SOURCE: "Comfortably Rural," in The Canadian Forum, Vol. LVII, No. 672, June-July, 1977, pp. 44-5.

A Canadian educator and critic, Northey is the author of The Haunted Wilderness: The Gothic and Grotesque in Canadian Fiction (1976). In the following review, she praises Knister's diverse talents as a writer and critic, noting the authentic voice, nostalgia, and "concealed art" in The First Day of Spring.

In his introduction to The First Day of Spring: Stories and Other Prose, Peter Stevens claims that Raymond Knister is a much more varied author than the scanty critical pronouncements maintain. By bringing together in one volume Knister's short stories, a series of his sketches about rural life, and a number of his critical essays, Stevens allows us to assess Knister's versatility and to discover little recognized talents.

A refreshing discovery is that Knister has a sense of humour. Dorothy Livesay has remarked on the sombre tone...