Presenting Canadian Culture to the American Audience

Abstract

David Staines, ed. The Canadian Imagination: Dimensions of a Literary Culture. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1977. 265 + vii pp. Judith Webster, ed. Voices of Canada: An Introduction to Canadian Culture. Burlington, Vermont: Association for Canadian Studies in the United States, 1977. 118 + xx pp. The year 1977 was an unusual, even an epochal one, in the history of Canadian-American relations. The publication of two books in the United States, both devoted to Canadian culture, is an event without precedent, and indicates the growing interest of American society in the neighbor to the North. After decades in which the Canadian market has been glutted with studies of United States history and culture, it must warm the hearts of faith- ful Canadians who have feared anonymity for so long, that they are, at last, being noticed. For many, recognition is proof of existence.