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Long before radio and television brought entertainment into Canadian homes, E. Pauline Johnson (Tekahionwake) toured the country giving dramatic literary readings before packed halls in cities and in villages. A powerful performer, who both delighted and challenged her audiences, Johnson was very much in demand. She issued two modest volumes of poetry and regularly published in a range of periodicals, but these ephemeral publications paid very little. While Johnson was unable to attract serious interest from a book publisher at home or abroad, regular performance tours allowed her to earn a living. It was during the final year of her life that her friends undertook a unique enterprise which turned Johnson into a best-selling author and ensured her place in Canadian literary history.

Nellie Letitia McClung (1873-1951) is remembered as a social activist, a leading figure in the first wave of Canadian feminism and the first woman to be elected to the legislative assembly of Manitoba. By profession, however, McClung was an author. There are many parallels between her remarkably successful literary career and that of Lucy Maud Montgomery, so why are her books rarely read today?