(rare dj of 1941, Reynal & Hitchcock )
(rare signed slipcased ltd. ed., 1994 Fifth House)
(“It’s an Immense Night Out There”, signed ltd. ed. chapbook; Richard Spafford, 1993)
(1958 Macmillan dj; jacket by Arnaud Maggs)
(signed reprint of 1968, McClelland & Stewart pb–this was never published in dj; these are the best stories about the Depression published by a Canadian)
(1970, McClelland & Stewart dj)
(funeral service card)
(Mrs. Bentley (of As for Me and My House) poems spin-off; signed by SK’s Lorna Crozier, 1996 dj, McClelland & Stewart; jacket design: Sari Ginsberg, jacket photo: Image Bank, hand tinting: Adrienne K. Veniger)
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(James) Sinclair Ross (1908-1996) was born near Prince Albert, SK. In 1924, he became a bank clerk on the prairies and eventually moved to Winnipeg. He served in World War II and then worked for the Royal Bank in Montreal. In his writing, he was mainly concerned with the psychological effects of isolation on people living in small towns and on isolated farms during the Depression. His best stories are collected in The Lamp at Noon and Other Stories; later Lorraine McMullen would edit his previously unpublished stories in book form The Race and Other Stories.
Books that shed light on his then-little-known homosexuality and many publishing frustrations include: As for Me and My Body–Keath Fraser, “Collecting Stamps Would Have Been More Fun”–Jordan & David Stouck, and As for Sinclair Ross–David Stouck. I had the pleasure of selecting “The Lamp at Noon”, “The Painted Door”, and “One’s a Heifer” for inclusion in my story anthologies.