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Edward Taylor Fletcher was a nineteenth-century literary figure almost completely forgotten by history. Poet, travel writer, essayist, surveyor, philologist, and translator, Fletcher shared many characteristics with the great literary figures of the time. Yet his writing represents a significant departure from his contemporaries and a close reading of his work reshapes our understanding of the Canadian long poem and the cultural values of Canadian poetry. Fletcher spoke English, French, German, Italian, and other modern languages fluently and he studied or translated literary works in Icelandic, Finnish, Polish, Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and Sanskrit (among several others). His poetry interweaves Canadian landscapes with modern and ancient traditions of the East and West and integrates allusions and innovations from several different literary traditions including the Kalavela, the Mahabharata, and the Poetic Edda. By recuperating Fletcher's nineteenth century works, James Gifford uncovers a unique Canadian literary voice who explored content, style, and concerns unlike the popular colonial narratives of his time.
Edward Taylor Fletcher was born in England in 1817 and arrived in Canada as a young boy. An important figure in Canadian literature, Fletcher’s writing was almost entirely forgotten by history. In this volume, James Gifford has gathered and annotated Fletcher’s essays and poems, writings that describe a nineteenth-century Canadian cultural life far more cosmopolitan than what we might have imagined. Fletcher was a voracious reader of works in many languages and although he was oriented toward Britain, his writing notably reflects a gaze fixed on a horizon much further away. His work therefore stands in contrast to the tendency of later Canadian writers, who focus inward on the nation, and on issues of Canadian identity. His work as a surveyor allowed him to travel across the country, observing the Canadian landscape which appears interwoven with different literary traditions in his metrically complex poetry. By recuperating Fletcher’s works, Gifford expands our view of nineteenth-century Canadian literature and establishes Fletcher as a remarkable literary figure worthy of attention.
This volume contains biographies of over four hundred architects, artisans and builders who worked in Quebec during the first three centuries of the town’s existence. Detailed descriptions of their works, as well as numerous illustrations, help paint a broad picture of building in Quebec.
These biographies of Canadians are arranged chronologically by date of death. Entries in each volume are listed alphabetically, with bibliographies of source material and an index to names.