Robert James Campbell Stead (4 September 1880 - 1959) was born at Middleville, Ontario. The family homesteaded at Cartwright, Manitoba in 1882. Robert J.C. Stead began a weekly newspaper in Cartwright in 1899, at the age of 18 years. His first book, The Empire Builders and Other Poems was published in 1908 and for the next 23 years, until 1931, he continued a steady flow of novels, short stories and books of verse, which enriched the portraiture of Canadian prairie life.