One of the Canadian masters of the light occasional essay, Peter McArthur established his literary reputation in his rural sketches that appeared in the Toronto Globe between 1909 and 1924, the year of his death. These sketches were collected and published during his lifetime in In Pastures Green (1915) and The Red Cow and Her Friends (1919), and posthumously in Around Home (1925), Familiar Fields (1925), and Friendly Acres (1927).

Born in Ekfrid Township near Glencoe, Ontario, on 10 March 1866 of Scottish immigrant parents, Catherine McLennan and Peter McArthur, the young McArthur early became an omnivorous reader. This habit grew stronger when ill health and lack of funds interrupted his schooling between 1880 and 1885. The libraries of his family's clergyman and of the nearby Mechanics' Institute encouraged his literary curiosity and ambition, and he began writing articles on farm life for the Stratford Age while he was in high school and normal school. After obtaining his teaching...