“Some people are born lucky, some are born rich, but most of us have to struggle for a living. One of the lucky ones is the outport ‘millionaire’ of Newfoundland.
“This millionaire has nor money to speak of; he is endowed with the special gift of being able to get along without it. H lives and dies in the village where he was born, and from the start is firmly rooted as if his mother had actually found him under a stump . . .”
The late Ron Pollett has left a timeless legacy of richly-textured literature on outport life. He was born at New Harbour, Trinity Bay, in 1900, but like legions of Newfoundlanders before and since, immigrated to foreign shores in search of work. In the last ten years of his life he felt compelled to describe in detail his outport heritage. He was ever mindful of its drawbacks, but in his essays, vignettes and stories, concentrated on the virtues of living as outharbour people.
At the same time, Ron Pollett also let Newfoundlanders know what life was like in crowded, dirty and noisy towns and cities, where life was measured in numbing increments by the incessant factory whistle, instead of by the leisurely pace of the four seasons of nature.
“The Outport Millionaire” was the title of Ron Pollett’s first published article, appearing in Atlantic Guardian in July of 1946. This collection is one of two volumes incorporating his writings.
The readers of the Atlantic Guardian voted Ron Pollett “Newfoundland’s Favourite Storyteller.”

Ron Pollett was born in New Harbour, Trinity Bay, in 1900. He became a school teacher at the age of sixteen but after three years he left to work at Grand Falls. In the early 20’s he immigrated to the United States and worked as a printer in New York until his death in September, 1955. He visited his native Newfoundland frequently and enjoyed going fishing and trouting as well as renewing acquaintances with old-time fishermen. He wrote on Newfoundland’s colourful outport life, a subject which was dear to his heart and which he handled with much skill and insight.

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