Coningsby Dawson, an Anglo-American novelist and Canadian Field Artillery soldier, was born in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England. Dawson matriculated at Merton College, Oxford, in 1902 and graduated with a second-class degree in Modern History in 1905. He spent a year at Union Seminary studying theology before deciding to pursue a career as a writer. In the same year, he traveled extensively in America, doing special work for English newspapers on Canadian themes. He lived in Taunton, Massachusetts, from 1906 to 1910, when he was appointed literary adviser to the George H. Doran Publishing Company. At his parents' house in Taunton, Massachusetts, he composed poems, short tales, and three novels: Garden Without Walls (1913), which was an immediate hit, and The Raft and Slaves of Freedom. Coningsby stayed in Nelson, British Columbia, in 1906, while traveling around western Canada collecting material for magazine articles. He was struck by the beauty of the Kootenays and sent a message to his brother Reg, inviting him to travel west and try his hand at apple cultivation. Coningsby's father bought 40 acres, and Reg cleared it, constructed a cabin, and planted trees. The ranch, as it was known, became a summer retreat for the family.
