“Jeanne Mance: Founder of Hotel Dieu, Montreal,” by Dorothy Sproule

Sproule, Dorothy. “Jeanne Mance: Founder of Hotel Dieu, Montreal.” Montreal in Verse: An Anthology of English Poetry by Montreal Poets. Ed. Writers of the Poetry Group. Montreal; QB: Canadian Authors Association; 1942. 39.

Montreal in Verse: An Anthology of English Poetry by Montreal Poets. Ed. Writers of the Poetry Group. Montreal; QB: Canadian Authors Association; 1942. 39.

The Makers of Canadian Literature series from Ryerson Press

Going through the description of the Ryerson Press Textual Records archive at Ryerson University, I was puzzled to discover references to a number of titles by our authors—many in the Makers of Canadian Literature series—that seem never to have been published. Delving a bit deeper, I discovered a 1985 article by Margery Fee, currently at the University of British Columbia, exploring the history of the Makers of Canadian Literature series, conceptualized and edited by Lorne Pierce. (Margery Fee, “Lorne Pierce, Ryerson Press, and The Makers of Canadian Literature Series,” Papers of The Bibliographical Society of Canada 24.1 (1985): 51-69).

Among other fascinating information, Fee informs us that of the intended forty volume series, only twenty-eight manuscripts were written, and of those only thirteen were ultimately published. She discusses the various business decisions made, and difficulties that faced the project, ultimately resulting in its cessation by the end of 1926, only three years after its inception. From a business point of view, it was a failure. Ryerson Press evidently paid $500 for each title: $400 upon completion and $100 upon publication. This amounts to $6000 for unpublished works in the series, most of which now moulder in the Lorne and Edith Pierce Collection in the archives at Queen’s University in Kingston, ON. As Fee points out, though, despite the seeming failure of this early project, Lorne Pierce’s advocacy of Canadian literature as a distinctive entity is the foundation upon which projects like ours are built.

Fee’s article is meticulously presented, but adding the Ryerson Press Textual Records description to her statistics suggests that at least forty-two titles were intended. To satisfy my own curiosity regarding this apparent anomaly, and to determine which of our authors wrote for the series without being published, I created a chart from the combined resources of the article and the Ryerson Press papers. Here is the result.

Five of our authors were contracted to write titles for this series; three manuscripts were submitted; only Katherine Hale’s biography of Isabella Valancy Crawford was ultimately published. (How significant is it, I wonder, that “Katherine Hale” was the pseudonym of Amelia Beers Warnock Garvin, wife of publisher and literary critic John Garvin, who collaborated somewhat with Lorne Pierce on the project?)

Items found only in the Ryerson Press Textual Records are indicated by an asterisk.*

