Skip to content
Open Country: Canadian Literature To 1950, 1st Edition

Open Country: Canadian Literature To 1950, 1st Edition

By Robert Lecker
Print Book
$92.95
Orders usually arrive in 1-2 weeks.
Instructional Resources
Digital teaching aids may be available for this title. All instructor requests are reviewed by our team before the files are made accessible.
Soft Cover
ISBN-10: 0176103821
ISBN-13: 9780176103828
Publisher: Top Hat
Edition: 1st
Copyright: 2008
Open Country: Canadian Literature in English: Canadian Short Fiction is a contemporary showcase of the country’s writing. The collection includes extensive annotations that offer new interpretive possibilities for the study and appreciation of Canadian literature.

Editor Robert Lecker provides an unparalleled view of Canada’s literary evolution. This volume brings together poetry and fiction by 37 authors who gained prominence before 1950.

Organized chronologically, the works of each author are introduced by a detailed bio-critical essay that provides background information about the influences and ideas shaping the selected works as well as the author’s career. Open Country: Canadian Literature in English: Canadian Short Fiction combines recognized works in the Canadian canon with innovative challenges to the tradition, creating a dynamic balance between the established and the new.

Features

  • The anthology is organized chronologically and the works of each author are first introduced by a detailed biography providing a glimpse into the life and circumstances that helped create each piece.
  • Comprehensive footnotes have been provided for many of the selections and a book companion website presents additional tools and resources.
  • Emphasis is given to Canadian authors from the past decade and Robert Lecker has also assembled a fair representation of female and aboriginal authors.
  • The anthology offers an excellent collection of contemporary fiction including unexpected stories from established authors with varied themes, such as ethnicity and race, gender, sexuality and the gay and lesbian experience.

