“Dying as a Liberation of Consciousness,” by Leslie Grant Scott

Scott, Leslie Grant. “Dying as a Liberation of Consciousness.” Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research (1931), 113-17.

Leslie Grant Scott (b.1887) insinuated herself into our project by virtue of her Canadian father and husband. The Light of Genius, her only book, was published in Toronto, and she later lived for a portion of her life in Ottawa, but for the most part she lived abroad or in Chicago, Illinois, where she had been raised by her maternal grandparents after her own parents’ untimely deaths in the early 1890s.

After marriage, she spent a great deal of time abroad—mainly in Asia, where she “died” from a tropical illness and “came back from the dead.” Her testimony, posted here, continues to be a popular case-study of near-death-experiences and out-of-body experiences.

Martha Craig: Scientist, Author, Charletan?

As promised, here is the fifth and final of our “Adventures in Research,” previously published on the now-defunct CWRC project blog. This was written by one of our research assistants, Lindsay Bannister, and represents only a small portion of the information she has amassed about Martha Craig over the years. This research has been supported by the invaluable contributions of historian Nevin Taggart, of County Antrim, Ireland, whence Craig’s family hails.

Martha Craig’s Story of Reincarnation

by Lindsay Bannister

Martha Craig as Princess Ye-wa-go-no-nee. (Legends of the North Land, frontispiece)

Days after his death, an article in the North Bay Nugget revealed the true identity of writer, lecturer and conservationist Grey Owl (Archie Belaney) (1888-1938). While Grey Owl publicly identified himself as the son of an Apache woman and Scottish man, he was, in truth, an English man fascinated by North American indigenous cultures.   Nearly forty years prior to this revelation, the Irish-born writer, explorer, and scientist Martha Craig (b. c1875) lectured to crowded halls and auditoriums in Toronto, New York and Washington D.C. as Princess Ye-wa-go-no-nee. “Will you believe me,” Craig asked an audience in Brooklyn, “when I tell you that in the life before this one, I was a Canadian Indian girl [?]”

Craig’s complicated life story is difficult to piece together. Newspaper reports detail the story of an intelligent child born in County Antrim in present-day Northern Ireland. Craig’s family sent her to England and France for formal schooling. The writer developed an interest in the sciences; however, she eventually pursued a career in journalism because it allowed her the freedom to travel. In the late 1890s, Craig left Ireland for the United States, where she might have encountered President William McKinley. Craig’s interest in indigenous cultures led her to Canada where, in Northern Ontario, she met Anishinaabe chief Buhgwujjenene (d. 1900) and (possibly) resided with the Ketegaunseebee or Garden River First Nation. According to an article in The Friend, Craig was adopted into the Nation and given the name Enookwashooshah meaning “Brave One.” (“Princess Ye-wa-go-no-nee” was later adopted as part of Craig’s on-stage persona.)

Two years later, in March 1902, Princess Ye-wa-go-no-nee entertained two thousand spectators in Toronto’s Massey Hall with a lantern show titled “1,000 miles in a canoe in the land of Hiawatha.” In 1905, Craig gained considerable attention for her trek to Labrador. Newspapers describe Craig as the first woman to explore Labrador. (In truth, Craig’s journey may coincide with Mina Hubbard’s own extraordinary expedition; in her journal, Hubbard refers to “Miss Craig,” a pesky journalist for Century Magazine.) Afterwards, Craig returned to the lecture circuit; however, her career then veered in an unexpected direction.

“All life is a vibration,” Craig explained to an audience in Brooklyn: “Through this vibration, […] it is possible to separate the soul from the body, or to live continuously. Therefore, […] it is a crime to die of disease or old age” (“Girl’s Weird Story about Reincarnation”). In this same lecture, she outlined her theories about reincarnation, describing her past life as Meta, the daughter of the chief of a Labrador tribe. The lecturer was an easy target for cheeky reporters but, incredibly, her inquiries into the nature of gravity and the aurora borealis garnered the attention of researchers at the Académies des sciences in Paris. Craig published her findings (First Principles: A Manifesto of the Vortex Theory of Creation, London: Harrison, 1906) in addition to her book of poems, Legends of the North Land (c1910?).

After 1907, Craig disappears from the public record. While a 1905 New York City census situates the journalist in Brooklyn, few details have emerged in regards to her later career. It is highly possible, given Craig’s frequent wanderings, that she might have left the United States, married, or assumed a new identity. Curiously, cataloguers at the British Library attribute a 1907 book, Men of Mars by “Mithra,” to Martha Craig. Is Mithra our writer?

Because of her brief association with Canada, we will include a short snapshot of Craig in our database. The writer’s connection with Canada might be fleeting; however, her unusual career gestures towards broader issues. Unlike Grey Owl, the writer did not conceal her true identity as Martha Craig of County Antrim, but she did use clothing in order to fashion an indigenous persona. In light of ongoing conversations about clothing, identity, and cultural appropriation, what does Princess Ya-wa-go-no-nee reveal about white settler representations of indigenous cultures? And how does Craig’s strange story tie into the larger legacy of colonialism?

Lindsey Bannister

Works cited

Craig, Martha. “My Summer Outings in Labrador.” Cosmopolitan (July 1905): 325.

“Don’t Die, Vibrate Away.” New York Times (12 December 1905): 7.

“Genealogy of the President.” Chicago Tribune (28 February 1898): 1.

