Mrs. (Rosanna Eleanor) Leprohon

Born in Montreal in 1829 as Rosanna Eleanor Mullins, she was educated at the Convent of the Congregation of Notre-Dame and began publishing while still very young. Her early poems and stories appeared in The Literary Garland, where she first built a readership.

After marrying physician Jean-Lucien Leprohon in 1851, she wrote as Mrs. Leprohon and became known for novels, poems, and magazine work. She is especially remembered as one of the first English-Canadian writers to portray French-Canadian life in a way that drew readers from both English- and French-speaking communities.

Her best-known works include The Manor House of De Villerai and other serialized fiction of manners and domestic life. She died in Montreal in 1879, but her writing still stands out for its place in early Canadian literature and for the cultural bridge it tried to build.