This book comprises selections from the works of Canadian short-story writers from Thomas Haliburton to Ray Smith. It covers a period of some 150 years and reveals clearly that during that time significant changes occurred in the short story in Canada in terms of both kinds and techniques. Generally speaking, however, these changes fit within a pattern of fairly clearly defined periods and modes of sensibility.

Contents:

• Introduction by Alec Lucas
• Excerpt from How Many Fins Has a Cod? by Thomas Chandler Haliburton
• The Privilege of the Limits by Edward William Thomson
• When Twilight Falls on the Stump Lots by Sir Charles G.D. Roberts
• Larrie's Wife by Duncan Campbell Scott
• The Speculations of Jefferson Thorpe by Stephen Leacock
• Snow by Frederick Philip Grove
• Mrs. Golightly and the First Convention by Ethel Wilson
• One Spring Night by Morley Callaghan
• The Painted Door by Sinclair Ross
• Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry
• Wilhelm by Gabrielle Roy
• Unemployed by Irving Layton
• A Trip for Mrs. Taylor by Hugh Garner
• Anguish of God by Yves Thériault
• The House on the Esplanade by Anne Hébert
• Love in the Park by William C. McConnell
• Uncle T by Brian Moore
• Acceptance of Their Ways by Mavis Gallant
• Requiem for Bibul by Jack Ludwig
• A Gourdful of Glory by Margaret Laurence
• Three Halves of a House by Hugh Hood
• The Office by Alice Munro
• Playing Ball on Hampstead Heath by Mordecai Richler
• The Hard-Headed Collector by Dave Godfrey
• Keys and Watercress by John Metcalf
• Notes Beyond a History by Clark Blaise
• The Dwarf in His Valley Ate Codfish by Ray Smith
• Notes on the authors