Major (John) Richardson

Born in Upper Canada in 1796, John Richardson served in the British Army and fought in the War of 1812 while still young. Those experiences stayed with him and later fed directly into his writing, giving his fiction a strong sense of danger, movement, and lived history.

Richardson became one of the first Canadian-born novelists to gain an international readership. He wrote novels, poems, memoirs, and journalism, but he is best remembered for Wacousta (1832), a dramatic historical novel set during Pontiac’s uprising. His work often blends romance, warfare, and frontier tensions, reflecting both his military background and his deep interest in North American history.

His life was restless and often difficult, with years spent in Britain, France, and the United States as well as Canada. Even so, his place in literary history is secure: he is widely regarded as a pioneer of Canadian fiction, and his writing helped shape an early sense of what Canadian literature could be.