A Meeting of Minds: The Massey College Story

‘Grant has a fascinating tale to tell… She has supplemented this written record with an impressive number of personal interviews. All this allows her to provide a richly textured backdrop to her story.’

Mark Lovewell, LRC May 2016

“Judith Skelton Grant has set out a feast for Massey’s fiftieth birthday party. Admirers of the college, of whom I have long been one, will find it irresistible.”

John Polanyi, Nobel Laureate and founding Senior Fellow of Massey College

“No other academic tale in Canada is like the one told in A Meeting of Minds. Massey College began as a glimmer in the imagination of an often crotchety governor general (Vincent Massey), then taken up by a brilliant but deeply troubled architect (Ron Thom) and a gifted, if eccentric writer, who saw himself as a failed playwright (Robertson Davies). In time, it became a unique centre of intellectual ferment, and that is what keeps this luminous history by Judith Skelton Grant so riveting, from beginning to end.”

John Fraser, Master Emeritus of Massey College

“Massey College is one of the most distinguished academic centres in North America. It is at the heart of Canadian intellectual endeavour, but it also embodies the good nature and courtesy for which Canada is so well known. Here is its story, amusingly and informatively set out. This is all about what makes Massey such a magnificent, hospitable, and interesting place.”

Alexander McCall Smith, award-winning author and Senior Fellow of Massey College