside their school and their young lives to see how both school and lives fit into a larger pattern . . . . We visited every classroom (at Stratford Central), we sent home a questionnaire, we held two workshops with 600 students apiece in the gym neto rium; if you're going to write a play about a community, particularly a Stratford which in 1933 came out on the streets and shouted what it wanted, then you have to persuade the students and teachers to do likewise, to explore the roots of the community in every way possible . . . . Not a few citizens were horrified at the idea of a play about the 1933 strike . . . Why should we stir up old dirt? Why not let sleeping dogs lie? But ever since as a kid of seven " I'd actually seen the strikers parading down Ontario Street with a Union Jack at their head, I had wanted to handle this great story.”

This article was originally published in September 2022 as part of a series celebrating the 50th anniversary of Stratford-Perth Archives, and treasures from the collections. It is being republished this month in honour of what would have been Reaney's 100th birthday on Sept. 1, 2026. The original piece described “the nearly complete set of James Reaney's magazine, ALPHABET,” that came to us in 1980 as part of a large group of books “released from the collection of the Stratford Public Library” -- immediately recaptured for the Archives. We are grateful for the many transfers of books by local authors from Perth County libraries. We are also grateful to James Reaney Jr., who noted we were missing some ALPHABETS and donated copies to fill in the gaps in the set now available at the Archives.

To learn more about James Reaney see : Caledonia Street

This article appeared the Beacon Herald on Sept. 5, 2026

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse

James Reaney's Alphabet Magazine by Betty Jo Belton-Stratford-Perth Archives

On the cen­ten­ary of James Reaney's birth, the ALPHABET magazine remains as a reminder of how one hand­made pub­lic­a­tion helped cre­ate a `mag­netic field' for ideas.

On the centenary of James Reaney's birth, the ALPHABET magazine remains as a reminder of how one handmade publication helped create a `magnetic field' for ideas.