James De Mille (1833-1880) was a professor at Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia, and an early Canadian writer who published numerous works of popular fiction from the late 1860s through the 1870s. He attended Horton Academy in Wolfville and spent one year at Acadia University. He then travelled with his brother to Europe, spending half a year in England, France and Italy. On his return to North America, he attended Brown University, from which he obtained a Master of Arts degree in 1854. He married Anne Pryor, daughter of the president of Acadia University, John Pryor, and was there appointed professor of classics. He served there until 1865 when he accepted a new appointment at Dalhousie as professor of English and rhetoric. His most popular work with contemporaries, and the work for which he is known today, is A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder, which was serialized posthumously in Harper's Weekly in 1888. Other works included: Helena's Household (1867), Cord and Creese (1869), The Lady of the Ice (1870) and The American Baron (1872).