Catharine Parr Traill (1802–1899)

Catharine Parr Strickland was a sister of authors Agnes Strickland and Susanna Moodie. She began writing children's books in 1818, after the death of her father. In 1832, she married Lieutenant Thomas Traill, a retired officer of the Napoleonic Wars and a friend of her sister's husband, John Moodie, despite family objections. Soon after their marriage, the couple left for Canada, settling near Peterborough, Upper Canada, where her brother Samuel was a surveyor. Susannah Moodie emigrated soon afterward. Catharine Traill described her new life 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.