"William Edward Traill, better known as Willie, was the son of Catherine Parr Traill, The Backwoods Of Canada (1836), and nephew of Susanna Moodie, Roughing It In The Bush (1852), and he to was a natural writer.
Traill left Upper Canada to join the Hudson's Bay Company in what was to become the Canadian West. For thirty some years, he worked his way up from clerk to Chief Trader. He also meet and married Harriet McKay and together they had twelve children.
His letters home between 1864 and 1893 convey a rich detailed portrait of domestic life in the service of the fur trade of the Northwest." From the back cover.
"Willie began his HBC career at Fort Ellice and concluded it twenty-nine years later, at Fort St. James as Chief Trader in charge of the New Caledonia District Of British Columbia. ... His marriage to Harriet McKay, the eldest daughter of Chief Factor William McKay and his wife Mary Mackay (nee Cook), was the seminal event of his life. The McKays were giants in the history of HBC and western development. William and Mary were a Hudson's Bay Company family to the bone. They were without peer in creating a fair, rational, intelligent, workable, and mutually respectful relationship with the Plains Indian tribes. ... Willie's personal letters are the heart and raison d'etre of this book. ... One hundred and twenty-seven letters are presented in his book, in hole or in part. They chronicle his twenty-nine years with the HBC, from his journey west to his final years at Fort St. James. " From the Introduction.
Traill severed the HBC at Fort Garry, Fort Ellice, the Touchwood Hills, Lac La Biche, Lesser Slave Lake, Fort Vermillion and Fort St. James.
