MAY AGNES FLEMING was born in Saint John in 1840 to Irish immigrants. Fleming was educated in her early years at the Convent of the Sacred Heart, Saint John, where she began writing at the age of thirteen. In 1856 at age seventeen she became the first teacher at Saint Johns Roman Catholic school, until her writing became too demanding and she gave up teaching to become a full-time novelist, ultimately moving to New York. She became one of the most popular and successful novelists publishing in the United States in the 1870s and was the author of 47 novels and numerous short stories.

BONNIE HUSKINS grew up in Saint John, New Brunswick, where history is literally embedded in the landscape. Huskins obtained a PhD from Dalhousie University in 1992. She taught Canadian history for 12 years at the University College of the Fraser Valley (now the University of the Fraser Valley) in British Columbia, and in 2004 relocated back to the Maritimes. Since then she has been an Honorary Research Associate at the University of New Brunswick. She teaches courses on Atlantic Canadian history at the Fredericton and Saint John campuses as well as at Saint Thomas University.