Expired Visa Chased Roderick Haig-Brown Out of U.S.

We mentioned the new book by Van Gorman Egan on Roderick Haig-Brown a couple of weeks ago (see “New Limited Edition Tribute to Roderick Haig-Brown“), but since then a couple of stories have popped up about the book and about how Haig-Brown, who originally intended to settle in Washington state, ended up in B.C. In the Times Colonist, Jack Knox writes that being unable to renew his U.S. visa let him to cross the border into Canada: “Roderick Haig-Brown came out from Britain at age 17, toiling in Washington state as a logger and weekend prizefighter before an expired visa chased him north to Vancouver Island’s Nimpkish River in 1927. Still only 19, he worked in the woods again, but it was writing that got him fired up.”
By the way, if you hanker to experience a little literary history first-hand, you can actually stay in the house formerly owned by Roderick and Ann Haig-Brown on the banks of the Campbell River.
Roderick Haig-Brown on Wikipedia.