Sisters in the Wilderness - Charlotte Gray [1]
PENGUIN CANADA
Published by the Penguin Group
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First published in Viking Canada hardcover by Penguin Group (Canada), a division of Pearson Canada Inc., 1999
Published in Penguin Canada paperback by Penguin Group (Canada), a division of Pearson Canada Inc., 2000
Published in this edition, 2008
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 (WEB)
Copyright © Charlotte Gray, 1999
Author representation: Westwood Creative Artists
94 Harbord Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 1G6
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
Manufactured in Canada.
LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION
Gray, Charlotte, 1948–
Sisters in the wilderness : the lives of Susanna Moodie and Catharine Parr Traill / Charlotte Gray.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-14-316836-2
1. Moodie, Susanna, 1803–1885. 2. Traill, Catherine Parr, 1802–1899. 3. Frontier and pioneer life—Ontario. 4. Women authors, Canadian (English)—19th century—Biography. 5. Women authors, Canadian (English)—Ontario—Biography. I. Title.
FC3067.2.G729 2008
Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
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This book is for my parents, Robert and Elizabeth Gray, with love.
It is also in affectionate memory of my father-in-law
Dr. Reginald Anderson (1910–1998).
Contents
Preface
Prelude: February 1834
Chapter 1: New Beginnings
Chapter 2: “The Scribbling Fever”
Chapter 3: Sweet Dreams
Chapter 4: Flapping Sails
Chapter 5: Land of Stumps
Chapter 6: “Yankee Savages”
Chapter 7: “Halcyon Days in the Bush”
Chapter 8: “A Little Red-Haired Baboon”
Chapter 9: A Call to Arms
Chapter 10: Belligerent Belleville
Chapter 11: Barefoot Crusoes
Chapter 12: The Secrets of the Prison House
Chapter 13: Mortification and Madness
Chapter 14: Good Advice
Chapter 15: Rap, Rap, Who’s There?
Chapter 16: Tottering Slowly On
Chapter 17: “A Wail for the Forest”
Chapter 18: A Trip to Stony Lake
Chapter 19: Apotheosis in Ottawa
Chapter 20: The Oldest Living Author in Her Majesty’s Dominion
Postscript
Family Trees:
Thomas and Elizabeth Strickland
John and Susanna Moodie
Thomas and Catharine Parr Traill
Sam Strickland
Acknowledgments
Sources
Picture Credits
Index
Maps:
Suffolk
British North America
Rice Lake and Douro Township
Belleville
Preface
“I wonder,” wrote Charles Dickens