Sir Horatio Gilbert George Parker

Parker, Sir Horatio Gilbert George

Sir Horatio Gilbert George Parker, journalist, author, politician (b at Camden E, Canada West 23 Nov 1862; d in London, Eng 6 Sept 1932). Best known for his historical novels, which introduced French Canadians and the North-West to English literature, Gilbert Parker left Canada in the mid-1880s after teaching for several years in Ontario. He settled in England from 1890, became MP for Gravesend (1900-18), and organized British propaganda directed at the US during WWI. Widely travelled, he expressed strong support for British IMPERIALISM. His fiction set in Canada, such as Pierre and His People (1892) and Carnac (1922), contributed to the validation of Québecois culture within English Canada. His many novels consist mainly of melodramatic plots with idealistic characters in exciting or exotic settings.