Gilbert Parker

Sir Gilbert Parker--the popular Canadian novelist, short-story writer and poet who rose from backwoods obscurity to the seats of the mighty in the British Empire--was born on November 23, 1862, in Camden East, Addington, Ontario, to Royal Army Capt. J. Parker and his wife. After attending school in Ottawa and matriculating at Toronto's Trinity University, Parker moved to Australia in 1886, serving as an associate editor on the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper. His travels took him throughout the Pacific. Subsequently, after his return to Canada, he extensively journeyed through northern Canada

Parker was a contemporary of the poet and short story writer Sir Charles G.D. Roberts, the first writer to express the new nationalism that resulted from the confederation of Britain's North American provinces into Canada in 1867. Roberts' work inspired a nationalist school of Canadian poets in the late 19th century.

Parker's works typically dealt with Canadian history, and later with England and the British Empire. Moving to England in 1889, he made his literary reputation with romantic novels and short stories "aboot" Canada, and with historical novels such as his 1896 depiction of the court of King Louis XV, "The Seats of the Mighty" (made into a film in 1914, The Seats of the Mighty (1914), starring Lionel Barrymore)). His finest works deal with French-Canadian life and history, such as "Pierre and His People" (1892) (dramatized on Broadway by Edgar Selwyn, and filmed in 1914 as Pierre of the Plains (1914), remade in 1942 as Pierre of the Plains (1942))). Though he wrote of England and the Empire, starting in 1898 with "The Battle of the Strong," it is for his Canadian stories that he is still remembered into the 21st century, due to their high quality, fine descriptions and gripping drama. The short story collection published in 1900, "The Lane that had no Turning," contains some of his finest work, including the title story.

In 1895 Parker married a wealthy American heiress of New York's Van Tine family. His politics were strongly imperial, and in 1900 he was elected to Parliament as a Conservative member for Gravesend on the Unionist ticket. Parker was knighted in 1902, and although he still kept writing, most of his energies became absorbed by politics. A champion of Imperial Preference Trade and Tariff Reform, his power in the House of Commons began to wax, and by 1910 he was a figure to be reckoned with. He was, according to political observers, one of the most powerful Unionist politicians not serving in the government. He would serve a total of 18 years in Parliament, being re-elected in 1906 and again in 1910.

The quality of his literary output suffered from devoting so much energy to politics, but he was influential by investing the Imperialist movement with a great deal of enthusiasm. Parker cracked the top 10 best sellers list in the U.S. after becoming an M.P., with "The Weavers", which ranked #2 in 1907 and #10 in 1908, and "The Judgement House," which made it to #7 in 1913. His contemporaries on the list included Winston Churchill (the American writer, not the English politician-writer who became Prime Minister in 1940), Edna Ferber and Booth Tarkington.

Sir Gilbert Parker died in his native Canada, of a heart attack, on September 6, 1932, in London, Ontario.