The pioneer writer of the ‘evangelical romance’ in Canada was ‘Ralph Connor’ (Reverend Charles W. Gordon). Back of all his books stands the missionary spirit. Indeed it was that missionary spirit which led to the finding of his literary gift. The story of that finding dates back to 1896. He had been attending a meeting of the Home Mission Committee of the Presbyterian Church at Toronto, and afterwards tried to impress upon the Rev. J. A. Macdonald, then editor of _The Westminster_, the duty of the magazine to educate the committee and the people to a greater liberality. The editor’s reply was: ‘Articles are no good if they have only facts and statistics and exhortations. Give me a sketch, a story, a thing of life rather than a report. . .’ The result of this advice was a series of sketches of missionary life in the foothills of the Rockies, which were featured as _Tales of the Selkirks_ in _The Westminster_ (1897) and appeared in book form the following year as _Black Rock_. When the first sketches were ready it was deemed advisable to conceal the identity of the author. The editor telegraphed the query, ‘What name?’ The reply came, ‘Sign sketch Cannor.’ ‘Can—Nor, that would betray the face of a mask,’ says the editor. ‘Perhaps the operator made a mistake. Likely it should be Connor.’ And running over the alphabet of masculine names, he decided that ‘Ralph’ would just about fit with ‘Connor.’ Thus the christening of the missionary novelist. Ralph Connor’s novels fall into several groups. _Black Rock_ and _The Sky Pilot_ are tales of the Rocky Mountain foothills, both telling of the wild life of the West and of the work of the missionary. _The Man From Glengarry_ and _Glengarry School Days_ deal with the life of the author’s boyhood in Eastern Ontario. _The Prospector_ and _The Doctor_ combine East and West, by following their leading characters through the University of Toronto and transferring them to Western Canada. _The Foreigner_ has a Manitoba setting and concerns itself with the problem of the assimilation of the foreigner. _Corporal Cameron_ and _The Patrol of the Sun Dance Trail_, carry a young Scot to Canada and through the ranks of the Mounted Police. The Great War gave material for _The Major_; labor troubles for _To Him That Hath_; while in _The Gaspards of Pine Croft_, the author reverted to a setting not so far from that of his first novel for a story more emotional and psychological in nature than his others.