Encyclopedia of Literature in Canada

Joseph Jones is a reference librarian in the Koerner Library at the
University of British Columbia.

At well over a thousand large pages, this work approaches the physical
limits of a single volume. Some 1600 biographies of three pages or less
amount to slightly over half of the book. Of these, all but 120 or so
occupy less than one page. These biographies easily could have been
published as a separate dictionary.

The remaining subject entries warrant the term “encyclopedia.”
Eighty-five articles of two pages or more constitute two-thirds of the
nonbiographical material. Treatments of genre predominate: essays, life
writing, mystery and romance, sound poetry, sports writing, etc. The
book world encompasses coverage of archives, bookstores, editing,
libraries, and publishing. Entries for related arts and media bring in
film and television, music, newspapers, radio, and visual arts.

Other categories generally receiving briefer exposition include
ethnicity, place, organizations, historical terms, groups and schools,
religion, theme, character, and title. Many shorter entries deal with
general critical and rhetorical terms (e.g., lyric, reader-response,
hero) that often seem to have no particular Canadian aspect.

About 20 longer entries provide noteworthy coverage of Aboriginal
languages and literatures. These exemplify the structure of the
encyclopedia. “Aboriginal” and “Native” provide a few specific
cross-references, though with variations. Access to entries for language
groups and individual authors depends on discovery of the two gateway
articles “Language: Aboriginal” and “First Nations Literature,”
where cross-references are embedded. Lack of a general, browsable
conspectus of subjects is the encyclopedia’s greatest weakness.

While over 300 contributors have provided signed entries, an
astonishing amount has been written by editor William H. New: over 500
biographies, over 200 short articles, and three longer articles on the
novel, journals, and historical analogues. Also deserving remark are
more than 200 entries by Margaret Cook. Among the remainder, a sensitive
editorial hand has allowed and preserved variations in voice. Longer
subject entries are often matched to eminently well-qualified authors.

Two indexes offer access by contributor name and by name of author
having a biographical entry. A supplementary index provides
name/title/subject cross-reference to entry title. An exceptionally long
entry details awards and literary prizes, and an appendix sets out a
chronology.