Bruce Peel's Bibliography was hailed by authorities as the single, finest introduction to the literature of the Canadian Prairies ever compiled, and one of the pioneering monuments of Canadian bibliographic scholarship. Peel laboured, with the assistance of volunteers, to collect additional material for the annotations, source bibliography, author and title indexes, and biographical notes.

The Prairie Provinces cover Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

Much has been written about the history and the people of northern Manitoba, but until now this body of work has not been readily accessible to the researcher or teacher. This bibliography identifies published sources, such as books and magazine and journal articles, as well as unpublished sources that are available to the public, including academic theses and government pamphlets, reports, and studies. It includes primarily materials dealing with the area north of 53rd parallel of latitude, but it also includes material on the area east of Lake Winnipeg as far south as the 51st parallel, a region that is similar to the North. References are listed under seven topics: bibliographies and research aids; the fur trade; Aboriginal and Métis populations; exploration and travel accounts; church and mission histories; northern geography and resources; and community histories and twentieth century resource exploitation.

These biographies of Canadians are arranged chronologically by date of death. Entries in each volume are listed alphabetically, with bibliographies of source material and an index to names.