Subject	Author	Status
Abbé Henri Casgrain	Seraphin Marion	intended but not written
Albert Durrant Watson	Margaret Lawrence	intended but not written
Antoine Gérin-Lajoie (1925-26)	Louvigny de Montigny	published
Archibald Lampman	Duncan Campbell Scott	typeset but not published
Arthur Stringer	Grace Blackburn	written but not published
Arthur Stringer (1941)	Victor Laurison	co-published by Bobbs-Merrill in the USA; RPTR notes that this volume was by Arthur Stringer himself, “written in part by Victor Laurison”
Bliss Carman	Rufus H. Hathaway	intended but not written
Charles G.D. Roberts (1925)	James Cappon	published
Charles Heavysege	Edmund Kemper Broadus	written but not published
Charles Mair	John W. Garvin	written but not published
Dean Harris	Thomas O’Hagan	written but not published
Dictionary of Canadian Literature	Lorne Pierce, Victor Morin, and Thomas Guthrie Marquis	intended but not written
Duncan Campbell Scott*	O. Pelham Edgar	intended but never published
E. Pauline Johnson	Ethel T. Raymond	written but not published
Etienne Parent	Abbé Camille Roy	intended but not written
Fifty Years Retrospect*	Lawrence J. Burpee	intended but never published
François Xavier Garneau (1925-26)	Gustave Lanctôt	published
George Frederick Cameron	Richard Albert Wilson	written but not published
Gilbert Parker	Lorne Pierce	written but not published
Isabella Valancy Crawford (1923)	Katherine Hale (ABW Garvin)	published
James DeMille	Lawrence J. Burpee	intended but not written
John Richardson (1923)	William Renwick Riddell	published
Joseph Howe	John D. Logan	written but not published
Joseph Howe	Garnet Gladwin Sedgewick	intended but not written
Literary Backgrounds: French-Canadian	Victor Morin	intended but not written
Literary Backgrounds: Indian	Marius Barbeau	written but not published
Literary Backgrounds: The Lakes	William Stewart Wallace	intended but not written
Literary Backgrounds: The Maritime Provinces	Ray Palmer Baker	intended but not written
Literary Backgrounds: The West	Paul A.W. Wallace	intended but not written
Louis Honoré Fréchette*	Blodwen Davis	intended but not written
Louis Honoré Fréchette (1925)	Henri d’Arles (Henri Beaudré)	published
Marjorie Pickthall	Pelham Edgar	intended but not written
Norman Duncan	Andrew Macphail	written but not published
Octave Crémazie	Pierre Dupuy	intended but not written
Peter McArthur (1923)	William Arthur Deacon	published
Philippe Aubert de Gaspé	Aegidius Fauteux	intended but not written
Ralph Connor	Robert Stead	written but not published
Robert Norwood (1923)	Albert Durrant Watson	published
Robert Service	Arthur L. Phelps	intended but not written
Stephen Leacock (1923)	Peter McArthur	published
The Strickland Sisters	Lorne Pierce	written but not published
Thomas Chandler Haliburton (1925)	John D. Logan	published
William Henry Drummond (1925)	John Ford MacDonald	published
William Kirby (1923)	William Renwick Riddell	published
William Wilfred Campbell	Thomas Guthrie Marquis	published
	Victor Morin	contracted as associate editor for the French collection

“The Ghost,” by Gertrude MacGregor Moffat

Moffat, Gertrude MacGregor. “The Ghost.” A Book of Verse (Toronto: Macmillan, 1924): 17.

“The Legend of the Old House,” by Frances Corey Thompson

Thompson, Frances Corey. “The Legend of the Old House.” Montreal in Verse: An Anthology of English Poetry by Montreal Poets. Ed. Writers of the Poetry Group (Montreal; QC: Canadian Authors Association; 1942): 41-42.

“Rest,” by Jennie E. Haight

Haight, Jennie. E. “Rest.” Selections from Canadian Poets: With Occasional Critical and Biographical Notes, and an Introductory Essay on Canadian Poetry. Ed. Edward Hartley Dewart (Montreal: Lovell, 1864).

We don’t know very much about Jennie Haight, but she is also included in Edward Dewart’s Canadian Speaker and Elocutionary Reader (Toronto: Miller, 1868) as well as a number of magazines across Canada. Our notes record that she “appeared in nearly every newspaper in Canada,” but we’re still searching for verification of this. We do know she was a correspondent for The Boston Olive Branch and published in the Maple Leaf magazine (Toronto), but any further information would be welcome.

“Redpath Crescent,” by Amy Redpath Roddick

Roddick, Amy Redpath. “Redpath Crescent.” Montreal in Verse: An Anthology of English Poetry by Montreal Poets. Ed. Writers of the Poetry Group (Montreal; QB: Canadian Authors Association; 1942) 37.

Redpath Crescent is, not surprisingly, the neighbourhood in which Amy Redpath grew up. The fortunes of the Redpaths, one of the ore affluent families in Montreal in their time, was sugar: even today, Redpath Sugar can be found in cupboards across the country. If you care to search a bit, you can find stories and images of the extended Redpath family scattered about the internet, most notably on McCord Museum’s website. Of interest is that three of our authors are related through the Redpaths: Amy was the daughter of John Redpath Jr; Lily Dougall was the daughter of his sister Elizabeth Redpath; and Amy and Lily’s cousin William married author Beatrice Constance Peterson.

Here is McCord’s photo of John Redpath’s house, c1880 (© McCord Museum, II-338494.0.1); John Redpath, founder of the sugar empire, was Amy’s grandfather.

The Montreal in Pictures website devotes some space to Redpath Crescent, which is still “an enclave of large (and expensive) mansions.”