In a social milieu that still considered literature as a leisure occupation for ladies and gentlemen, Adam Kidd stood out for several reasons. Although he did publish anonymously and under a pseudonym he, in effect, mocked that gentlemanly convention by openly acknowledging authorship almost immediately. He was also only the second writer in the Canadas (now Ontario and Quebec) to break with the socially accepted convention of anonymity by having his name printed on the title page of a book of his own work. He tried, unsuccessfully, to make a living by writing. Kidd was a poète engagé whose personality and experience illuminate everything he wrote, although he lived in a community that valued authors who kept a respectable distance between themselves and their work. Had he lived longer, he might or might not have been a great poet, but he certainly would always have...