O Canada

The esteemed American literary critic Edmund Wilson in depth study of Canadian literature, O Canada. O Canada is made up of studies of Canadian writers and books, mostly contemporary. It represents perhaps the first attempt on the part on an American critic to deal at the same time with the literatures of both French and English Canada.

Among the authors discussed are Morley Callaghan, Hugh MacLennan, John Buell, E. J. Pratt, Anne Hebert, Marie-Claire Blais, Roger Lemelin, and Andre Langevin.

Wilson also makes use of history, biography, and journalism to throw light on religious and political situation in Canada.

Wilson (1895-1972) was a novelist, memoirist, playwright, journalist, poet, and editor but it is as a literary critic that he is most highly regarded. His more than twenty books include Axels Castle, Patriotic Gore, To the Finland Station, and Memoirs of Hecate County.