Thomas Chandler Haliburton

Born Dec. 17, 1796, in Windsor, Nova Scotia; died Aug. 27, 1865, in Isleworth, England. Canadian author. Wrote in English.

Haliburton was educated at law. As a young man, he supported Liberal Party views; he later became a Tory. His interest in Canadian economic and political life is revealed in his works A General Description of Nova Scotia (1823, published anonymously) and An Historical and Statistical Account of Nova Scotia (1829). Haliburton became famous with the publication of his series of satirical sketches The Clockmaker, or Sayings and Doings of Samuel Slick ofSlickville (1835; separate edition, 1836), which is filled with pithy folk humor. The work’s hero is a sly and coarse, yet resourceful and practical Yankee.