This title rests in a bit of a quagmire. I was reviewing our old entry on Margaret Vance Rody, and was troubled by some inconsistencies. “Margaret,” we inform the public, “published several editions of her two books of verses herself, hoping to augment her income.” Looking through the little that can be found online and in the published sources on our shelves, I discovered that the two titles—Gleanings and Beauty and Thought in Verse—are often considered to be subsequent editions of more-or-less the same collection of poems. The truth is a bit more complicated than that.
Margaret Vance Rody self-published Gleanings in 1925, when she working as a telephone operator in Kamsack, Saskatchewan. The poems included therein were apparently all published in the Kamsack Times initially. This claim is supported by the fact that the second edition of Gleanings was published by the Kamsack Times in 1931. We do not have a copy of the 1925 first edition: as far as the SFU Library specialists can discover, none is extant. We do have the 1931 edition, though, so I listed the poems included in the table below.
In 1942, Margaret Vance Rody released two more volumes of poetry: another collection entitled Gleanings, published by “The Poets Press, The National Poetry Center, ‘Radio City’, Rockefeller Center, New York”; and Beauty and Thought in Verse, published in Vancouver, BC, at the Capitol Printers. The 1942 edition of Gleanings is listed as a “First Edition”; Beauty and Thought in Verse, on the other hand, includes a different publication history: “Published under title Gleanings: 1st edition January 1925; 2nd edition November 1931; 3rd edition February 1942.” It is fairly obvious that what we have here is the difference between the Canadian publication history (including the name change) and the American publication history (which includes only the one printing). Part of this can be explained by the hand-written note in the copy of Gleanings (1942) that Margaret Roy gifted to the University of British Columbia in 1945:
These poems were published in New York after being told by a publisher in Vancouver that Canadian poetry was not wanted by Canadian people.—Margaret Vance Rody
So apparently, shortly after the publication and success (I assume) of the American edition, Margaret Vance Rody was able to sell the idea to a publisher in Vancouver more effectively. It would be interesting to know how that conversation went, and what guided the decisions regarding which poems to include in which editions, for the poems included in the three extant volumes differ significantly. There are drastic changes between the 1931 and 1942 Canadian editions, including the excising of 19 titles. With the 1942 editions, the 27-poem American edition is more-or-less a subset of the 53-poem Canadian edition: only three poems—”Some Day,” “Wreckage of War,” and “You are so Dear to Me”—are unique to the American edition.
Here’s a chart, including—as far as I can determine, as I do not have the complete volumes in my hands—places where poems have been renamed between editions.
| Title | Gleanings 1931 | Gleanings 1942 | Beauty and Thought in Verse 1942 |
| A Grandmother to her Soldier Grandsons | Included | ||
| A Lake Madge Reverie | Included | Included | |
| A Letter From the Frozen North | How Santa’s Queen of the Fairies Brought a Letter from the Frozen North | Included | |
| A Message from Santa | Included | ||
| A Problem | Included | It is to Laugh: A Problem | Included |
| A Reply | Included | Included | |
| A Wish | |||
| A-Rowing on Lake Madge | Included | ||
| And Children Starve Today | Included | Included | Included |
| And Their Reply (second part of “To the Glorious Dead”?) | Included | ||
| Bobbing the Baby’s Hair | Included | ||
| Card of Thanks | Included | Included | |
| Christmas Bells | Included | ||
| Christmas Greetings – 1925 | Included | ||
| Fragments | Included | Hope: Fragments | Included |
| Freedom | Included | ||
| Garden Gossip | Included | Included | |
| Gleanings | Included | Included | |
| God’s Covenant | Included | Included | |
| Gracie Fields | Included | ||
| Grey Eyes and Blue | Included | Included | |
| His Mother’s Prayer | Included | Included | Included |
| Hope | Included | Hope: Some Day | Hope Someday |
| If You Could Know | Included | ||
| Leaves | Included | ||
| Leaves of Memory | Included | ||
| Little Bare Feet | Included | Included | |
| Little Black Bear | Included | Included | |
| Love’s Not Always Blind | Included | Contrasts: Love’s Not Always Blind | Included |
| Love’s Reverie | Included | Included | |
| Maudlin Sentiment | Included | ||
| Memories of Childhood | Included | Included | |
| Message of the Pansy | Included | Included | Included |
| Mother of Mine | Included | ||
| My Irish Flower | Included | Included | |
| My Lodge | Included | Included | Included |
| My Sister’s Keeper | Included | Included | |
| Ode to Spring | Included | ||
| Peace on Earth, Goodwill to Men | Included | ||
| Poppy Day | Included | ||
| Poverty | Included | ||
| Prairie Winds | Included | Included | |
| Redemptive Love | Included | ||
| Reflections of an Old, Old House | Included | Included | |
| Remembrance | Included | Included | |
| Roses of Vancouver | Included | ||
| Silken Hose | It Is To Laugh: Silken Hose | Included | |
| Some Day | Included | ||
| Somehow or Other | Included | ||
| Sonnet | Contrasts: Sonnet | Included | |
| Spotted Curtains | Included | ||
| Spotted Curtains | Included | ||
| Sunshine vs. Raindrops | Included | Included | Included |
| The Anthem | Included | Included | |
| The Beauty Seeker | Included | ||
| The Call of the West | Included | Included | |
| The Canadian Hamlet | To Canadian Hamlet | Included | |
| The Kingdom of Right | Included | ||
| The Palace and the Cottage | Included | ||
| The Price of War | Included | Is this the same as “Wreckage of War”? | |
| The Switchers | Included | ||
| The Trials of Life | Included | ||
| The Wood Folks’ Anthem | Included | Included | |
| The Wreckage of War | Included | ||
| To A Bride | Included | Included | Included |
| To a Little Bird | Included | ||
| To Robert Burns | Included | Included | |
| To the Glorious Dead | Included | Included | |
| To the Pioneer Campers of Lake Madge | Included | ||
| To Wilhelmina Stitch | Included | Included | |
| Transformation | Included | ||
| Wee Marion and the Big Black Night | Included | ||
| Wishes | Included | ||
| Wolves of the Night | Included | ||
| Wreckage of War | Included | ||
| You Are So Dear To Me | Included | ||
| Your Mother’s Love | Included | Included |
