So this is a relatively new obsession for me. Actually, I think it’s the latest. As if I needed another.
It erupted last year when I read Phyllis Brett Young’s The Torontonians, which I read in a pretty reissue from McGill-Queen’s University Press. I was suddenly struck by the fact that I just haven’t been aware of so many classic Canadian works (beyond the canon, which one might say is represented in a list like this one).
I pulled an old copy of Roger Lemelin’s The Town Below off my shelf (it’s No. 26 in the NCL) and I made — you probably know what I’m going to say — a spreadsheet. Of course I did. If you want your own version, you can click here to make note of what you’ve read and collected yourself.
| Grove, Philip Frederick | Over Prairie Trails |
| Callaghan, Morley | Such Is My Beloved |
| Leacock, Stephen | Literary Lapses |
| Ross, Sinclair | As For Me and My House |
| Roy, Gabrielle | The Tin Flute |
| Haliburton, Thomas Chandler | The Clockmaker |
| Roberts, Charles G.D. | The Last Barrier and Other Stories |
| MacLennan, Hugh | Barometer Rising |
| Raddall, Thomas H. | At the Tide’s Turn and Other Stories |
| Leacock, Stephen | Arcadian Adventures with the Idle Rich |
| Drummond, William Henry | Habitant Poems |
| Ringuet | Thirty Acres |
| Graham, Gwethalyn | Earth and High Heaven |
| Connor, Ralph | The Man from Glengarry |
| Leacock, Stephen | Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town |
| McCulloch, Thomas | The Stepsure Letters |
| Callaghan, Morley | More Joy in Heaven |
| Ostenso, Martha | Wild Geese |
| Grove, Philip Frederick | The Master of the Mill |
| Duncan, Sara Jeannette | The Imperialist |
| de la Roche, Mazo | Delight |
| Klein, A.M. | The Second Scroll |
| Buckler, Ernest | The Mountain and the Valley |
| Kreisel, Henry | The Rich Man |
| Roy, Gabrielle | Where Nests the Water Hen |
| Lemelin, Roger | The Town Below |
| Brooke, Frances | The History of Emily Montague |
| Leacock, Stephen | My Discovery of England |
| Wilson, Ethel | Swamp Angel |
| MacLennan, Hugh | Each Man’s Son |
| Moodie, Susanna | Roughing It In the Bush |
| Knister, Raymond | White Narcissus |
| Callaghan, Morley | They Shall Inherit the Earth |
| Birney, Earle | Turvey |
| Leacock, Stephen | Nonsense Novels |
| Stead, R.J.C. | Grain |
| Bodsworth, Fred | Last of the Curlews |
| Raddall, Thomas H. | The Nymph and the Lamp |
| Moore, Brian | Judith Hearne |
| Roy, Gabrielle | The Cashier |
| Marlyn, John | Under the Ribs of Death |
| Grainger, M. Allerdale | Woodsmen of the West |
| Leacock, Stephen | Moonbeams from the Larger Lunacy |
| Hiebert, Paul | Sarah Binks |
| Richler, Mordecai | Son of a Smaller Hero |
| Jameson, Anna Brownell | Winter Studies and Summer Rambles in Canada |
| Meade, Eward | Remember Me |
| Leacock, Stephen | Frenzied Fiction |
| Grove, Philip Frederick | Fruits of the Earth |
| Grove, Philip Frederick | Settlers of the Marsh |
| Traill, Catharine Parr | The Backwoods of Canada |
| McCourt, Edward | Music at the Close |
| Leacock, Stephen | My Remarkable Uncle |
| Watson, Sheila | The Double Hook |
| Dunlop, William | Tiger Dunlop’s Upper Canada |
| Roy, Gabrielle | Street of Riches |
| Leacock, Stephen | Short Circuits |
| Richardson, John | Wacousta |
| Laurence, Margaret | The Stone Angel |
| Leacock, Stephen | Further Foolishness |
| Davies, Robertson | Marchbanks’ Almanack |
| Ross, Sinclair | The Lamp at Noon and Other Stories |
| Roberts, Theodore Goodridge | The Harbor Master |
| Traill, Catharine Parr | The Canadian Settler’s Guide |
