Merrill Denison is held by many to be Canada's first English-language dramatist of note. During the 1920s his short comedies were the highlights of seasons at the Hart House Theatre in Toronto, whose concentration on the production of Canadian plays marked a significant turning point in the establishment of an indigenous Canadian drama. With the Romance of Canada series of radio plays begun in 1931, Denison was one of the pioneers of a form long considered to be Canada's "real" national theater, and later Denison played a similar seminal role in the development of American broadcasting. In the third phase of his writing career, Denison devoted most of his energy to industrial and corporate history.

Denison was born in Detroit on 23 June 1893 to Howard Denison, a commercial traveler, and Flora MacDonald Denison, a dressmaker and prominent suffragette who for some years contributed columns on women's issues to the Sunday...