The Ryerson Poetry Chap-Books were a landmark achievement in
Canadian poetry. Edited by Lorne Pierce, the series lasted for
thirty-seven years (1925-62) and comprised two hundred titles by
writers from Newfoundland to British Columbia, over half of whom
were women. By examining this editorial feat, Little Resilience
offers a new history of Canadian poetry in the twentieth century.
Eli MacLaren analyzes the formation of the series in the wake of
the First World War, at a time when small presses had proliferated
across the United States. Pierce's emulation of them produced a
series that contributed to the historic shift in the meaning of the
term "chapbook" from an antique of folk culture to a brief
collection of original poetry. By retreating to the smallest of
forms, Pierce managed to work against the dominant industry pattern
of the day - agency publishing, or the distribution of foreign
editions. Original case studies of canonical and forgotten writers
push through the period's defining polarity (modernism versus
romanticism) to create complex portraits of the author during the
Depression, the Second World War, and the 1950s. The stories of
five Ryerson poets - Nathaniel A. Benson, Anne Marriott, M. Eugenie
Perry, Dorothy Livesay, and Al Purdy - reveal poetry in Canada to
have been a widespread vocation and a poor one, as fragile as it
was irrepressible. The Ryerson Poetry Chap-Books were an
unprecedented initiative to publish Canadian poetry. Little
Resilience evaluates the opportunities that the series opened for
Canadian poets and the sacrifices that it demanded of them.
General
Imprint: |
McGill-Queen's University Press
|
Country of origin: |
Canada |
Release date: |
September 2020 |
Authors: |
Eli MacLaren
|
Dimensions: |
229 x 152mm (L x W) |
Format: |
Paperback
|
Pages: |
256 |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-228-00349-6 |
Categories: |
Books
|
LSN: |
0-228-00349-0 |
Barcode: |
9780228003496 |
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