This unique exchange of letters between literary icon Sinclair Ross and several prominent writers, publishers, agents, and editors asks why many Canadian artists, especially those in western provinces, spent a lifetime struggling for recognition and remuneration. Featuring exchanges with Earle Birney, Margaret Laurence, and Margaret Atwood, among others, this collection exposes the conditions of cultural work in Canada for much of the twentieth century. This vivid, often moving, selection of professional and personal letters, plus the only formal interview Ross ever gave, provides a valuable resource for those engaged with the history of publishing in Canada, as well as for those with an interest in Canadian literature.

B&W photographs, appendix, biographical chronology, index

Hallett Vicki :

Vicki S. Hallett is an assistant professor in the Department of Gender Studies at Memorial University. For many years her research and writing have focussed on the co-constitutive aspects of identity and place as expressed through life narrative. She is from Newfoundland and Labrador.

Joan Sullivan, The Telegram:

"Hallett sieves through all the balladry, salutations, even Miller’s headstone, to sculpt an image of Miller, contextualized by the exchanges with those around her, as well as the momentous events – women’s suffrage, two world wars, Confederation – occurring in her time."

Mary Dalton, author of Edge and Merrybegot:

"A landmark book, Mistress of the Blue Castle seeks to illuminate the life and writing of a hitherto little-studied poet. The work is a significant contribution to the study of Newfoundland culture."