About the Author

CATHARINE PARR TRAILL was born in Surrey, England, on January 9, 1802. She was the fifth child of Thomas and Elizabeth Strickland. Her siblings were Eliza, Jane Margaret, Susanna (later Susanna Moodie), Samuel, and Agnes. In 1832 she married Lt. Thomas Traill. The couple emigrated to Upper Canada and settled near the Otonabee River close to Peterborough. Traill is the author of a number of books but is best-known for The Backwoods of Canada. She died in 1899 in Lakefield, Ontario.