Lesson

James Sinclair Ross (1908-96), was born on a homestead near Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, one of three children. He grew up on prairie farms where his mother worked as a housekeeper after the breakdown of her marriage. Leaving high school after Grade 11, Ross worked as a bank clerk for what would eventually become known as the Royal Bank in a succession of small towns in Saskatchewan before being transferred to Winnipeg in 1933 and then to Montreal in 1946. Apart from four years in the Canadian army (1942-6), when he was stationed in England, he remained with the bank until his retirement in 1968. He then lived for some years in Greece and Spain, returning to Canada in 1980, settling in Vancouver.

Ross is best know for his early fiction, which uniquely captures the harsh, impoverished lives of prairie farmers and townspeople during the dust- and drought-ridden years of the Depression. Stories such as "No Other Way", "The Lamp at Noon", and "The Painted Door", resonate with realistic detail reflecting the isolation, bone-wearying labour, helplessness in the face of the elements, and psychological strain, especially between husbands and wives, that Ross saw as characterizing life on the Prairies during those hard times.

Ross is regarded as one of Canada's finest craftsmen of the novel and short story. He is the author of 4 novels and 18 short stories, published between 1934 and 1974, many of which uniquely capture the harsh lives of prairie people during the Depression years. He was largely unheralded as a writer until his seminal 1941 novel As For Me and My House was reprinted in Canada in 1957, but the power of his work is credited with influencing many Canadian prairie writers.

  • Read "The Painted Door". The document contains the short story, followed by an analysis.