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Robert Lecker explores the ways in which these anthologies contributed to the formation of a Canadian literary canon, the extent to which this canon was tied to an ideal of English-Canadian nationalism, and the material conditions accounting for the anthologies' production.

This is the first full-length study of the short stories and novels by Clark Blaise. It follows his development as a deeply self-conscious writer who becomes involved in the dualities of the world around him — dualities that are reflected in the structure of his fiction and in the narrative strategies he employs to convey an image of himself. Lecker frames his discussion with an opening chapter that provides a detailed discussion of Blaise’s aesthetic stance. Subsequent chapters focus on Blaise’s first two short story collections, and on readings of Blaise’s two novels. The study includes an original chronology by Clark Blaise, which provides a creative rendering of the important dates and turning points in his life and literary career.

Open Country: Canadian Literature in English: Canadian Poetry 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 by 58 authors who gained prominence between 1825 and the present, with an emphasis on contemporary writers and a focus on identity, race, gender, and sexuality. It also includes the complete texts of well-known long poems such as Isabella Valancy Crawford’s Malcolm’s Katie, Earle Birney’s David, and Robert Kroetsch’s Seed Catalogue. 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 Poetry combines recognized works in the Canadian canon with innovative challenges to the tradition, creating a dynamic balance between the established and the new.

With sharp humor and fascinating insight, this memoir of the Canadian publishing industry travels from the boom years of the 1970s to the changing world of books today. Readers are invited along for the ride as Lecker's turn in academia gives way to pop culture publishing, running a journal, and facing the real business challenges of selling books.

Dennis Lee's Civil Elegies remains one of the most potent long poems devoted to the nature of Canadian identity. Lee wanted us to realize that the cadence of our speaking and reading is politically charged. However, the rational problems that he raised also drove him crazy. Civil Elegies stands as one of the most disturbed and manic poems about Canada ever written. Its narrator is completely falling apart. The Cadence of Civil Elegies marks the launch of the Cormorant monograph series, which brings unique perspectives to Canadian literary works from the country's leading academics, writers, and critical thinkers.

Despite her trailblazing efforts to represent the work of Canadian writers to publishers in North America and abroad, Doris Hedges (1896-1972), the Montreal author who started Canada's first literary agency in 1946, is routinely excluded from Canadian literary histories. In Who Was Doris Hedges? Robert Lecker provides a detailed account of her remarkable career. Hedges published several novels, short stories, and books of poetry, moved in Montreal literary circles, did a stint as a radio broadcaster, and provided reports to the Wartime Information Board during the Second World War, possibly as an American spy. She lived a privileged life in the Golden Square Mile district of downtown Montreal with her husband, Geoffrey Hedges, a member of the Benson and Hedges tobacco empire. The more one uncovers about Hedges's life, the more one discovers a courageous figure who was exploring many of the conflicted issues of her day: the rise of juvenile delinquency, the suppression of female sexuality, the place of women in business and finance, and the difficulties confronting the publishing industry in the years leading up to and following the war. Mixing lively biographical commentary with literary analysis, Who Was Doris Hedges? is a vivid account of a writer's life and concerns during a period when Canada's literature was coming of age.

Unhampered by any predetermined theme or critical mould, Lecker is free to respond to the qualities and idiosyncrasies which make Blaise, Metcalf, and Hood unique. Lecker's introduction discusses the writers' development and traces their impact on the modern Canadian short story. Three diverse readings follow. The first reveals Blaise's tragic view of life; the second focuses on how Metcalf's stories are structured on their protagonists' aesthetic stance; and the third provides a close reading of Hood's ?Looking Down From Above."