The Author Sir Gilbert Parker (1862-1932) Horatio Gilbert George Parker was born in Camden East, Addington county, in the province of Ontario, the son of Captain J. Parker. He was educated in Ottawa and later at Trinity University in Toronto. Parker started working as a teacher at the Ontario school for the deaf and dumb. From there he went to lecture at Trinity College and in 1886 left for Australia, where he became associate editor of the Sydney Morning Herald. His later journeys to Europe, the Pacific, Asia, Egypt, the South Sea Islands and eventually Northern Ontario, and his observations of pioneering life provided material for his future characters and stories. In 1890, he finally settled in London where he became wellknown as a writer of romantic fiction. He also had many of his stories published in magazines and newspapers of North America and England. His reputation rests1 on his novels and short stories dealing with the history and life of French Canadians or Québécois. Pierre and His People (1892) was followed by Mr Falchion (1893), The Trail of the Sword (1894), When Valmond Came to Pontiac (1895), An Adventurer of Icy North (1895) and The Seats of the Mighty (1896), a historical novel about the English conquest of Quebec with James Wolfe and the Marquis de Montcalm as two of the characters, which was dramatized in 1897. In 1895, Parker married Miss Van Tine of New York, a wealthy heiress. A well known imperialist, he also devoted himself to a political career. In 1900, he was elected to the British House of Commons as a Conservative member for Gravesend and remained Member of Parliament until 1918. In 1902, he was knighted for his contributions to Canadian literature. On the outbreak2 of the First World War, Parker was recruited3 by Britain s War Propaganda Bureau to help shape American public opinion and convince Americans to support the British 1. rests: is based on. 2. outbreak: beginning. 3. recruit: find new people to join an organisation. 84