The Colour of Canada. 4th ed

Hans B. Neumann is a history lecturer at Scarborough College, University
of Toronto.

Of all the moderately priced picture books of Canada, surely this must
rank as one of the most popular and enduring. Since the first edition
appeared in 1967, our centennial year, more than 1.5 million copies of
this book have been sold.

It is easy to understand why. More than 100 pages of color photographs
by some of Canada’s best photographers present dazzling images of our
country’s varied natural and urban settings from coast to coast. Each
photograph is clearly identified to help the reader place it in its
geographic context.

The photographs are grouped into the usual sections found in books of
this genre: Maritimes, Quebec, Ontario, Prairies, Alberta, and British
Columbia. As usual, the Yukon and Northwest Territories receive little
attention—their penalty for being so far off the beaten tourist path.
It is puzzling that publishers persist in this sequence when most of our
tourists do not visit the Maritimes but rather the West Coast regions
and central Canada.

The appeal of this book is further enhanced by novelist Hugh
MacLennan’s introduction, which was updated until his death in 1990.
His urbane, literate, and often witty text serves well as an intelligent
and perceptive introduction to our country’s complex and often
quixotic past.

Given these strong assets, it is small wonder the book continues to do
well in the highly competitive niche of souvenir books on Canada.