JAMES DE MILLE was born in Saint John, NB, in 1833, and educated at Acadia College, Wolfville, NS, and Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island. He taught at Acadia College and Dalhousie College in Halifax. He had a successful career as a prolific and popular novelist. He died in 1880, and his best known novel, A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder, was published posthumously in 1888.