The New Canadian Library is a publishing imprint of the Canadian company McClelland and Stewart. The series aims to present classic works of

Canadian literature Canadian literature is the literature of a multicultural country, written in languages including Canadian English, Canadian French, Indigenous languages, and many others such as Canadian Gaelic. Influences on Canadian writers are broad both ...

paperback A paperback (softcover, softback) book is one with a thick paper or paperboard cover, and often held together with glue rather than stitches or staples. In contrast, hardcover (hardback) books are bound with cardboard covered with cloth, le ...

. Each work published in the series includes a short essay by another notable Canadian writer, discussing the historical context and significance of the work. These essays were originally forewords, but after McClelland and Stewart's 1985 sale to Avie Bennett, the prefatory material was abandoned and replaced by

afterword An afterword is a literary device that is often found at the end of a piece of literature. It generally covers the story of how the book came into being, or of how the idea for the book was developed. An afterword may be written by someone oth ...

s.Janet Friskney, "New Canadian Library," in Benson, Eugene and William Toye ds.''The Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature.'' Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1997 (p. 794) It was founded by Malcolm Ross with the intention of providing affordable material for his students; David Staines has been the general editor of the series since 1986. In 2007 the

University of Toronto Press The University of Toronto Press is a Canadian university press founded in 1901. Although it was founded in 1901, the press did not actually publish any books until 1911. The press originally printed only examination books and the university cale ...

published ''New Canadian Library: The Ross-McClelland Years, 1952-1978'', a work by Janet Beverly Friskney that provides an account of the New Canadian Library during the years of Ross's editorship.

Titles in the New Canadian Library

Numbered series

Originally, all titles in the series were numbered sequentially.

Unnumbered series

Books published in the collection after the sequential numbering ceased were:

Poetry collections

* ''Canadian Poetry: From the Beginnings Through the First World War'' edited by Carole Gerson and Gwendolyn Davies * ''Poets Between the Wars'' edited by

Milton Wilson Milton may refer to: Names * Milton (surname), a surname (and list of people with that surname) ** John Milton (1608–1674), English poet * Milton (given name) ** Milton Friedman (1912–2006), Nobel laureate in Economics, author of '' Free ...

* ''Poets of Contemporary Canada 1960–1970'' edited by Eli Mandel * ''Poets of the Confederation'' * ''Masks of Fiction'' * ''Masks of Poetry'' * ''Poetry of Mid-Century'' * ''The Poems of Earle Birney'' * ''Nineteenth-Century Narrative Poems'' * ''The Poems of Bliss Carman'' * ''Poems of Al Purdy'' * ''The Damnation of Vancouver'' * ''The Selected Poems of Irving Layton''

Canadian writers

* ''Marshall McLuhan'' * ''E. J. Pratt'' * ''Margaret Laurence'' * ''Frederick Philip Grove'' * ''Leonard Cohen'' * ''Mordecai Richler'' * ''Stephen Leacock'' * ''Hugh MacLennan'' * ''Earle Birney'' * ''Northrop Frye'' * ''Malcolm Lowry'' * ''James Reaney'' * ''George Woodcock'' * ''Farley Mowat'' * ''Ernest Buckler'' * ''Morley Callaghan'' * ''Robertson Davies''

Notes

External links

New Canadian Library web site at McClelland and Stewart

{{Authority control 1958 establishments in Canada