Known primarily as a poet, Isabella Valancy Crawford's short stories represent the best of early English-Canadian prose. In her stories, as in her poetry, her power lies in her use of imagery. In this collection her fictional portrayals of Canadian life give us glimpses into our literary past.

Inuit of northern Canada have a rich oral tradition in their ancient languages and a more recent tradition of written English. Penny Petrone traces the two paths that link the cultural past of arctic peoples with its expression in the present day.

The book's first section includes traditional legends, myths, folk history told by native story-tellers, and poetry sung by Inuit composers. The second presents statements and observations by some of the first Inuit to come into contact with European newcomers, including official reports, interviews, letters, and diaries. Next are early poetry and prose in translation, much of it autobiographical. The final section includes contemporary Inuit writing, from essays and speeches to fiction, poetry, and other genres of imaginative literature. The editor has provided an introduction for each item and arranged the material chronologically to give historical perspective and continuity to the whole.

This is the first critical study of the literature of Canada's native peoples, which at long last is commanding the attention it deserves. Focusing on the work of Indians and Metis, and beginning with an examination of the oral tradition from which their literature grew, and that continues today, it discusses both works generically classified as literature, and forms such as speeches that are significant for their eloquent expression of protest and alienation. Indeed, it is impossible to describe and quote from much of this material without conveying more than three centuries of political and social dissatisfaction.

Ranging from the seventeenth century to the recent publications of Maria Campbell, Beatrice Culleton, Ruby Slipperjack, Basil H. Johnston, Daniel David Moses, Tomson Highway, and Thomas King, among many others, this is an illuminating and timely survey that will greatly interest, and inform, natives and non-natives alike.

An anthology of writings from the seventeenth century to the present designed to show the beginnings and development in Canada of an Indian literary tradition in English.