Harriet Vaughan Cheney is an interesting anomaly in Canadian literary history. Although she wrote four books, none of them are considered "Canadian Literature," because they were published in the United States, despite the fact that the Canadian canon incorporates many works published in other countries by residents of what is now Canada. Cheney is known only as a periodical writer and editor whose importance stems from her association with the Literary Garland and the Snow Drop. Even in this context, her name but not her writing is what is familiar to scholars.

Cheney was the daughter of the distinguished American Unitarian theologian John Foster and his wife, Hannah Webster Foster, one of the first American novelists. She was born in Brighton, Massachusetts, but her permanent residence for most of her life was in Montreal, where she was married to Edward Cheney in 1830, bore at least four children, and...