Essentials, The

Lively, illustrated and guaranteed to be controversial, The Essentials: 150 Great B.C. Books & Authors serves as an unprecedented guide to books from and about British Columbia -- culled from Alan Twigg's unrivalled knowledge of more than 200 years of BC literary history. It also identifies 150 essential authors, such as Alice Munro, Earle Birney and Eric Nicol, who do not have one particular book that is outstanding but have enjoyed outstanding careers. In addition to the essentials, O Twigg also describes numerous other authors and books that have played an important role in BC's history. It is an encyclopedia of BC books and illustrated with numerous photos, many of them full-page. With the cooperation of UBC Special Collections and Simon Fraser University Library, this volume links the reader to thousands of important BC books and authors that can be researched on the author's public reference site, abcbookworld.com. The Essentials provides a synthesis of a life's work devoted to British Columbia literature outside the boundaries of academe. It is a must-have for anyone who cares about British Columbia as an original society.