This edition of Quebec Hill is the fifth in a series of editions of early Canadian long poems made possible by a generous grant from the Academic Development Fund of the University of Western Ontario. For the generosity of the University and the confidence of many colleagues, most notably J.F. Woodruff and Allan Somerset, the past and present Chairmen of the English Department, T.J. Collins, the Dean of Arts at the time of the Academic Development Fund grant, and the Adjudicating Committee and external referees of the A.D.F., all of us involved in the editing of Quebec Hill are deeply grateful.

To the staff of the Baldwin Room at the Metropolitan Toronto Public Library, the Houghton Library at Harvard University, the British Library, the Library of Congress and the libraries at Western, Queen's and Illinois Universities, thanks are due for making available materials pertinent to this edition. For assistance in the search for information about J. Mackay, thanks are due to many people on both sides of the Atlantic: Patrice Landry, Elizabeth Diamond, Don McKay, A.M. Jackson, Alice C. Dalligan, Lewis R. Fischer, Douglas Mathieson, John and Jane Burnett, Isobel Couperwhite, D.E. Monroe, and above all, Michael Williams, a researcher who makes Captain Ahab's tenacity seem like mere dabbling.

I owe a special debt to R.J. Shroyer, my partner in the project to edit early Canadian long poems; his computing skills, his shrewd insights and his unstintingly generous gifts of enthusiasm, advice and time have made the production of this edition, and the series of which it is a part, practically possible, intellectually engaging and thoroughly enjoyable. I also owe a great debt, again, to Michael Williams for his excellent work on the computing side of this edition, and to Madeline Dezelak, Denise Heffron and Carolyn Quick for their care and patience in processing and proofreading the materials included here. Thomas B. Vincent, Leslie Monkman, E.J. Devereux, A.M. Young, C.G. Brown, Kit Hargin, Barbara Teatero, Ian Steele, Pamela Jeffrey and James Miller are among others at the University of Western Ontario and elsewhere whom I would like to thank for comments, suggestions and contributions of information that have been very valuable. And last, but in no way least, I would like to thank my wife Susan who, with Michael, Simon and Diana, shows how thoroughly wrong Mackay is in Quebec Hill, II, 225-226.