Robert E. (Robert Edward) Knowles

Born in 1868, Robert Edward Knowles was a Canadian minister and novelist associated with Galt, Ontario. He wrote a run of novels between 1905 and 1911, and contemporary scholarship notes that they were strikingly successful in their day, with St. Cuthbert's becoming a leading seller in Canada soon after publication.

Knowles wrote fiction shaped by his life in the ministry. His novels often centered on ministers, moral struggle, and religious doubt, placing him within the once-popular tradition of Protestant religious fiction. Readers in Canada, the United States, and Britain encountered his work through major publishers, and his books were reviewed in prominent literary journals of the period.

Although he is little read today, Knowles remains an interesting figure in Canadian literary history. His work helps capture the concerns of an era when novels of faith, conscience, and community spoke to a large audience, and it still offers a window into the culture and beliefs of early 20th-century Canada.