First published in 1985, this volume of letters follows Susanna Moodie from her Suffolk girlhood and her experience as an aspiring young writer in London, through her emigration to Upper Canada and five decades of Canadian life. The letters provide a sense of Moodie's literary accomplishments before her emigration, the long, uncertain struggle to develop her career as a writer in the colony, and the brief but intense period of literary activity during which her books were published in Britain and the U.S.

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'The humanity and vision of Susanna Moodie emerge clearly from this book. Letters of a Lifetime also captures the mind, soul, and being of a person seemingly outside the conventional historical process...Seldom are books about men as informative, moving, and enjoyable as this book which at long last reveals the true face of Susanna Moodie.'

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'A profoundly revealing picture of this complex and fascinating personality.'

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'A crucially important book in Canadian literary history. It is also good reading.'

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'A fascinating portrait.'