Sinclair Ross was a founding figure of Canadian literature. His novel, As For Me and My House, and short stories, including ‘The Lamp at Noon’ and ‘The Painted Door’, have been widely recognised as defining accounts of life in early- to mid-twentieth century Western Canada. Ross’s work both evokes a modernist context through its focus on the ambiguities of first-person narration, and initiates a nationalist discourse through its depiction of small-town Canadian landscapes and communities. As For Me and My House has been described by Margaret Atwood as ‘archetypally’ Canadian, while fellow Western writer Margaret Laurence credits Ross with showing her that ‘novels could be written here’.