Coningsby Dawson (1883 - 1959) was an Anglo-American novelist and soldier, Canadian Field Artillery, born at High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England. Dawson attended Merton College, Oxford, matriculating in 1902 and taking a second class degree in Modern History in 1905. He went to America, where he did special work for English newspapers on Canadian subjects, traveling widely during the period. He lived at Taunton, Massachusetts, from 1906 to 1910, when he became literary adviser to the George H. Doran Publishing Company. At his parents' home in Taunton, Massachusetts, he wrote poems, short stories and three novels: Garden Without Walls (1913), an immediate success, followed by The Raft and Slaves of Freedom. In 1906 while travelling in western Canada collecting material for magazine articles Coningsby stayed in Nelson, British Columbia. He was impressed with the beauty of the Kootenays and sent a telegram to his brother Reg, encouraging him to come west and try his hand at apple growing. Coningsby's father purchased 40 acres and Reg cleared the land, built a cabin and planted trees. The ranch, as it was called, became a summer destination for the family. In his wartime letters home Con fondly recalls the time spent at the ranch as he gazes at the moon from the battlefield trenches. Less