The book addresses the problem of literary value in North American literature, children's literature, film and poetry. "Chapter One: The Ennob(e)led" focuses on institutions which are instrumental in attributing value to literature: literary critics (e.g. D.H. Lawrence) and award givers (e.g. the Swedish Academy). It explores W.B. Yeats's, T.S. Eliot's, Czesław Miłosz's and William Golding's lives with the Nobel Prize. In "Chapter Two: The Forgotten" homage is paid to four authors who lost popularity, or never enjoyed it: Lorenza Stevens Berbineau, Frank Stockton, Charles Chesnutt and Conrad Aiken. "Chapter Three: From Margin to Mainstream" compares various Chinese, Japanese, First Nations' and other ethnic voices in Canadian children's literature. "Chapter Four: From Mainstream to Margin" juxtaposes scholarly pursuits with cinematic praxis, and cinematic praxis with political activity.