Article: The pen and the sword: John Richardson lived hard and died harder. On the way, he wrote the novel that marks the birth of Canadian literature.("Wacousta")(Biography)

At the age of 15 he shook Tecumseh's hand only hours before the great Shawnee leader was killed. By 16 he was a veteran of five military campaigns. A year later he was a prisoner of war. At 19 he sailed to Europe and fought his first duel. The next year found him in uniform in Barbados where he saw the heads of slaves mounted on poles. By 22 he was gambling in the salons of Paris and fighting more duels. He went to war in Spain and was shot three times. He married, separated, remarried and was widowed. In middle age he moved from Canada to New York City where he lived and died in appalling poverty. In the meantime he did something no Canadian had done before--he wrote ...

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