Eighteen-year-old Tillie Shantz is soon to be married to Simon Goudie, a spiritually intense young man from her Mennonite community in southwestern Ontario. When the young couple undergo their own transformative experiences, Tillie's interests start to wander to the outside world. Refusing one
day to join her family at church, she stands alone, "feeling life tingle through her arms as she stretched them to some unknown compass point . . . in an ecstasy of well-being." Tillie wrestles with both the personal and spiritual consequences of her actions, eventually leaving the community to live
in a nearby city, where she begins a forbidden relationship with a boy outside the Mennonite faith. Filled with heartbreak, tragedy, and loss, this is also a story of self-discovery and hope during a young woman's most formative years.
Author Luella Creighton, wife of historian Donald
Creighton, had one foot in the Mennonite community through her troubled relationship with her stepmother. She published High Bright Buggy Wheels in 1951, presenting a fascinating look inside the Ontario Mennonite community. Through characters who live insular yet spiritually connected lives,
Creighton wonderfully depicts the deep sense of belonging and community underneath the arduous work and ongoing sense of distrust. Her writing can be considered a predecessor to the works of Miriam Toews, Barbara Smucker, and Rudy Wiebe. The Wynford edition is introduced by Cynthia Flood,
award-winning writer and daughter of the author.
Introduction to the Wynford Edition
High Bright Buggy Wheels
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Luella Creighton (1901-1996) was born in Stouffville, Ontario. After studying at the University of Toronto under E.J. Pratt and at the Sorbonne, she married historian and writer Donald Creighton, with whom she had two children. A writer of fiction, non-fiction, and children's stories, she is
also the author of The Elegant Canadians (1967, reissued in 2013), which depicts high society Canadian life in the years leading to Confederation. The Wynford edition of High Bright Buggy Wheels is introduced by award-winning writer Cynthia Flood, Luella Creighton's daughter.
The Elegant Canadians - The late Luella Creighton
Introduction by Don Wright
The Road to Confederation - The late Donald Creighton and Donald Wright
Canada's First Century (Reissue) - The late Donald Creighton and Donald Wright
The Devil Is a Travelling Man - W. O. Mitchell
Edited by Ormond Mitchell and Barbara Mitchell