Writer, lawyer, entrepreneur, and civil servant, Moses Henry Perley was that rare combination who is equally at home in literature and science, in the lecture hall, the government office, and the woods, hunting and fishing. He was, in short, like several other New Brunswick writers, for whom urban and wilderness life interpenetrated.

Perley was born in Maugherville, New Brunswick, on New Year's Eve 1804, the son of Moses and Mary Perley (cousins as well as man and wife), and educated in nearby Saint John. He married Jane Ketchum in 1829 and was called to the bar in 1830. Instead of practicing law, he was active in business ventures during the 1830s but found time to contribute letters to local newspapers on the state of the New Brunswick economy and the plight of the Malecite and Micmac Indians, who reciprocated his interest by making him an honorary chief. In 1837 he helped establish...