The Prat Sisters: Free Spirits of the 1890s

Bliss Carman was introduced to the Prat sisters in the late 1880s by his cousin, Charles G.D. Roberts. Charles's brother, Goodridge, was engaged to be married to Minnie Prat. Bliss Carman was particularly taken with Annie, whom he nicknamed 'Nancy.' In his playful poem about the Prat family, "Kelly's Kalendar" (1889), Carman wrote: "N is for Nancy, and there your heart goes!" He soon became a close friend of the Prat sisters and a frequent visitor at 'Acadia Villa,' the Prat family home in Wolfville.

Date: Published in Bliss Carman and Richard Hovey, More Songs from Vagibondia (Boston and London, 1896)

Credit: Dalhousie University Archives and Special Collections

Reference:  Dalhousie University Archives and Special Collections  PS8455 A76 M67 1896a