John Lesperance, a man whose fictions may possibly have spilled beyond his writing into the substance of his life, was born in St. Louis, Missouri, probably in 1835. Principally a journalist, working for several Canadian papers, Lesperance claimed he had obtained an education on the Continent and had served in the Confederate Army, stories that have turned out to be dubious at best.

What was certain about Lesperance was that he did succeed in creating a single interesting novel; a short, fanciful holiday piece about the romances of young people; and a collection of poetry that went unpublished as a freestanding work but found partial publication in several periodicals. And he did offer considerable support as a journalistic editor and public speaker for the notion of developing the phenomenon of the Canadian writer.

After studying at St. Louis University in his hometown and withdrawing from a course of studies...