Help me out here, people.

I cannot find any biographical information about Blanche I. Pownall. We only know that she published a poem in the Lethbridge Herald (or, more likely, the Lethbridge Herald published a poem of hers); at least two in the Canadian Poetry Magazine; and is included in the volume Poems for the Interim (1946), a collection of poetry previously published in Saturday Night magazine (Toronto).

It is possible that she was the same person as Blanche Pownall Garrett, who wrote a number of books about cooking and food harvesting in the 1970s and 80s, and whose fonds are at York University; the similarity in names is highly suggestive. We know very little about Blanche Pownall Garrett, either, and the finding aid at York is one of the few not yet digitized. And I am in Vancouver.

A couple of points complicate the issue: in June 1946, Blanche Pownall Garrett published a poem, “As a Little Child,” in the Canadian Poetry Magazine, and in the late 1940s, she appears to have authored the lyrics to two songs, with music by W.H. Anderson: “The Torchbearers” (Western Music, 1948) and “To a Girl on Her Birthday” (Western Music, 1949). This does strongly suggest that they are the same person, but we have no real verification of that assumption.

So, while Blanche I. Pownall is obviously not a prolific and significant Canadian poet, the overlap with Blanche Pownall Garrett is preying on my brain and I would greatly appreciate any evidence that these are, in fact, the same woman.

Here is the poem Blanche I. Pownall published in the Lethbridge Herald on 20 January 1944, p. 8.