Sinclair Ross
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
James Sinclair Ross (January 22, 1908 - February 29, 1996) was a Canadian banker and author, best known for his fiction about life in the Canadian prairies.
Ross was born on a homestead near Shellbrook, Saskatchewan. At the age of seven, his parents separated, and he lived with his mother on a number of different farms during his childhood, going to a school in Indian Head, Saskatchewan. He left school after Grade 11 to work at a bank, at first in a number of small towns in Saskatchewan. He moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1933 and Montreal, Quebec in 1946, after spending four years in the army. He would remain there until his retirement in 1968, after which he spent some time in Spain and Greece before moving to a nursing home in Vancouver, British Columbia, where he lived until his death.
He is best known for his first novel, published in 1941, As For Me and My House, a novel about an isolated town in the Prairies during the Great Depression. At first not much noticed, it went on to become a Canadian literary classic which set the precedent for the genre of Canadian prairie fiction. He wrote three more novels during his lifetime, as well as a few anthologies of short stories, none of which became as well-known as his first novel. He is also known for destroying manuscripts of entire novels that his publisher chooses to pass on, including a sequel to Sawbones Memorial.
In 1992, he was made a Member of the Order of Canada.
Contents |
[edit] Bibliography
[edit] Novels
- As For Me and My House (1941)
- The Well (1958)
- Whir of Gold (1970)
- Sawbones Memorial (1974)
[edit] Short stories
- The Lamp at Noon and Other Stories (1968)
- The Race and Other Stories (1982)
- The Painted Door
- Zippo