Table of Contents

  • Preface xiii
  • Introduction xiv
  • Acknowledgements xviii
  • Oliver Goldsmith (1794-1861) 1
  • The Rising Village 2
  • Thomas Chandler Haliburton (1796-1865) 16
  • Gulling a Blue Nose 17
  • Catharine Parr Traill (1802-1899) 20
  • The Bereavement 21
  • Susanna Moodie (1803-1885) 26
  • A Visit to Grosse Isle 28
  • Our First Settlement, and the Borrowing System 35
  • Brian, the Still-Hunter 48
  • Adieu to the Woods 58
  • Charles Sangster (1822-1893) 65
  • From The St. Lawrence and the Saguenay 66
  • Isabella Valancy Crawford (1850-1887) 72
  • Malcolms Katie: A Love Story 73
  • The Rose 105
  • The Dark Stag 106
  • The Canoe 107
  • The Lily Bed 109
  • Charles G.D. Roberts (1860-1943) 111
  • The Tantramar Revisited 112
  • The Furrow 114
  • The Sower 114
  • The Potato Harvest 115
  • The Waking Earth 115
  • The Cow Pasture 116
  • When Milking-Time Is Done 116
  • Frogs 117
  • The Pea-Fields 117
  • The Mowing 117
  • The Winter Fields 118
  • The Flight of the Geese 118
  • O Solitary of the Austere Sky 119
  • The Iron Edge of Winter 119
  • Ernest Thompson Seton (1860-1946) 121
  • Lobo, the King of Currumpaw 123
  • Bliss Carman (1861-1929) 132
  • Low Tide on Grand Pre 133
  • A Northern Vigil 134
  • By the Aurelian Wall 137
  • I Loved Thee, Atthis, in the Long Ago 139
  • Vestigia 140
  • The Winter Scene 140
  • E. Pauline Johnson (1861-1913) 142
  • A Cry from an Indian Wife 143
  • The Idlers 145
  • The Pilot of the Plains 146
  • The Cattle Thief 148
  • Ojistoh 149
  • The Corn Husker 151
  • Archibald Lampman (1861-1899) 151
  • The Railway Station 153
  • In October 153
  • Heat 154
  • Winter Evening 155
  • Among the Timothy 156
  • The Frogs 158
  • Morning on the Lievres 160
  • In November 161
  • The City of the End of Things 162
  • Winter Uplands 164
  • At the Long Sault: May, 1660 165
  • Duncan Campbell Scott (1862-1947) 167
  • The Onondaga Madonna 168
  • The Piper of Arll 169
  • Night Hymns on Lake Nipigon 173
  • The Forsaken 174
  • On the Way to the Mission 177
  • The Height of Land 178
  • At Gull Lake: August, 1810 182
  • Stephen Leacock (1869-1944) 185
  • My Financial Career 186
  • The Whirlwind Campaign in Mariposa 188
  • Frederick Philip Grove (1879-1948) 193
  • The House of Many Eyes 194
  • E.J. Pratt (1882-1964) 200
  • Newfoundland 201
  • The Highway 203
  • From Stone to Steel 204
  • The Man and the Machine 205
  • The Submarine 205
  • The Truant 210
  • Still Life 215
  • Marjorie Pickthall (1883-1922) 216
  • Dream River 217
  • The Pool 218
  • Improvisation on the Flute 219
  • Mirandas Tomb 220
  • The Spell 220
  • The Princess in the Tower 220
  • Ethel Wilson (1888-1980) 221
  • Mr. Sleepwalker 223
  • W.W.E. Ross (1894-1966) 233
  • Lovers 235
  • Wild Rose 236
  • Curving, the Moon 236
  • The Diver 237
  • Good Angels 237
  • First Snow 238
  • Raymond Knister (1899-1932) 238
  • The Fate of Mrs Lucier 240
  • F.R. Scott (1899-1985) 246
  • North Stream 247
  • Laurentian Shield 247
  • Lakeshore 248
  • A Grain of Rice 250
  • National Identity 251
  • A Lass in Wonderland 251
  • Harry Robinson (1900-1990) 252
  • You Think Its a Stump, but Thats My Grandfather 254
  • A.J.M. Smith (1902-1980) 260
  • The Lonely Land 262
  • A Hyacinth for Edith 263
  • Prothalamium 264
  • Like an Old Proud King in a Parable 264
  • Noctambule 265
  • The Archer 266
  • Metamorphosis 266
  • The Wisdom of Old Jelly Roll 266
  • Morley Callaghan (1903-1990) 267
  • The Blue Kimono 269
  • Earle Birney (1904-1995) 273
  • David 274
  • Anglosaxon Street 280
  • Vancouver Lights 281
  • Bushed 282
  • The Bear on the Delhi Road 283
  • Can. Lit. 284
  • El Greco: Espolio 285
  • November Walk Near False Creek Mouth 286
  • Sinclair Ross (1908-1996) 293
  • The Lamp at Noon 295
  • A.M. Klein (1909-1972) 302
  • Design for Mediaeval Tapestry 303
  • Heirloom 309
  • Autobiographical 310
  • Portrait of the Poet as Landscape 313
  • The Rocking Chair 317
  • Dorothy Livesay (1909-1996) 318
  • Green Rain 320
  • Day and Night 320
  • London Revisited: 1946 324
  • Bartok and the Geranium 327
  • Lament 328
  • The Three Emilys 329
  • The Notations of Love 330
  • Sheila Watson (1909-1998) 332
  • Antigone 334
  • Anne Wilkinson (1910-1961) 340
  • Summer Acres 341
  • Lake Song 342
  • Lens 343
  • In June and Gentle Oven 345
  • Letter to My Children 346
  • Variations on a Theme 346
  • Irving Layton (1912-2006) 348
  • The Swimmer 349
  • Composition in Late Spring 350
  • The Birth of Tragedy 351
  • The Fertile Muck 352
  • Whatever Else Poetry Is Freedom 353
  • For Mao Tse-Tung: A Meditation on Flies and Kings 354
  • A Tall Man Executes a Jig 356
  • To the Victims of the Holocaust 359
  • P.K. Page (1916-) 359
  • The Stenographers 361
  • Stories of Snow 362
  • The Permanent Tourists 363
  • Arras 364
  • Photos of a Salt Mine 365
  • T-Bar 367
  • After Rain 368
  • Cooks Mountains 369
  • After Reading Albino Pheasants 370
  • Margaret Avison (1918-) 371
  • Snow 373
  • The Apex Animal 374
  • Strong Yellow, for Reading Aloud 374
  • Meeting Together of Poles and Latitudes (in Prospect) 376
  • Searching and Sounding 377
  • Just Left or The Night Margaret Laurence Died 380
  • Al Purdy (1918-2000) 380
  • The Country North of Belleville 382
  • The Cariboo Horses 384
  • Home-Made Beer 385
  • When I Sat Down to Play the Piano 386
  • Trees at the Arctic Circle 388
  • Wilderness Gothic 390
  • Lament for the Dorsets 391
  • At the Quinte Hotel 393
  • The Horseman of Agawa 394
  • Piling Blood 396
  • Say the Names 398
  • Raymond Souster (1921-) 399
  • Young Girls 400
  • Study: The Bath 401
  • Two Dead Robins 401
  • The Six-Quart Basket 402
  • Get the Poem Outdoors 402
  • Mavis Gallant (1922-) 402
  • The Moslem Wife 404
  • Robin Blaser (1925-) 429
  • The Medium 431
  • Image-Nation 12 (Actus 432
  • The Truth Is Laughter 6 435
  • Image-Nation 21 (territory 436
  • Margaret Laurence (1926-1987) 436
  • To Set Our House in Order 438
  • Credits 449
  • Index 453

Author Information

Robert Lecker

Robert Lecker is currently a professor at McGill University where his current research includes canonicity, literary history, readership and Contemporary Canadian fiction.