Product Description

Using correspondence and personal papers as well as their published works, this biography tells the tale of two nineteenth century women who travelled to Canada expecting to make their fortunes and join the cream of colonial society only to face desperate privation: forest fires, wild animals, frostbite and starvation. Their fortitude and hard-won success as writers and the first chroniclers of the native flora made them icons of early Canadian literature.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2523666 in Books
• Published on: 2001-03-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 379 pages

Review
The captivating story of two sisters who emigrated from the impecunious safety of a Jane Austen-like Suffolk home in the early 19th century to the rough, challenging wilds of Canada. Both married to Scotsmen, who were friends, they gradually adapted to the New World and established their own lives. Coming from a literary family, they soon made their mark in the world of Canadian literature, and their influence is still evident in authors such as Margaret Atwood, Carol Shields and Robertson Davies. But the sisters were very different characters: one a cheery optimist, the other impassioned and sharp-tongued - a contrast reflected in their work, especially their accounts of pioneering life, Catharine's prettily upbeat The Backwoods of Canada and Susanna's forthright Roughing It in the Bush. This is a fascinating biography that reveals much about an intriguing family and about the challenges of the pioneering world. (Kirkus UK)

Customer Reviews

Canada's Unsung "Bronte" Sisters
I cannot believe that these women are not as well known in Canada as the Bronte's are in the UK and are not part of the high school curriculum's reading list. They are part of Canada's early "literati". These talented literary sister's story is an amazing, touching, even inspiring story of our early pioneering women who faced unbelivible hardship in an unforgiving enviorment of the backwoods with only the hap hazard support (at least in finacial terms) of their husbands. Their struggle gives testament to the early european immigrants who had none of the support enjoyed today and faced a much harsher enviorment. Their spirit is to be admired by any new Canadian immigrant and a eye opener for the rest of us.

Sisters in the Wilderness
It is an excellent book. The lives of the two sisters and their husbands that migrated to Upper Canada. To live the life of a pioneer took great courage.