Immortal Air, A Novel

Tracey Rombough

Available in many bookstores and on-line. Also available for your e-reader from Kobo, Kindle store and Apple iTunes. International customers can find the book on Amazon (ANZO: thenile.com.au).

Biographical Fiction

Praise for Immortal Air

“Tracey Rombough takes her readers on an imaginative journey through the life of a struggling and largely forgotten poet in the years following confederation. Despite George Cameron’s shortcomings we yearn to know what becomes of him. Along the way Rombough gives us insights into the lives of those in the new Canadian middle class–the imperatives that drive the men and the constrictions that define the women. Rombough taps into the timeless struggle between societal and familial expectations and personal desire in a way we can all relate to.” Linda Little, author of Grist and Scotch River.

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Bright and promising as a student, George Cameron was sent to live with his sister in Boston while he attended a prestigious Latin school and later the Boston School of Law. It was what his mother wanted for him and his brother, Charley. It was what any well-bred family would want for an intelligent son destined for greater things than his humble New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, upbringing. On his journey to find his voice among the great poets of the 19th century, George had to leave behind his first love, a muse who haunted his thoughts and fuelled his passion for poetry throughout his life.

Law clerk, journalist, poet, George’s life often seemed to fall short of the dreams of fame he secreted in his private journals, yet his poetry remained ever-present in a mind churning with words and feeling.

George Cameron teamed up with Oscar Telgmann to write the longest-running Canadian opera, Leo: The Royal Cadet. It was his steadfast brother Charley who shared George’s work in the posthumous publication of Lyrics on Freedom, Love and Death (1887).