First published by Oxford University Press in 1993, Exploration Literature is a groundbreaking collection of early writing inspired by the opening of a continent.With maps, notes, and thumbnail biographies of these early writers, Exploration Literature is an entry point for both the casual reader and the student of Canadian literature into the beginnings of a literate response to the awe and wonder inspired by an unfolding geography and the literary fundamentals of new nationhood.

It s been said that without Harold A. Innis there could have been no Marshall McLuhan. Empire and Communications is one of Innis s most important contributions to the debate about how media influence the development of consciousness and societies. In this seminal text, he traces humanity s movement from the oral tradition of preliterate cultures to the electronic media of recent times. Along the way, he presents his own influential concepts of oral communication, time and space bias, and monopolies of knowledge.

Maria Chapdelaine, the quintessential novel of the rugged life of early French-Canadian colonists, is based on the author s experiences as a hired hand in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean area. A young woman living with her family on the Quebec frontier, Maria endures the hardships of isolation and climate. Maria must eventually choose between three suitors who represent very different ways of life: a trapper, a farmer, and a Parisian immigrant.

Powerful in its simplicity, this novel captures the essence of faith and tenacity, the key ingredients of survivance. Translated...

B.C. journalist Stephen Hume has said that fur trader and explorer Simon Fraser should be celebrated as the founder of British Columbia. Certainly, the achievements of the Scottish-descended United Empire Loyalist adventurer were impressive. During three extraordinary years, 1805-1808, Fraser undertook the third major expedition (after Alexander Mackenzie s and Lewis and Clark s) across North America, culminating in his famous journey down the river in British Columbia that now bears his name.

Employed by the Montreal-based North West Company, Fraser was responsible for building...

Half-Mohawk, half-English author Pauline Johnson astounded Canada with her unique poetry, prose, and presentations.

Pauline Johnson was an unusual and unique presence on the literary scene during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Part Mohawk and part European, she was a compelling female voice in the midst of an almost entirely male writing community. Having discovered her talent for public recitation of poetry, Johnson relied on her ancestry and gender to establish an international reputation for her stage performances, during which she appeared in European and native...