John Moss (1940- ), a Waterloo, Ontario, native now living in Peterborough, is teaches Canadian literature at the University of Ottawa. He has written and edited academic and travel books as well as poetry. Borealis Press has published his book of short stories, "Being Fiction." Other books include: "At the Speed of Light There is Only Illumination: A Reappraisal of Marshall McLuhan;" "Echoing Silence," "Invisible among the Ruins, A Canadian in Ireland," and "The Paradox of Meaning."

John Richardson´s wondrously extravagant frontier romance, Wacousta, was first published in 1832. Since then it has been applauded, ignored, restored again to critical favour and celebrated as a national treasure. Yet it is a novel to be appreciated rather than revered. Too much solemnity might obscure the exuberant recklessness of the text, the blood-chilling bravado of the author´s achievement. The genius of Wacousta is that it invites all manner of critical speculation yet refuses to submit to any one construct or approach. Wacousta is not a meditation. It is a gothic tale of dishonour, revenge and enduring passion, of horror, terror and moral perversity, of weird sexuality and bizarre violence. For all of that, it is a profoundly Canadian novel, written by a man who, with only slight exaggeration, describes himself as our first native-born novelist, published years before Canada became a nation. In this volume, comprehensive biographical and bibliographical information is provided; and the pleasures of an authoritative text are reflected in the insights, enthusiasms and illuminating explications in a wide range of critical commentary by the following: Carl Ballstadt, David R. Beasley, A.C. Casselman, Douglas Daymond, Dennis Duffy, Carole Gerson, Michael Hurley, Manina Jones, Carl Klinck, Robert Lecker, Gaile McGregor, Leslie Monkman, John Moss, Margot Northerly, James Reaney, and William Riddell.