Sisters in Two Worlds

Containing 200 colour and black-and-white images, many of them never-before published, this extraordinary book chronicles the lives of two exceptional and inspirational women: sisters, writers, pioneers, and icons of the Canadian imagination.

Their childhood was spent in a manor house in the Suffolk countryside. As aspiring young authors, they attended literary evenings in the drawing rooms of Georgian London. But in 1832 Susanna Moodie and Catharine Parr Traill crossed the Atlantic to embark on new lives in the backwoods of Upper Canada. As pioneering wives they struggled to survive and raise their families in a strange and often hostile world. By the light of homemade candles, Susanna and Catharine wrote about their experiences, producing such enduring classics as Roughing it in the Bush and The Backwoods of Canada. And Catharine’s beautifully illustrated books on Canadian plants and wildflowers were the first of their kind.

In a handsome, illustrated format Sisters in Two Worlds recreates the remarkable lives of these two pioneering writers. Its absorbing narrative text is complemented by modern colour photographs of the places they knew, combined with archival images, paintings, letters, and family artifacts. Written by Canada’s foremost Moodie/Traill scholar, this visual biography is an informative view of two of this country’s seminal writers and a remarkable tapestry of life in early Canada.

“Michael Peterman’s text combines complete authority and grace….In total it is like a mueum of Moodie-Traill lore that both demands and repays close attention.” –Books in Canada