A biography of one of Canada's leading poets. Traces Acorn's roots in Prince Edward Island and shows that family, landscape, and the troubled shades of postcolonial society were continuous spurs to his creative life. Connects his self-perpetuated image as a working-class rebel, and his peculiar brand of communism, to his employment history and experience of war. His troubled relationships with family and friends, and his ill health, are explored as sources both of pain and inspiration. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

"Published in its intended form for the first time, I Want to Tell You Love is a remarkable collaboration from bill bissett and Milton Acorn that captures the spirit of the sixties. bill bissett and Milton Acorn are two of Canada's most significant, and most controversial, literary figures. In the 1960s, bissett's renown as an experimental poet was growing as his social and political concerns were stirred by the voice of the counterculture. Acorn, inspired by socialist theory and imagism, was building his reputation as a poet on the margin who ran against the grain of the literary establishment. Both were rising towards cultural prominence--one, a true beatnik and the other, a certifiably rugged lyric poet. In 1965 they came together in a remarkable collaboration, a challenge to the established literary tradition and a call for a better world. Published for the very first time, I Want to Tell You Love is the combination of bissett and Acorn's seemingly incongruous poetics to confront the turbulent and swiftly changing world of the 1960s. A collection of poems and illustrations, it is a window into the lives and motivations of two soon-to-be-canonized cultural figures. I Want to Tell You Love is a work of friendship, a shared vision of resistance, and a mutual longing for a better world. This critical edition offers the manuscript in its intended form alongside contextualizing scholarship in a significant contribution to literary history. I Want to Tell You Love offers an opportunity to reevaluate the nature and scope of Canadian poetry during a critical time of national cultural awakening."--

Known as The Peoples Poet, Acorn won the Canadian Poetry Prize in 1970 and the Governor Generals Award in 1975.

The first book on the Canadian poetic elegy challenges all previous ideas about the purpose of mourning.

"New offers an unconventionally structured overview of Canadian literature, from Native American mythologies to contemporary texts." Publishers Weekly A History of Canadian Literature looks at the work of writers and the social and cultural contexts that helped shape their preoccupations and direct their choice of literary form. W.H. New explains how – from early records of oral tales to the writing strategies of the early twenty-first century – writer, reader, literature, and society are interrelated. New discusses both Aboriginal and European mythologies, looking at pre-Contact narratives and also at the way Contact experience altered hierarchies of literary value. He then considers representations of the "real," whether in documentary, fantasy, or satire; historical romance and the social construction of Nature and State; and ironic subversions of power, the politics of cultural form, and the relevance of the media to a representation of community standard and individual voice. New suggests some ways in which writers of the later twentieth century codified such issues as history, gender, ethnicity, and literary technique itself. In this second edition, he adds a lengthy chapter that considers how writers at the turn of the twenty-first century have reimagined their society and their roles within it, and an expanded chronology and bibliography. Some of these writers have spoken from and about various social margins (dealing with issues of race, status, ethnicity, and sexuality), some have sought emotional understanding through strategies of history and memory, some have addressed environmental concerns, and some have reconstructed the world by writing across genres and across different media. All genres are represented, with examples chosen primarily, but not exclusively, from anglophone and francophone texts. A chronology, plates, and a series of tables supplement the commentary.

Strupac, fornenst, trappy, scriss, kippy, snool, flying axehandles, from across - these and hundreds of other fascinating and colourful words and phrases give the English language as it has been spoken in Canada's smallest province a flavour all its own. With the Dictionary of Prince Edward Island English, T.K. Pratt makes a major scholarly contribution to the growing list of regional dictionaries that enable us to discover the rich heritage of the language as spoken throughout North America; at the same time it offers a splendid general introduction to the historical and sociological life of the island. There are approximately 1000 entries of non-standard or dialect words, past and present. The notes deal with usage, pronunciation, alternate forms and spellings, and stylistic and regional labels. Entries include definitions, supportive quotations from P.E.I. sources, editorial notes about various subtleties, and dictionary notes which provide links to some thirty-five other dictionaries. Pratt's introduction defines the criteria for inclusion of words, explains his research methods, and outlines the layout of entries. The end matter includes a bibliography and an important sociolinguistic essay, 'The Dictionary in Profile,' which places the work in the broader context of Prince Edward Island speech. Its range and depth of coverage make this an essential work not only for those concerned with P.E.I. and Maritimes studies, but for all those interested in the regional usage of English.