Canadian literature, English, literary works produced in Canada and written in the English language.
Early Canadian Writing
Although Canadian writing began as an imitative colonial literature, it has steadily developed its own national characteristics. Because of the huge immigrations, first of New England Puritans from 1760 on and later of American Loyalists during the Revolution, Canadian literature followed U.S. models almost until the confederation in 1867. Before 1800 the rigors of pioneering left little time for the writing or the appreciation of literature. The only notable works were journals, such as that of Jacob Bailey, and the recorded travels of explorers, such as Henry Kelsey Kelsey, Henry (kĕl`sē), c.1670–1729, English fur trader and explorer in Canada.
..... Click the link for more information. , Samuel Hearne Hearne, Samuel (hûrn), 1745–92, British fur trader, explorer in N Canada.
..... Click the link for more information. , and Sir Alexander Mackenzie Mackenzie, Alexander, 1822–92, Canadian political leader, b. Scotland. Emigrating (1842) to Canada, he worked first as a stonemason in Kingston, Ont., and then as a builder and contractor in Sarnia. In Lambton he became editor (1852) of a Liberal newspaper.
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The Canadian Novel
The first Canadian novelist of note was John Richardson Richardson, John, 1796–1852, first Canadian novelist to write in English. He fought in the War of 1812 and later served with the British army in England, Spain, and Barbados.
..... Click the link for more information. , whose Wacousta (1832) popularized the genre of the national historical novel. With The Clockmaker (1836) T. C. Haliburton Haliburton, Thomas Chandler (hăl`ĭbûrtən), pseud.
..... Click the link for more information. began his humorous series on Sam Slick, the Yankee peddler. Historical novelists writing c.1900 included William Kirby Kirby, William, 1817–1906, Canadian author, b. England. He was a journalist and civil servant. Besides volumes of verse and tales, he wrote The Golden Dog (1877), also published as Le Chien d'or (1884), a popular romance of 17th-century Quebec.
..... Click the link for more information. , author of The Golden Dog (1877), and Sir Gilbert Parker Parker, Sir Gilbert, 1862–1932, Canadian novelist, b. Ontario. His novels and collections of tales usually deal either with the history of Canada or with England and the empire.
..... Click the link for more information. , author of The Seats of the Mighty (1896). The novels of Sara Jeannette Duncan, such as A Social Departure (1890), were noted for their satire and humor. The Rev. C. W. Gordon (Ralph Connor) produced Black Rock (1898), a series of novels on pioneer life in W Canada. Animal stories became popular in the works of Ernest Thompson Seton Seton, Ernest Thompson, 1860–1946, American writer and artist, b. England. His name was originally Ernest Seton Thompson. His stories and paintings of wildlife, especially Wild Animals I Have Known (1898, new ed.
..... Click the link for more information. , Sir C. G. D. Roberts Roberts, Sir Charles George Douglas, 1860–1943, Canadian author, b. New Brunswick. He was the first Canadian to be knighted for his work as a writer. He wrote over 67 works, of which the best-known are Orion (1880), Divers Tones (1886),
..... Click the link for more information. , and Margaret Marshall Saunders.
Since 1900, Canadian novels have tended toward stricter realism, but have remained predominantly regional, and many writers have been women. Among the most prominent authors have been Lucy M. Montgomery, author of Anne of Green Gables (1908); Mazo de la Roche de la Roche, Mazo (mā`zō də lä rôsh), 1885–1961, Canadian novelist, b. Toronto.
..... Click the link for more information. , well known for her series on the Whiteoaks family of Jalna; Frederick P. Grove, author of Settlers of the Marsh (1925), a novel of farm life; and Laura Salverson and Nellie McClung, novelists of immigrant and rural life in W Canada.
Margaret Atwood Atwood, Margaret Eleanor, 1939–, Canadian novelist and poet. Her writing treats contemporary issues, such as feminism, sexual politics, the fate of Canada and Canadian literature, and the intrusive nature of mass society.
..... Click the link for more information. is probably the best-known modern Canadian author. Other important novelists during and after World War II include Morley Callaghan Callaghan, Morley (Morley Edward Callaghan) (kăl`əhăn'), 1903–90, Canadian novelist.
..... Click the link for more information. , Gwethalyn Graham, John Buell, Hugh MacLennan MacLennan, Hugh (məklĕn`ən), 1907–90, Canadian writer, b. Glace Bay, N. S. From his vantage at McGill Univ.
..... Click the link for more information. , Mordecai Richler Richler, Mordecai, 1931–2001, Canadian novelist, b. Montreal. He fled his native city in the early 1950s and lived mainly in London, returning to Canada in 1972 and from then on spending part of his year in London and part in Montreal.
..... Click the link for more information. , Malcolm Lowry Lowry, Malcolm (Clarence Malcolm Lowry) (lou`rē), 1909–57, English novelist, b. New Brighton, Wirral.
..... Click the link for more information. , Ethel Wilson, Robertson Davies Davies, Robertson (William Robertson Davies) (dā`vĭs), 1913–95, Canadian writer and editor. After receiving a B.Litt.
