Improved by Cultivation : English-Canadian Prose to 1914

This anthology combines some of the finest writing by such well-known writers as Leacock, Moodie, Ernest Thompson Seton and Lucy Maud Montgomery with fascinating pieces by lesser-known names such as George Copway (the first Canadian native writer to have his work published in English) and Lady Agnes Macdonald (the wife of Canada's first prime minister, and a popular writer of great verve and enthusiasm).

In addition to three genres of fiction the anthology includes two important varieties of non-fiction in which early Canadians made a strong and distinctive contribution: Travel and Exploration Narratives and Memoirs and Descriptive Sketches.