A poem for June 28 by Emily Clarke

Clarke, Mrs. W.N. [Emily]. [Entry for June 28]. Canadian Birthday Book. Ed. Seranus [Susan Frances Harrison]. Toronto: Robinson, 1887.

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The Canadian Geographical Journal

Early issues of the Canadian Geographical Journal (which in 1978 became simply Canadian Geographic) included some biographical information about the contributors. As you can imagine, this is of great interest to our project, even moreso when the biographies (volumes 1.2 through 6.4) include photos. Most of the female authors in the Canadian Geographical Journal will not have full-length entries in our project—in some cases this is the only publication we know of—but that doesn’t stop me wanting to share their photos and biographies.

Agnes Joynes, Canadian Geographical Journal 4.3 (March 1932): 167

Alice MacKay, Canadian Geographical Journal 6.1 (January 1933): 27

Alice Wetherell, Canadian Geographical Journal 2.2 (February 1931): 90

Clara L.K. Holmes. Canadian Geographical Journal 1.3 (July 1930): 269

E. Cora Hind. Canadian Geographical Journal 2.4 (April 1931): 271

Edith Armstrong Nelson Davis, Canadian Geographical Journal 6.3 (March 1933): 135

Elizabeth Church, Canadian Geographical Journal 6.1 (January 1933): 49

Ethel Kirk Grayson, Canadian Geographical Journal 2.2 (February 1931): 135

Grace Hamilton Hatheway, Canadian Geographical Journal 3.6 (December 1931): 411

Gertrude Dutremblay Baskin, Canadian Geographical Journal 5.3 (September 1932): 173

Helen Creighton, Canadian Geographical Journal 3.1 (July 1931): 65

Helen V. Kerr, Canadian Geographical Journal 1.3 (July 1930): 253

Henrietta Wilson, Canadian Geographical Journal 1.3 (July 1930): 207

Leslie Bell, Canadian Geographical Journal 4.5 (May 1932): 317

Mabel Crews Ringland, Canadian Geographical Journal 6.4 (April 1933): 185

Madge Macbeth, Canadian Geographical Journal 3.2 (August 1931): 129

Marianne Grey Otty, Canadian Geographical Journal 1.3 (July 1930): 239

Norah Holden, Canadian Geographical Journal 5.1 (July 1932): 39

Ruth D. Golman, Canadian Geographical Journal 3.5 (November 1931): 339

Sylvia A. Silver, Canadian Geographical Journal 4.6 (June 1932): 381

Sylvia Seeley, Canadian Geographical Journal 1.2 (June 1930): 176

Sepass Poems: Songs of Y-All-Mihth (1963), recorded by Eloise Street

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Gerald Sepass, Halkomelem, Khal-agh-il-til, Shup-she, Waupauka LaHurreau

The annual Great Grandview Garage Sale near my home truly was great this year. Poking about, I glimpsed a familiar title on the top of another shopper’s pile. My gasp of recognition caused him to look up, and when I explained that the book was one of our authors’ publication, he relented and let me buy it. For a whopping $2.

It was in fact a first edition of Eloise Street’s collection of poems, translated from songs told to her and her mother, Sophia Street, by Chief K’HHalserten Sepass of the Tsilli-Way-ukh in what is now Chilliwack, BC.

Published in 1963, the book is not yet out of copyright, but I can share with you a small portion. The front matter is particularly fascinating, telling as it does the story of the Tsilli-Way-ukh people, including their interactions with the British missionaries who settled in the area and the mother and daughter team—Sophia White and Eloise White Street—who Chief Sepass solicited to record his people’s songs.

 

“The New Jerusalem,” by Susie Drury

This hand-written poem was sent to us by Simon Pole, Susie Drury’s great-great-grandson. The poem is part of the manuscript of Drury’s Maple Leaves still in the family’s possession; “The New Jerusalem,” however, does not appear in the published version, so this might in fact be its first site of publication.

I have transcribed the text, as far as I can decipher; please write a comment if you have better luck with the two missing words!

There is a city wondrous bright
Beyond the Jordan deep,
Where morn is ne’er eclipsed by night,
Where mourners never weep.
And none may through those portals glide
Nor by those fountains play
[Save?] they who’ve cast the world aside
And heaven’s commands obey.

This is the spot where tears no more
Shall dim the happy eye;
This is the bright [?] shore,
Where none shall say goodbye.

Susie Drury, poet:

A Review of Les Mouches Fantastiques, by Graeme Davis

Davis, Graeme. “Les Mouches Fantastiques: An Essay in Review.” The Lingerer: A Bibelot of Amateur Belle Lettres 10.4 (1919):16-32.

While in Toronto recently, I had lunch with an old friend, Jeffrey Canton, who is co-author (with Marcus Peterson) of a dramatic dialogue about the founders of the early Canadian Queer journal Les Mouches Fantastiques, published in Montreal around 1918. (As an aside: their dramatic dialogue, Coal from Hades, will be part of the Hamilton Fringe Festival, 21-29 July 2017.) One of these founders was Elsie Gidlow, who also wrote the first openly lesbian book of poetry published in North America, On a Grey Thread (1923). Her entry had a note that she contributed to an obscure journal entitled The Lingerer, and in searching for its location, I can across this 1919, rather glowing review of Les Mouches Fantastiques, which I would like to share with you all.

 

“Chimney Stacks,” by Christina Lighthall Henderson

In going through the Canadian Library Association bio-bibliographic files we have recently rediscovered, I found a reference to a book of poetry by Christina Lighthall Henderson that we do not have in any of our records for her. In her survey responses from 1950, she lists The Mountain Cross and Other Poems (1947) as her most recent work, but we cannot find any other reference to it.

This poem, though, was hiding on my hard drive, so I will share it with you now.

Henderson, Christina L. “Chimney Stacks.” Crucible (Autumn 1936): 10.

“The Lost Tribes of America,” by Elmar [Elma] Machan

Machan, Elmar [Elma]. “The Lost Tribes of America.” Forest & Outdoors (February 1942): 56+.

At a conference in Toronto this week, I found at textbook at the University of Regina Press booth, Beginning Cree by Solomon Ratt, and bought it for a good friend of mine, who is Métis. In her case, Métis incorporates Scottish and Cree ancestry, not French and Cree. It was interesting, then, to find this story in the set of scans that Elma Machan’s daughter Vivian Moreau, has recently sent to us.

(A higher resolution image is available upon request.)