Cassie Brown is one of Canada's best-known writers of sea tragedies. Her three classic tales were published by Doubleday Canada in the 1970s. However, before this, she was prolific as a journalist, scriptwriter, and publisher of her own monthly magazine.
Writing the Sea includes an autobiographical essay on Ms. Brown's formative years in a remote coastal Newfoundland village. In "Rose Blanche and Me" she describes her hometown and the adventures that influenced the writings in her adult life.
Also included in this volume are a dozen stories she wrote as a journalist for The Daily News, including the seminal story she was assigned to write, "Death March," to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the most famous sealing disaster in Canada's history. This tragic tale motivated her to leave the security of a salaried job as a journalist and to conduct further research. This resulted in the classic book Death on the Ice.
Other sea stories describe the sinking of the SS Caribou by enemy action in World War II, the wreck of the SS Florizel, mutiny on the SS Diana, and "Tragedy at St. Jacques Island."
Upon publication of her three non-fiction bestsellers in the 1970s, the author became much in demand by schools to visit and discuss her books, which were used in the classroom. Included here is a question-and-answer interview Cassie Brown held with a high-school class in Newfoundland, in which she reflects on her path to full-time writing, her influences, her methodology, her favourites, and advice for would-be writers.

Cassie Brown was a Newfoundlander, born and bred. A successful writer of stage and radio plays, she was also a reporter and columnist for the Daily News in St. John's for seven years. She is now considered one of Newfoundland's most respected authors. Cassie Brown passed away on December 30, 1986 in St. John’s, Newfoundland & Labrador.

Cassie Brown's profile page