Duncan Campbell Scott (1862-1947), major Canadian writer and member of the "Confederation Poets," was born and lived in Ottawa. In the Department of Indian Affairs he eventually gained the highest non-elected position. Early books were "The Magic House, and Other Poems" (1893) and "In the Village of Viger" (1896), prose about French Canadians. He published eight books of poetry between 1893 and 1935. His topics were quintessentially Canadian and the struggles of Canada's northern inhabitants.

Originally published in 1896, In the Village of Viger was Duncan Campbell Scott's inaugural collection of short stories. Focusing on the daily lives and vicissitudes of the people in a small Quebec town at the turn of the century, In the Village of Viger has been hailed as a sensitive and realistic evocation of Canadian rural life. By deftly creating a system of themes, motifs, charecters, and symbols, that recur, throughout the closely interlinked short stories, In the Village of Viger anticipates other Canadian short-story cycles such as Stephen Leacock's Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town.