Oil, the black gold of Texas, has given rise to many a myth. Oil could turn a man overnight into a millionaire-and did, for some. But these myths have obscured what life was really like in the oil patch, a place that was neither the El Dorado of legend nor quite the unredeemed den of sin and iniquity that some feared.In Roughnecks, Drillers, and Tool Pushers, Gerald Lynch provides a much-needed insider's view of the oil industry, describing life in various oil fields in and around Texas. He also chronicles changes in drilling methods and oil-field technology and how these changes affected him and his fellow oil-field workers. No one else has written a working-class history of the oil fields as colorful and articulate as this one.

From the preface: "Stephen Leacock is still often regarded as a writer of lightweight amusements and unchallenging satire, as an author without an imaginative centre who lacked a vision of sufficient power and clarity to sustain a lifetime of serious writing. According to this view, which has been too easily received, Leacock squandered an early, promising talent (though he was in fact, middle-aged when he published Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town in 1912), and consequently his writings, like his legendary Lord Ronald, "rode madly off in all directions." After years of chasing down Leacock''s numerous literary mounts, I can assert that none of this is true. Leacock''s writing emerges from a centre that is the confluence of the two traditions of humanism and toryism, traditions that found in Leacock fertile ground for the propagation of such qualities as tolerance of human fallibility and acceptance of social responsibility. What is remarkable with respect to Leacock''s literary output is that even his furthest-flung, seemingly inconsequential humourous pieces move in relation to this tory-humanist centre." Lynch invites us to accompany him on an odyssey through Leacock''s two main works, Sunshine Sketches and Arcadian Adventures of the Idle Rich ... He aspires to enlighten the open-minded reader, and is highly successful in doing so." Elspeth Cameron, Coordinator of Canadian Literature and Language Program, New College, University of Toronto

Alice Munro's Miraculous Art is a collection of sixteen original essays on Nobel laureate Alice Munro's writings. The volume covers the entirety of Munro's career, from the first stories she published in the early 1950s as an undergraduate at the University of Western Ontario to her final books. It offers an enlightening range of approaches and interpretive strategies, and provides many new perspectives, reconsidered positions and analyses that will enhance the reading, teaching, and appreciation of Munro's remarkable-indeed miraculous-work. Following the editors' introduction-which surveys Munro's recurrent themes, explains the design of the book, and summarizes each contribution-Munro biographer Robert Thacker contributes a substantial bio-critical introduction to her career. The book is then divided into three sections, focusing on Munro's characteristic forms, themes, and most notable literary effects.

Canadian cultural icon Stephen Leacock was as wise and witty as he was prolific, and as sharp as he was humane. A professor of political economy, author, and social critic, Leacock has long been considered Canada's foremost humourist and social satirist. He was at his best in observational humour but excelled as well in the unforgettable aphorism and the pointed riposte. Leacock's views on life provide a uniquely Canadian take on the world, an ironic perspective which continues to delight and instruct readers around the globe.Introduced and compiled by scholar and writer Gerald Lynch, with material gleaned from the approximately sixty books of fiction and non-fiction Leacock published, Leacock on Life is an anthology of Leacock's wit and wisdom, beginning with his memorable preface to Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town and ending with his bitter-sweet essay, 'Three Score and Ten.' With selections classified under forty-five headings and a reference key sourcing all quotations, this collection makes widely available Leacock's views on such subjects as: Canadian politics, love, education, economics, humour, technology, business, America, and writing, among many others. Leacock had opinions on every subject, and they are as humorous, provocative, and relevant today as when first articulated.

The search for the 'Great Canadian Novel' has long continued throughout our history. Controversially, to say the least, Gerald Lynch maintains that a version of it may already have been written - as a great Canadian short story cycle. In this unique text, the author launches into a fascinating literary-historical survey and genre study of the English-Canadian short story cycle - the literary form that occupies the middle ground between short stories and novels. This wide-ranging volume has much to say about the continuing relationship between place and identity in Canadian literature and culture. Initially, Lynch employs Stephen Leacock's Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town for illustrative purposes, and begins by discussing two definitive features of short story cycles: the ways in which their form conveys meaning and the paramount function of their concluding stories, which are here called 'return stories.' Lynch then devotes five discrete but related chapters to six Canadian short story cycles, spanning some one hundred years from Duncan Campbell Scott to Thomas King, and tracing some surprising continuities in this distinctive genre. A number of the works are discussed extensively for the first time within the tradition of the Canadian short story cycle, which has never before been accorded book-length study in English. This engaging and intelligent volume will be of interest to the general reader as well as specialists in Canadian literature.

