Canadian Crusoes

Catharine Parr Traill, née Strickland (1802-1899) was a British author who wrote about life as a settler in Canada. Traill began writing children's books in 1818 like Disobedience; or, Mind What Mama Says (1819). She described her new life in Canada in letters and journals, and collected these into The Backwoods of Canada (1836), which continues to be read as an important source of information about early Canada. More observations were included in a novel, Canadian Crusoes (1851) which was retitled Lost in The Backwoods. She also published The Female Emigrant's Guide (1854), later retitled The Canadian Settler's Guide which concerns about the ability of emigrants to settle down in a new place. Catharine spent her years in Belleville writing about the natural environment. She often sketched the plant life of Upper Canada, publishing Canadian Wild Flowers (1865) and Studies of Plant Life in Canada (1885). She died in Ontario in 1899.