This thesis examines the histories, publishing philosophies, and printing practices of two English-Canadian small-press publishers (The Porcupine's Quill of Erin, Ontario, and the Gaspereau Press of Kentville, Nova Scotia). By researching their publishing influences as well as the social and political climates in which each press operated, it is possible to analyze the decisions they made about why and how to publish certain kinds of texts. From there the thesis summarizes their publishing philosophies, and conducts extended analyses of the production of two specific literary texts: Endeared by Dark: The Collected Poems of George Johnston (PQL 1990), and Execution Poems (George Elliott Clarke, Gaspereau 2001). The historical research relies partly on secondary sources, and more generally the methodology was supplied by contemporary work in book history and textual criticism; however, the majority of the research, in chapters two and three particularly, has been culled from primary texts, press releases, newspaper features, web pages, and archival materials (letters, financial records, and so on). Overall, this thesis concludes that both the Porcupine's Quill and the Gaspereau Press emphasize an holistic approach to bookmaking, wherein each component part is capable of contextualizing, augmenting, celebrating, interpreting, historicizing, or socializing a literary text.

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