This anthology combines some of the finest writing by such well-known writers as Leacock, Moodie, Ernest Thompson Seton and Lucy Maud Montgomery with fascinating pieces by lesser-known names such as George Copway (the first Canadian native writer to have his work published in English) and Lady Agnes Macdonald (the wife of Canada’s first prime minister, and a popular writer of great verve and enthusiasm). In addition to three genres of fiction the anthology includes two important varieties of non-fiction in which early Canadians made a strong and distinctive contribution: Travel and Exploration Narratives and Memoirs and Descriptive Sketches.

R.G. MOYLES is associate dean of arts at the University of Alberta.

R.G. Moyles' profile page

“A wonderful collection…Moyles has selected a wide variety of writers whose popular and entertaining writing will still resonate with readers today.” — David Marshall, University of Calgary

“Improved by Cultivation brings attractively together a whole range of late 18th- and early 19th-century episodes, stories and sketches that take Canada and Canadians as their subject…a collection that gives a forceful sense of what people did, said and read in the period that ended with World War I.” — Professor John Lennox, English Department York University