Acknowledgments

First and foremost, my profound thanks to Betty Murray, daughter of Will R. Bird, and to Steve and Heather Murray, for their permission to reprint Bird’s stories, as well as their enthusiasm for this project.

Thanks also to Professor David Williams for his encouragement and help in connecting me with Bird’s family. For help with tracking down copies of Will Bird’s stories: Dianne Landry and the archivists at Dalhousie University; James Calhoun; Raymond Gallant at uMoncton; and Lara Andrews at the Canadian War Museum. For fruitful discussions about Bird and Canadian war literature, Zac Abrams and Jon Weier. For helpful suggestions on early drafts of the introduction, my colleague Laurie Cooper at uMoncton.

Thanks also to the team at Nimbus Publishing, especially editors Emily MacKinnon, Whitney Moran, and Elaine McCluskey, and production manager and designer Heather Bryan.

And to my family: thank you for all your patience and support.