Catharine Parr Strickland Traill (1802-1899) emigrated from Great Britain to Upper Canada in 1832 with her husband Thomas Traill, a retired army officer. The Backwoods of Canada (1836), Catharine¹s epistolary narrative based on her experiences in the country north of Peterborough in the years immediately following her arrival in North America, is an important record of nineteenth-century pioneering and a rich personal memoir of a woman. It has become a foundation work of Canadian Iiterature.

As one of the first voices to write from the wilds of newly-settled Canada, Catharine Parr Traill’s books continue to be considered important sources of early Canadian history. In particular, The Backwoods of Canada, first published in 1836, details the everyday life of Canada’s founding communities. Together with her sister, Susannah Moodie (who penned the equally historically significant Roughing it in the Bush), Traill became an important resource for settlers arriving in Canada during the nineteenth century. Continuing to write and publish well into her nineties, Catherine Parr Traill is celebrated as one of the first authors in Canadian literary history. She died in 1899 at the age of 97.

Catharine Parr Traill's profile page

Michael Peterman is Professor Emeritus at Trent University. In addition to many articles and reviews, he has written or edited fourteen books, including biographies of Susanna Moodie (Susanna Moodie: A Life) and her sister Catharine Parr Traill (Sisters in Two Worlds). He has won Trent’s Distinguished Research Award and has been made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

Michael A. Peterman's profile page