Robert Fulford

Fulford, Robert Marshall Blount

Robert Marshall Blount Fulford, editor, essayist, critic (b at Ottawa 13 Feb 1932). Editor of SATURDAY NIGHT magazine 1968-87, Fulford has been a champion of liberalism in somewhat the same tradition as J.W. DAFOE and Frank UNDERHILL. Self-educated, he joined the Toronto GLOBE AND MAIL as a copyboy in 1949 and held reportorial jobs until 1953. He was then an editor and writer on various magazines, notably MACLEAN'S, but it was at the TORONTO STAR, which he joined in 1958, that he became an influential critic, first of books, art and jazz, and finally of ideas.

During his tenure at Saturday Night, from which he resigned in June 1987 after Conrad BLACK's takeover, he switched from continentalism to nationalism and in the 1980s drifted towards the more conservative end of the liberal spectrum. His attitudes towards popular culture, which he once relished as a sort of democratic kaleidoscope, have also changed, though his books on the subject, including This Was Expo (1968), Marshall Delaney at the Movies (1974) and An Introduction to the Arts in Canada (1977), remain valuable and enjoyable for their subtle, even style, informed wit and ability to deal lucidly with elusive notions. In Nov 1987, Fulford became Barker Fairley distinguished visitor in Canadian culture at University College, U of T. In 1992 he joined the Globe and Mail and Toronto Life magazine as a commentator and writer. He became an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1984.