Robert Harlow is a novelist of British Columbia whose work comprises a significant survey of the province, from small town to big city and from the lives of working men to those of the rich. His most ambitious work to date has been a trilogy about a mythical town in northern British Columbia named Linden. His first three novels make up this trilogy, and the most important of them is the epical Scann (1972), which purports to survey the fifty-year history of the town.

There is little doubt that much of the material for this trilogy was derived from Harlow's years in Prince George, British Columbia, where he grew up. He was born in Prince Rupert, but moved to Prince George in early childhood. His father, Roland Alden Harlow, was a roadmaster on the Canadian National Railway. His mother was Kathleen Isobel Grant Harlow, whose father was moderator of...