Constance Lindsay Skinner

Novelist and historian Constance Skinner was born at a small trading post in remote British Columbia, Canada, where her father was an agent for the Hudson Bay Co. When she was 14 her family moved to Vancouver, BC, and at age 16 she developed health problems and moved to California to live with an aunt. She was already a published writer by that time, and soon was reviewing music and theatrical productions for the "San Francisco Examiner" and the "Los Angeles Times". She wrote her first play, "David", and it was produced in Carmel, CA, at the Forest Theatre in 1910. She later moved to New York City, where she was hired to write book reviews for the "Herald Tribune", and also contributed regularly to such publications as "Bookman", the "North American Review" and "Poetry", among others.

Her second play, "Rosamund!", was produced in New York in 1917.

She was gaining a reputation as a serious writer, and it wasn't long before she was asked to contribute two volumes to Yale University's "Chronicles of America" series, and for that she wrote "Pioneers of the Old Southwest" in 1919 and "Adventures in Oregon" in 1920. With two colleagues, Clark Wissler and William C. H. Wood, she wrote "Adventures in the Wilderness" for the Yale "Pageant of America" series. She next wrote a series of adventure stories for children, all based on her life growing up on the Canadian frontier.

After that published several novels and in 1930 published a well-received poetry collection, "Songs of the Coast Dwellers". .

She was considered an authority on frontier life, and in 1935 she proposed to the publishing firm of Farrar & Rinehart that she edit a series of historical works on the major rivers of North America.

They accepted, and the first volume in the series, "Kennebec: Cradle of Americans", was published in 1937.