SOURCE: “Nature Writers and the Animal Story,” in Literary History of Canada: Canadian Literature in English, Vol. I, revised edition, edited by Carl F. Klinck and others, University of Toronto Press, 1976, pp. 380-404.

In the following essay, Lucas presents an overview of Canadian literature featuring animals and nature themes.

Nature writing is a comparatively recent literary development. Yet its roots lie deep in folklore, the Bible, and the myths, fables, and pastorals of Ancient Greece, for man has always been concerned with his relationship to the natural world. For the Jew of the Old Testament it manifested the power of the Deity and revealed His purpose. For the Greek it stimulated the mind and fed a love of beauty. The growth of the Christian Church, however, set man at odds with nature, which, as the medieval writers saw it, was distinct from and inferior to man, a massa...