First Day of Spring

Raymond Knister had a strong sense of commitment both to his own career and to literature, particularly Canadian literature. In his ten working years he proved himself a prolific writer with wide-ranging interests.

Although his work has appeared in many anthologies of Canadian literature, there remains a great deal of out of print or unpublished material.

This volume brings together not only for his more well-known stories but also all his unpublished stories, a few travel pieces, and several examples of his literary criticism. Knister's stories are often strongly regional, and draw on rural Ontario for their setting and characters. Collected together here for the first time is a group of sketches dealing anecdotally with life in a village in southwestern Ontario. Also included are two stories arising from his experiences as a cab driver in Chicago in the 1920s, 'Innocent Man,' and 'Hackman's Night.' His essays focusing on literary matters and the traditions and problems of Canadian literature show a keenly critical mind.

The First Day of Spring is an important rediscovery of one of Canada's best writers of the 1920s.

Raymond Knister (1899-1932) was a Canadian poet, novelist, story writer, columnist, and reviewer. Known primarily for his realistic narratives set in rural Canada ... Knister was a highly respected member of the Canadian literary community during the 1920s and early 1930s, and recent criticism has acknowledged him as a pioneer in establishing a distinctively modern voice in Canadian literature.


Douglas Lochhead (1922-2011) was a professor emeritus of Mount Allison University.


Peter Stevens (1928-2009) was a professor emeritus of English at the University of Windsor.