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Expanding Literary Horizons by Steven Artelle, Library and
Archives Canada The topography, culture, and vast imaginative
potential of the region known since 1867 as Ontario began to
find popular literary expression in books by explorers and
travellers during the 18th century. By the early 19th century,
these same qualities would inspire works of poetry such as Adam
Hood Burwell's Talbot Road: A Poem (1818) and works of fiction
such as John Richardson's novel Wacousta, or, The Prophecy: A
Tale of the Canadas (1832). However, the accounts of travellers,
and in particular emigrant settlers, continued to dominate.
Foremost among the genre were memoirs b