W. J. Keith has chosen to ignore utterly both the ‘popular’ at the one extreme (Robert Service, Lucy Maud Montgomery) as well as the ‘avant-garde’ at the other (bpnichol, Anne Carson) in favour of those authors whose style lends itself to the simple pleasure of reading, and to that end Keith dedicates his history to ‘all those – including those of the general reading public whose endangered status is much lamented – who recognize and celebrate the dance of words.