Editing Sinclair Ross

{{Short description|Canadian banker and writer}}
{{More citations needed|date=March 2009}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- For more information see [[:Template:Infobox Writer/doc]]. -->
| name          = Sinclair Ross
| image         = 
| image_size    = 
| alt           = 
| caption       = 
| pseudonym     = 
| birth_name    = James Sinclair Ross
| birth_date    = {{birth date|1908|1|22}}
| birth_place   = near [[Shellbrook, Saskatchewan]], Canada
| death_date    = {{nowrap|{{death date and age|1996|2|29|1908|1|22}}}}
| death_place   = [[Vancouver]], [[British Columbia]], Canada
| resting_place = Indian Head, Saskatchewan, Canada
| occupation    = banker, author
| language      = English
| education     = 
| alma_mater    = 
| period        = 
| genre         = fiction
| subject       = Canadian prairies
| movement      = 
| notableworks  = ''[[As For Me and My House]]''
| spouse        = 
| partner       = 
| children      = 
| relatives     = 
| influences    = 
| influenced    = 
| awards        = [[Order of Canada]]
| signature     = 
| signature_alt = 
| website       = 
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}}
'''James Sinclair Ross''', [[Order of Canada|CM]] (January 22, 1908 – February 29, 1996) was a Canadian banker and author, who wrote novels and short fiction about life on the [[Canadian Prairies]].<ref>Kent Mitchell, [http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/sinclair-ross/ "Sinclair Ross"]. ''[[The Canadian Encyclopedia]]'', April 10, 2008.</ref> He is best known for his first novel, ''[[As For Me and My House]]''.

==Life and career==
Ross was born on a [[Homestead (buildings)|homestead]] near [[Shellbrook, Saskatchewan]]. When he was seven, his parents separated, and he lived with his mother on a number of different farms during his childhood, going to school in [[Indian Head, Saskatchewan|Indian Head]], Saskatchewan. He left school after Grade 11 and in 1924 he joined the [[Union Bank of Canada]], which became part of the [[Royal Bank of Canada]] a year later. At first, he worked in a number of small towns in Saskatchewan, then moved to [[Winnipeg]], [[Manitoba]] in 1933 where he wrote and published his most famous novel ''As For Me and My House''. In 1946 he moved to [[Montreal]], [[Quebec]] after spending four years in the [[Canadian Army]] during World War II. He remained with the Royal Bank until his retirement in 1968, after which he spent some time in Spain and Greece before moving to a nursing home in [[Vancouver]], [[British Columbia]], where he lived until his death.

''As For Me and My House,'' set in an isolated town on the Prairies during the [[Great Depression]], was published in 1941. At first not much noticed, it went on to become a Canadian literary classic and set the precedent for the genre of Canadian prairie fiction. He wrote three more novels during his lifetime, as well as a few anthologies of short stories, none of which became as well known as his first novel. He is known to have destroyed manuscripts of novels that his publisher rejected, including a sequel to ''Sawbones Memorial''.

His short story "The Painted Door" was adapted by [[Atlantis Films]] as the short film ''[[The Painted Door]]'', which was an [[Academy Award]] nominee for [[Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film|Best Live Action Short Film]] at the [[57th Academy Awards]] in 1985.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Oscar Nominations Give Canada the Nod Once More|journal=Cinema Canada|date=March 1985|issue=116|page=48}}</ref>

A monument in his honour has been erected in Indian Head by Saskatchewan artists and readers, with a bronze statue sculpted by [[Joe Fafard]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia | title = Ross, Sinclair (1908–96) | encyclopedia = Encyclopaedia of Saskatchewan | publisher = Canadian Plains Research Center, University of Regina | year = 2006 | url = http://esask.uregina.ca/entry/ross_sinclair_1908-96.html | accessdate = 2009-05-10 | archive-date = 2017-06-15 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170615150904/http://esask.uregina.ca/entry/ross_sinclair_1908-96.html | url-status = dead }}</ref>

In 1992, he was made a Member of the [[Order of Canada]]. He died in 1996, having had  [[Parkinson's disease]], and was buried in Indian Head. The year after his death his [[homosexuality]] became public knowledge for the first time, as a result of [[Keath Fraser]]'s biography ''As For Me and My Body: A Memoir of Sinclair Ross'' (1997).<ref>[[Lorna Crozier]], [https://quillandquire.com/review/as-for-me-and-my-body-a-memoir-of-sinclair-ross/ "As for Me and My Body: A Memoir of Sinclair Ross"]. ''[[Quill & Quire]]'', March 1997.</ref>

==Bibliography==

===Novels===
*''[[As For Me and My House]]'' (1941)
*''[[The Well (1958 novel)|The Well]]'' (1958)
*''[[Whir of Gold]]'' (1970)
*''[[Sawbones Memorial]]'' (1974)

===Short stories===
* ''The Lamp at Noon and other stories.'' [[Queen's Quarterly]], 1938; reed. 1968; reed. [[McClelland and Stewart]], 1988; reed. [[Penguin Modern Classics]], 2018
** "One's a Heifer"
** "The Painted Door"
*** in German: ''Die frisch gestrichene Tür,'' in ''Kanada erzählt''. Transl. Walter E. Riedel. Fischer Taschenbuch 10930, Francfort 1992, pp.&nbsp;9–32
** "The Lamp at Noon".<ref>[http://blogs.ubc.ca/lled4492015/files/2015/03/TheLampAtNoon.pdf one story]</ref>
*** in German: ''Die Lampe am Mittag,'' in ''Kanadische Erzähler der Gegenwart.'' Transl. Walter E. Riedel. Manesse, Zurich 1986, pp.&nbsp;339–358;  and in ''Die weite Reise. Kanadische Erzählungen und Kurzgeschichten.'' Transl. Karl Heinrich. Volk und Welt, Berlin 1974, pp.&nbsp;103–117
** "Cornet At Night"  
***In 1963 the [[National Film Board of Canada]] produced a 15-minute film based on the story.
***In 1983, [[Bruce Pittman]] directed a television film based on the story.
** "A Field of Wheat"
** "A Day with Pegasus"
** "Nell"
** "The Outlaw"

==References==
{{reflist}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ross, Sinclair}}
[[Category:1908 births]]
[[Category:1996 deaths]]
[[Category:Canadian bankers]]
[[Category:Canadian military personnel of World War II]]
[[Category:Canadian male novelists]]
[[Category:Deaths from Parkinson's disease in Canada]]
[[Category:Canadian gay writers]]
[[Category:Members of the Order of Canada]]
[[Category:Novelists from Saskatchewan]]
[[Category:Royal Bank of Canada people]]
[[Category:Canadian LGBTQ novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century Canadian novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century Canadian male writers]]
[[Category:Writers from Winnipeg]]
[[Category:Neurological disease deaths in British Columbia]]
[[Category:20th-century Canadian LGBTQ people]]
[[Category:Gay novelists]]
[[Category:Novelists from Manitoba]]