This is the only anthology to present a full history of Canadian poetry — from the early 1600s through the expansiveness of poetic activity during the 18th and 19th centuries and into the flourishing first decades of the 20th century. The editors have compiled works from over 50 poets, including the verse of Isabella Valancy Crawford, Bliss Carman, Archibald Lampman and Duncan Campbell Scott, and several long narrative poems, including Oliver Goldsmith's "The Rising Village" and Crawford's "Malcolm's Katie."

Born in Montreal, Carole Gerson is a professor in the English Department at Simon Fraser University. Her research on Canadian literary and publishing history and on early Canadian women writers has resulted in many publications, including two books on Pauline Johnson. She was a member of the editorial team for the major three-volume project History of the Book in Canada, for which she co-edited volume 3, covering the period 1918–1980.

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Gwendolyn Davies is an emerita professor of English and dean of graduate studies at the University of New Brunswick. She has published or edited six books and over sixty articles and book chapters on pre-1940 Atlantic literature and on the history of the book in Canada. Books include Studies in Maritime Literary History and a scholarly edition of Thomas McCulloch’s The Mephibosheth Stepsure Letters.

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