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Died. Henry Seidel Canby, 82, scholarly critic who, as founder and editor (1924-36) of the Saturday Review of Literature and chief judge (1926-58) of the Book-of-the-Month Club, was literary arbiter for millions of American readers, highbrow and middlebrow alike; of cancer; in Ossining, N.Y. Biographer of Whitman and Thoreau, author or editor of nearly three dozen other books, Canby was a reliable, middle-of-the-road literary leader whose job, as he saw it, was to "pass on sound values to the reading public."