Canon Making with a Vengeance

The conception and dissemination of the New Canadian Library series has had a profound impact on the evolution of Canadian literature over the past 50 years. It fostered the teaching of Canadian poetry and fiction in high schools and universities, provided material for critics who built a national literature industry that involved thousands of people in a variety of institutions and introduced the contentious concept of a national literary canon at a time when Canadians were questioning the ways in which their diverse identities were somehow reflected in creative works. Although Canadian literature and criticism existed long before the appearance of the New Canadian Library, no other publishing project accounted for such a massive and systematized presentation of Canadian writing. Janet B. Friskney’s New Canadian Library: The Ross-McClelland Years, 1952–1978 is a study of the formation and realization of this series during those years.

The NCL made...