Oil, the black gold of Texas, has given rise to many a myth. Oil could turn a man overnight into a millionaire-and did, for some. But these myths have obscured what life was really like in the oil patch, a place that was neither the El Dorado of legend nor quite the unredeemed den of sin and iniquity that some feared.In Roughnecks, Drillers, and Tool Pushers, Gerald Lynch provides a much-needed insider's view of the oil industry, describing life in various oil fields in and around Texas. He also chronicles changes in drilling methods and oil-field technology and how these changes affected him and his fellow oil-field workers. No one else has written a working-class history of the oil fields as colorful and articulate as this one.

From the preface: "Stephen Leacock is still often regarded as a writer of lightweight amusements and unchallenging satire, as an author without an imaginative centre who lacked a vision of sufficient power and clarity to sustain a lifetime of serious writing. According to this view, which has been too easily received, Leacock squandered an early, promising talent (though he was in fact, middle-aged when he published Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town in 1912), and consequently his writings, like his legendary Lord Ronald, "rode madly off in all directions." After years of chasing down Leacock''s numerous literary mounts, I can assert that none of this is true. Leacock''s writing emerges from a centre that is the confluence of the two traditions of humanism and toryism, traditions that found in Leacock fertile ground for the propagation of such qualities as tolerance of human fallibility and acceptance of social responsibility. What is remarkable with respect to Leacock''s literary output is that even his furthest-flung, seemingly inconsequential humourous pieces move in relation to this tory-humanist centre." Lynch invites us to accompany him on an odyssey through Leacock''s two main works, Sunshine Sketches and Arcadian Adventures of the Idle Rich ... He aspires to enlighten the open-minded reader, and is highly successful in doing so." Elspeth Cameron, Coordinator of Canadian Literature and Language Program, New College, University of Toronto

Alice Munro's Miraculous Art is a collection of sixteen original essays on Nobel laureate Alice Munro's writings. The volume covers the entirety of Munro's career, from the first stories she published in the early 1950s as an undergraduate at the University of Western Ontario to her final books. It offers an enlightening range of approaches and interpretive strategies, and provides many new perspectives, reconsidered positions and analyses that will enhance the reading, teaching, and appreciation of Munro's remarkable-indeed miraculous-work. Following the editors' introduction-which surveys Munro's recurrent themes, explains the design of the book, and summarizes each contribution-Munro biographer Robert Thacker contributes a substantial bio-critical introduction to her career. The book is then divided into three sections, focusing on Munro's characteristic forms, themes, and most notable literary effects.

Canadian cultural icon Stephen Leacock was as wise and witty as he was prolific, and as sharp as he was humane. A professor of political economy, author, and social critic, Leacock has long been considered Canada's foremost humourist and social satirist. He was at his best in observational humour but excelled as well in the unforgettable aphorism and the pointed riposte. Leacock's views on life provide a uniquely Canadian take on the world, an ironic perspective which continues to delight and instruct readers around the globe.Introduced and compiled by scholar and writer Gerald Lynch, with material gleaned from the approximately sixty books of fiction and non-fiction Leacock published, Leacock on Life is an anthology of Leacock's wit and wisdom, beginning with his memorable preface to Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town and ending with his bitter-sweet essay, 'Three Score and Ten.' With selections classified under forty-five headings and a reference key sourcing all quotations, this collection makes widely available Leacock's views on such subjects as: Canadian politics, love, education, economics, humour, technology, business, America, and writing, among many others. Leacock had opinions on every subject, and they are as humorous, provocative, and relevant today as when first articulated.

The search for the 'Great Canadian Novel' has long continued throughout our history. Controversially, to say the least, Gerald Lynch maintains that a version of it may already have been written - as a great Canadian short story cycle. In this unique text, the author launches into a fascinating literary-historical survey and genre study of the English-Canadian short story cycle - the literary form that occupies the middle ground between short stories and novels. This wide-ranging volume has much to say about the continuing relationship between place and identity in Canadian literature and culture. Initially, Lynch employs Stephen Leacock's Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town for illustrative purposes, and begins by discussing two definitive features of short story cycles: the ways in which their form conveys meaning and the paramount function of their concluding stories, which are here called 'return stories.' Lynch then devotes five discrete but related chapters to six Canadian short story cycles, spanning some one hundred years from Duncan Campbell Scott to Thomas King, and tracing some surprising continuities in this distinctive genre. A number of the works are discussed extensively for the first time within the tradition of the Canadian short story cycle, which has never before been accorded book-length study in English. This engaging and intelligent volume will be of interest to the general reader as well as specialists in Canadian literature.