Susanna Moodie

Born in Bungay, Suffolk, in 1803, Susanna Moodie was part of the gifted Strickland family, which included several writers. She published from a young age and later emigrated to Upper Canada in 1832 with her husband, J. W. D. Moodie, drawing on that experience in the work that made her famous.

Moodie is best remembered for Roughing It in the Bush (1852), an account of immigrant and settler life that mixes hardship, humor, and close observation. She also wrote Life in the Clearings Versus the Bush and a range of poems, sketches, and stories, helping shape early Canadian literature with a voice that felt candid and personal.

She died in Toronto in 1885. Today she is remembered as a key witness to 19th-century colonial life in Canada and as a writer whose books continue to interest readers for both their historical detail and their strong personality on the page.