Lost Canadian novel recovered after 30 years

Edited by John Stokes

OTTAWA, ON – Unavailable for thirty years, Waste Heritage, a novel by Irene Baird is gaining critical and popular attention as the best Canadian novel of the 1930’s, and a book that all Canadians should read.

Set in British Columbia in 1938, it follows the harrowing journey of Matt and Eddy, two itinerants in search of work who unwittingly become part of a sit-down strike and riot. Told in frank honest language, this insightful book is once more available to the public with a new introduction by Colin Hill.

"Baird’s novel reappears at a time when the development of modern Canadian writing is being re-evaluated by critics, and when early twentieth-century literary forms are being vigorously reconsidered both in Canadian and other literary traditions," explains editor Colin Hill.

Author Irene Baird is one of Canada’s most original and under-appreciated writers. For Waste Heritage she disguised herself as a nurse to visit the off limit slums of Victoria to be accurate in their portrayal in the novel and was devoted to realism in fiction. She wrote four novels, worked for the National Film Board, and became the first woman to head a federal information service. She died in 1981. Waste Heritage is the first book in the University of Ottawa Press’ new series Canadian Literature Collection/La collection de la littérature canadienne.

Colin Hill is rewriting the literary history of the early twentieth century. Through his bibliographic and archival research, he has recovered significant lost works of Canadian fiction. He is an author, book reviewer, and assistant professor of Canadian Literature at the University of Toronto.

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