Nellie Letitia McClung (1873-1951) is recognized as a key figure in Canadian history as well as Canadian literature. Her two-volume autobiography provides a remarkable and very readable account of a truly extraordinary life. McClung is best known for her involvement in the 1929 "Person's Case," in which the British Privy Council ruled in favour of an appeal by the "Famous Five" against the judgement of the Supreme Court of Canada that women did not qualify legally as persons. McClung had, however, been a high profile figure, as a suffragist, politician, and writer, in Canadian politics and literature for many years and remained so well into the 1940s. Her autobiography provides unique insight into Canadian public affairs in the first half of the twentieth century. Equally interesting are McClung's accounts of her early days as a child, teacher, young wife and mother. With her fine eye for detail, she makes the Canada of her time come vividly alive for readers.

Originally published in two volumes, McClung's autobiographies found a wide audience from their first publication in 1935 and 1945. They have never before been available in a single volume. For this re-issue Veronica Strong-Boag and Michelle Lynn Rosa have written a substantial introduction and added explanatory notes that illuminate the woman and the historical context for modern readers.

Veronica Strong-Boag is a professor of women’s and gender studies and of educational studies at the University of British Columbia. She is a member of the Royal Society of Canada and a past president of the Canadian Historical Association. She has written widely on the history of Canadian women and children—including studies of the 1920s and 30s, the experience of post—WW II suburbia, Nellie L. McClung, E. Pauline Johnson, childhood disabilities, and modern neo-conservatism’s attack on women and children—and has won the John A. Macdonald Prize in Canadian History, the 2012 Canada Prize in the Social Sciences awarded by the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences and, with Carole Gerson, the Raymond Klibansky Prize in the Humanities. In 2012 Strong-Boag was awarded the Tyrrell Medal from the Royal Society of Canada for outstanding work in Canadian history. She is the author of Fostering Nation: Canada Confronts Its History of Childhood Disadvantage (WLU Press, 2010).

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Michelle Lynn Rosa, a graduate of the University of British Columbia in Honours English, is pursuing graduate studies in Montreal.

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