A descendant of Cotton Mather and Increase Mather, Sophie Almon Hensley began her writing career as a literary protégée of Charles G. D. Roberts. Her periodical contributions consolidated her reputation in the 1880s and 1890s, and her essays and books on feminism and social issues brought her to the attention of both Canadian and American audiences.

Born in Bridgetown, Nova Scotia, the daughter of the Reverend Henry Pryor Almon and Sarah Frances DeWolf Almon, Sophie was reportedly educated abroad at St. Monica's, Warminster, Wiltshire, and at Miss Watson's School in Paris. While she was living at "Fairfield," her family home in Windsor, Nova Scotia, she came under the literary tutelage of Roberts, just appointed to the faculty of the University of King's College in 1885. Roberts encouraged her poetic contributions to the Week , the King's College Record, the Dominion Illustrated Monthly, the Current, and a...