Personal Reminiscences in Book Making, and Some Short Stories

Long letters home from the Canadian wilderness helped R. M. Ballantyne develop the writing habits he recalls in this collection of personal memories and short stories. He begins with his father's suggestion that he join the Hudson's Bay Company at sixteen, then describes work at remote trading posts, long winters and mail arriving only twice a year. Writing to his mother in Scotland gave him a way to record daily life and keep a connection with home.

The reminiscences explain how experience supplied material for books written for young readers. Ballantyne treats authorship as a practical occupation, with disappointments, expenses and amusing incidents as well as rewards. The fiction offers a different view of his storytelling: one scene follows little Pat as he overhears burglars and runs to the mischievous Harry Stronghand. Readers interested in how adventure writing grows from observation can find both an author's account of his craft and a sample of that craft at work.