through a similar series of changes. In 2006 Black Moss Press published There Was a Mr. Cristi, a previously unknown novel discovered by Knister's daughter Imogen. In it, Knister tells the tale of a woman who leaves her husband in 1930s Ontario, and moves to Toronto to open a boarding house. "What follows is a fascinating tale of life in the 1930s in a house that is inhabited by all these bizarre characters. In the background is the 'tall and dark and good looking' Mr. Cristi, and we begin to wonder if we will ever come to know him. He is shrouded in mystery as the characters in this rambling old house come alive vividly for us." "Of Knister's many short stories, probably the best known is 'Mist-green oats', about a young man's break with his life on the family farm. His stories recurrently focus on some form of psychological initiation." For example, "The First Day of Spring," which "dramatizes the moment when an adolescent farmboy moves from imagining love's pleasures to learning about its possible horrors (a baby's murder, or at least a savage accident) and his naiveté gives way to a need for order." Poetry Knister's imagist nature poetry includes "such poems as 'The Hawk,' 'Boy Remembers in the Field,' 'Lake Harvest,' 'A Row of Stalls,' and 'The Plowman,' which vividly depict rural experience and the Canadian landscape. In both his poetry and his fiction Knister presented sharply realistic portrayals of everyday images and events in order to illustrate their exceptional qualities, and communicated these impressions in a conversational language style." Also read the hokku-like "Reverie: The Orchard on the Slope," the metaphysical "Change", and the whimsical "The Quiet Snow." Though the nationalist in him sometimes warned against Americanization, King was also a prime example of the increasing importance of American literature as an influence on Canadian writers in the Twenties. Knister served his literary apprenticeship in the American midwest and his poetry, like Carl Sandburg's, was regional and realistic. The American poet for whom Knister showed the highest regard was Edwin Arlington Robinson. In "A Great Poet for Today" Knister praised Robinson for his ability to create characters as well as any novelist and for his skill in adapting his form to suit the character he is describing. Robinson's style he said, "is clear and apparently casual, fitting the matter as well-made garments fit a form. It