| Kirby, William | The Golden Dog |
| Richler, Mordecai | The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz |
| Leacock, Stephen | Behind the Beyond |
| De Mille, James | A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder |
| Leacock, Stephen | Last Leaves |
| Laurence, Margaret | The Tomorrow-Tamer |
| Woodcock, George | Odysseus Ever Returning |
| Grey, Francis William | The Cure of St. Philippe |
| Cohen, Leonard | The Favourite Game |
| Leacock, Stephen | Winnowed Wisdom |
| Parker, Gilbert | The Seats of the Mighty |
| Grove, Philip Frederick | A Search for America |
| Kreisel, Henry | The Betrayal |
| Blais Marie-Claire | Mad Shadows |
| Richler, Mordecai | The Incomparable Atuk |
| Moore, Brian | The Luck of Ginger Coffey |
| Waddington, Miriam | John Sutherland: Essays, Controversies and Poems |
| Wiebe, Rudy Henry | Peace Shall Destroy Many |
| Davies, Robertson | A Voice from the Attic |
| Aquin, Hubert | Prochain Episode |
| Raddall, Thomas H. | Roger Sudden |
| Evans, Hubert | Mist on the River |
| Laurence, Margaret | The Fire-Dwellers |
| LePan, Douglas | The Deserter |
| Lephrohon, rosanna | Antoinette de Mirecourt |
| Leclerc, Felix | Allegro |
| Gallant, Mavis | The End of the World and Other Stories |
| Scott, Duncan Campbell | In the Village of Viger and Other Stories |
| Atwood, Margaret | The Edible Woman |
| Grove, Philip Frederick | In Search of Myself |
| Davies, Robertson | Feast of Sephen |
| Laurence, Margaret | A Bird in the House |
| McCourt, Edward | The Wooden Sword |
| Raddall, Thomas H. | Pride’s Fancy |
| Buckler, Ernest | Ox Bells and Fireflies |
| Ludwig, Jack | Above Ground |
| Lowell, Robert Traill Spence | New Priest in Conception Bay |
| Niven, Frederick | The Flying Years |
| Dewdney, Selwyn | Wind Without Rain |
| Blais Marie-Claire | Tete Blanche |
| O’Hagan, Howard | Tay John |
| de Gaspe, Philippe Aubert | Canadians of Old (Trans. G.D. Roberts |
| MacMechan, Archibald | Headwaters of Canadian Literature |
| Wiebe, Rudy Henry | The Blue Mountains of China |
| Roy, Gabrielle | The Hidden Mountain |
| Roberts, Charles G.D. | The Heart of the Ancient Wood |
| Laurence, Margaret | Jest of God |
| Lewis, Wyndham | Self Condemned |
| Langevin, Andre | Dust Over the City |
| Grove, Philip Frederick | Our Daily Bread |
| Woodcock, George, ed. | The Canadian Novel in the 20th Century |
| Salverson, Laura Goodman | The Viking Heart |
| Birney, Earle | Down the Long Table |
| Connor, Ralph | Glengarry School Days |
| Lemelin, Roger | The Plouffe Family |
| Roy, Gabrielle | Windflower |
| Cohen, Matt | The Disinherited |
| Wiebe, Rudy Henry | The Temptations of Big Bear |
| Fraser, Sylvia | Pandora |
| Janes, Percy | House of Hate |
| Blondl, Patricia | A Candle to Light the Sun |
| Laurence, Margaret | This Side Jordan |
| Roberts, Theodore Goodridge | The Red Feathers |
| Moore, Brian | I Am Mary Dunne |
| Roy, Gabrielle | The Road Past Altamont |
| Godbout, Jacques | Knife on the Table |
| Thomas, Clara | The Manawaka World of Margaret Laurence |
| Grove, Philip Frederick | Consider Her Ways |
| Raddall, Thomas H. | His Majesty’s Yankees |
| Gerin-Lajoie, Antoine | Jean Rivard |
| Galt, John | Bogel Corbet |
| Richler, Mordecai | A Choice of Enemies |
| Brown, E.K. | Responses and Evaluations: Essays on Canada |
| MacPhail, Sir Andrew | The Master’s Wife |
| Buckler, Ernest | The Cruelest Month |
| Bodsworth, Fred | The Atonement of Ashley Morden |
| Seton, Ernest Thompson | Wild Animals I Have Known |
| Harlow, Robert | Scann |
| Smith, A.J.M. | On Poetry and Poets |
