From 1894 to 1902, when novelist Joanna Wood was being hailed as the bright new star on the Canadian literary horizon, she received considerable attention from the Canadian and American press, especially in the Canadian Magazine. Yet the early and later years of her life and career remain shrouded in obscurity. So little is known of her work and circumstances after 1902, when her last verified work was published, that reference books have erroneously reported the year of her death to be 1919; recently, however, a 1927 death certificate has been discovered.

Wood was born in the town of Lesmahagow in Lanarkshire, Scotland, 28 December 1867, the youngest daughter in the large family of Robert and Agnes Tod Wood. The Canadian census of 1881 recorded the Presbyterian family settled on a farm at Queenston, in the Niagara area, which was to be Joanna Wood's home until it was sold in 1906. Like most aspiring young writers of...