Duncan, who grew up in Ontario, led a remarkably varied life, working as a political correspondent (writing for the Washington Post, the Toronto Globe and the Montreal Star) and living in India for over twenty years. She is increasingly being regarded as deserving of a place among the first rank of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century novelists; the re-publication of Set in Authority will do nothing to dispel that view.
Germaine Warkentin is a Professor of English at the University of Toronto. Her special fields are Renaissance and early Canadian literature. She is particularly interested in the literature of exploration; she has published widely in all these fields.