"...the status of Canadian writers ranked somewhere between taxidermists and rat exterminators. Their works ~ often concerning the mating habits of beavers, the memoirs of forlorn women braving life on the frontier, or the history of the North-West Mounted Police ~ were relegated to a section labelled 'CANADIANA' at the back of the library, quite a festive word for such a dreary collection. 'CANADIANA' was located between other sluggish sections such as 'CALLIGRAPHY' and 'CANNIBALISM,' ensuring that readers seldom ventured into those nether regions. Groping through those dark shelves, I managed to read all of Hugh MacLennan, Donald Creighton, and Bruce Hutchison, even if my sense of national identity was not yet fully developed."
~ Peter C. Newman, Canadian author, journalist. (b. May 10, 1921) Here Be Dragons/ Telling Tales of People, Passion and Power, McClelland & Stewart Ltd., 2004.
