The New Canadian Library is a publishing imprint of the Canadian company McClelland and Stewart. The series aims to present classic works of Canadian literature in paperback. Each work published in the series includes a short essay by another notable Canadian writer, discussing the historical context and significance of the work. These essays were originally forewords, but after McClelland and Stewart's 1985 sale to Avie Bennett, the prefatory material was abandoned and replaced by afterwords. It was founded by Malcolm Ross with the intention of providing affordable material for his students; David Staines has been the general editor of the series since 1986. In 2007 the University of Toronto Press published New Canadian Library: The Ross-McClelland Years, 1952-1978, a work by Janet Beverly Friskney that provides an account of the New Canadian Library during the years of Ross's editorship. Titles in the New Canadian Library Numbered series Originally, all titles in the series were numbered sequentially. Unnumbered series Books published in the collection after the sequential numbering ceased were: Poetry collections Canadian Poetry: From the Beginnings Through the First World War edited by Carole Gerson and Gwendolyn Davies Poets Between the Wars edited by Milton Wilson Poets of Contemporary Canada 1960–1970 edited by Eli Mandel Poets of the Confederation Masks of Fiction Masks of Poetry Poetry of Mid-Century The Poems of Earle Birney Nineteenth-Century Narrative Poems The Poems of Bliss Carman Poems of Al Purdy The Damnation of Vancouver The Selected Poems of Irving Layton Canadian writers Marshall McLuhan E. J. Pratt Margaret Laurence Frederick Philip Grove Leonard Cohen Mordecai Richler Stephen Leacock Hugh MacLennan Earle Birney Northrop Frye Malcolm Lowry James Reaney George Woodcock Farley Mowat Ernest Buckler Morley Callaghan Robertson Davies Notes External links New Canadian Library web site at McClelland and Stewart Archive of New Canadian Library web site at McClelland and Stewart 1958 establishments in Canada