..... Click the link for more information. , Brian Moore Moore, Brian, 1921–99, Canadian-American novelist, b. Belfast, Northern Ireland. He emigrated to Canada in 1948, where he was a reporter for the Montreal Gazette. He later moved to the United States and was a longtime resident of Malibu, Calif.
..... Click the link for more information. , Margaret Laurence Laurence, Margaret (Jean Margaret Laurence), 1926–87, Canadian novelist, b. Manitoba. She lived in Somaliland, Ghana, and England and many of her early works had an African setting.
..... Click the link for more information. , Timothy Findlay, Neil Bissoondath, and M. G. Vassanji. Many of their novels have focused attention on Canadian city life, social problems, and the large problem of Canadian cultural division.
Essays and Poetry
The essayist Northrop Frye Frye, Northrop (nôr`thrəp), 1912–91, Canadian literary critic, b. Quebec.
..... Click the link for more information. is noted for his systematic classification of literature, presented in his Anatomy of Criticism (1957). Stephen Leacock Leacock, Stephen Butler, 1869–1944, Canadian economist and humorist, b. England, grad. Univ. of Toronto (B.A., 1891), Univ. of Chicago (Ph.D., 1903). Head of the department of political science and economics (1908–36) at McGill Univ.
..... Click the link for more information. is well known for his humorous essays as well as for his scholarship. Other notable essayists include Sir Andrew Macphail, Archibald MacMechan, and Lorne Pierce.
Genuinely Canadian poetry was late in developing. In the 18th cent. Puritan hymnists, such as Henry Alline, and refugee Tory satirists, such as Jonathan Odell, took their models from American colonial or English neoclassical literature. Before the confederation of 1867 the only poets of note were Charles Sangster Sangster, Charles, 1822–93, Canadian poet, b. Ontario. At first an imitator of Byron, he became, with the publication of Hesperus and Other Poems and Lyrics (1860), the first notable Canadian poet to make use of native themes and settings.
..... Click the link for more information. , the first to make use of native material, and Charles Heavysege, whose long poetic drama Saul brought him widespread acclaim.
Starting c.1880, the "confederation school"—C. G. D. Roberts, Archibald Lampman Lampman, Archibald, 1861–99, Canadian poet, b. Ontario. A post office employee all his life, he was a noted nature poet. His work appeared in Among the Millet (1888), Lyrics of Earth (1893), and Alcyone (1899).
..... Click the link for more information. , Bliss Carman Carman, Bliss (kär`mən), 1861–1929, Canadian poet, b. Fredericton, N.B.
..... Click the link for more information. , and Duncan Campbell Scott Scott, Duncan Campbell, 1862–1947, Canadian poet, b. Ottawa. He was a civil servant in the Dept. of Indian Affairs from 1879 to 1932, becoming its head in 1913. Scott began publication with The Magic House and Other Poems in 1893.
..... Click the link for more information. —began producing a large body of romantic poetry, describing nature and Canadian rural life. In 1905, long after her death in 1887, Isabella V. Crawford was recognized as an important poet; she was followed by Emily Pauline Johnson and Marjorie Pickthall Pickthall, Marjorie Lowry Christie (pĭk`thôl), 1883–1922, Canadian poet, b. England.
..... Click the link for more information. . Other poets of the early part of the century included Wilfred Campbell, W. H. Drummond Drummond, William Henry, 1854–1907, Canadian poet, b. Ireland. For several years he worked and practiced medicine in frontier Canadian communities. There he came to know the French Canadians, whom he celebrated in his best poems, using their dialect of English.
..... Click the link for more information. , Francis Sherman, John McCrae McCrae, John (məkrā`), 1872–1918, Canadian physician and poet.
..... Click the link for more information. , and the greatly popular Robert W. Service Service, Robert William, 1874–1958, Canadian poet and novelist, b. England, educated at the Univ. of Glasgow. He went to Canada in 1897 and held odd jobs in British Columbia and at White Horse in the Yukon.
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In 1926 the prolific E. J. Pratt Pratt, Edwin John, 1883–1964, Canadian poet, b. Newfoundland. He broke away from the old romantic tradition of Canadian poetry to write imaginative narratives of epic events.
..... Click the link for more information. broke away from the romantic tradition with The Titans; his highly original and powerful epics place him among the foremost Canadian poets. Notable contemporary poets in the Pratt tradition include Kenneth Leslie, Earle Birney, W. W. E. Ross, Dorothy Livesay, and Anne Marriott. Other poets sharing the modern cosmopolitan tradition of the United States and W Europe are F. R. Scott, L. A. Mackay, A. M. Klein, P. K. Page, Irving Layton, Raymond Souster, James Reaney, Margaret Avison, Phyllis Webb, Leonard Cohen, and Margaret Atwood.
Bibliography
See bibliography by R. E. Watters (2d ed. 1972); R. P. Baker, A History of English Canadian Literature to the Confederation (1920, repr. 1968); C. F. Klinck, ed., A Literary History of Canada (1965); A. J. M. Smith, ed., Modern Canadian Verse in English and French (1967); M. Atwood, Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature (1972); G. Woodcock, The World of Canadian Writing (1980); W. Toye, ed., The Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature (1983); D. Bennett, Canadian Literary Criticism (1989).