“Girl’s Weird Story about Reincarnation.” Amador Ledger (15 June 1906): 1.

Hubbard, Mina. The Woman Who Mapped Labrador: The Life and Expedition Diary of Mina Hubbard. (Montreal, QC: McGill-Queen’s UP, 2005): 335.

“Noble Words of a Dying Indian Chief.” The Friend (22 December 1900): 178.

Addendum

Lindsay wrote part of a subsequent blog, but it was never published. Still, it has some interesting additions to her story of Martha Craig.

Filling in the Gaps

A few weeks ago, I wrote a blog post detailing the remarkable life of Martha Craig. Craig was an Irish-born poet, scientist, and explorer whose lectures provoked Canadian and American audiences. Since then, Karyn Huenemann (Data Entry Supervisor for the Canada’s Early Women Writers project) and I have discovered more information about this unusual figure: around 1907, Craig abandoned her North American lecture circuit and travelled to Europe. After attending the Sorbonne, she became one of the first women to lecture at the University of Salamanca, until her academic career was cut short by the First World War. Craig returned to France as a nurse. After the war, the shell-shocked writer travelled back to her family home in North Ireland, where she lived in relative peace and stability until her death in 1950.

We must thank Craig’s great niece, Anne Milliken, and Nevin Taggart, of the North Antrim Local Interest List, for clarifying some of the murkier details of her life story. Without Anne and Nevin’s help we would not have discovered that the poet was also a pioneer in aeronautical engineering, who, according to a signed declaration dated 1914, worked to improve the design of dirigibles (as the document suggests, these improvements were of potential interest to the British Government—whether or not the British military used these designs is yet to be determined).

“To Audrey Alexandra Brown,” Irene H. Moody

Moody, Irene H. “To Audrey Alexandra Brown.” Attar of Song (Toronto: Macmillan, 1936): 23.

This is Irene Moody’s tribute to Audrey Alexandra Brown, born this day in Nanaimo, BC, in 1904.

“Spinning Wheels and Homespun” (1923), but Helen Ernestine Williams

Williams, Helen E. “Spinning Wheels and Homespun.” Spinning Wheels and Homespun (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1923).

The title piece of this collection of nostalgic sketches of pioneer life is somewhat reminiscent of Susanna Moodie’s Roughing It in the Bush (1852), but far from deserving to be the classic that Moodie’s work is. It is mostly descriptive, with two little anecdotes thrown in—neither of which is actually very worthwhile—but it is nonetheless interesting (at least to me) as part of a much larger, enduring narrative type: the settler narrative. I wonder if anyone has done a catalogue, or even a list, of settler narratives through the years? It would begin with Catherine Parr Traill’s The Backwoods of Canada (1836), and go on until … when? Are there any nostalgic pioneer novels being written for adults today? I know there still are for children (That Boy Red (2011) by Rachna Gillmor, and The Bury Road Girls (2015) by Donna Janson, spring to mind), but it seems possible that the colonial (in today’s political climate, read: imperialist) settler narrative may no longer be a viable narrative option for an adult audience.

Soliloquy, by Lyn Cook

Our copy of Soliloquy was initially signed to the author’s husband Robb (1911-1988) for Christmas 1945. Although no publication information is actually printed in the text, and Lyn Cook said only that her chapbooks were published “in the 1940s,” the inscriptions in Harvest (1944) and Soliloquy (1945) are suggestive. For Fragment, signed only to her niece, Judy Misener, we have no such clues.

Here, then, is that last of Lyn Cook’s three poetry chapbooks, Soliloquy, in searchable pdf and page images.

 

“Panorama for an Anniversary,” by Isabel Elizabeth Henderson

Henderson, Isabel Elizabeth. “Panorama for an Anniversary.” Queen’s Quarterly (Spring 1939): 67-75.

I’m really not too sure what anniversary Isabel Henderson is writing in honour of here. In 1939, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth (the Queen-Mother) visited Winnipeg, where Isabel lived. It was published in the Queen’s University Quarterly, but I can find no reference to 1939 as an important date in Queen’s history. It could be a more personal matter, honouring as it does Isabel’s female forbears back through the ages, tying them into the history of the Scottish in Canada and the Red River Valley.

Regardless of intent, this article has some interesting tidbits of information, with well-known personages thrown in, such as “Tom Carlyle, of whom the world was to hear in later years.” So if you have a Scottish heritage, or hail from Glengarry, Ontario, or the Red River Valley, this might be of great interest.

“One Day’s Ending,” by Agnes M. Foley

It turns out that we have three authors in our project with the last name of Foley: Pearl Foley, who wrote mystery novels and appears in our project; Jean S. Foley, about whom all we know is that she contributed to the Canadian Bookman; and Agnes Mary Foley MacDonald for whom we have not yet written a complete entry although in trying to find more about Pearl Foley I have stumbled across perhaps enough information to be worth digging a bit more deeply. She received an honorary doctorate from a university, one would guess in Nova Scotia, as she lived in Halifax and is buried in Sackville. She was the wife of a prominent lawyer and member of the Liberal Party of Canada, Angus Lewis MacDonald. She contributed to at least eight Canadian periodicals and wrote one novel: Once and Again (1951). And she wrote this poem:

“Ross House,” by Isabel Elizabeth Henderson

Winnipeg remains at the top of my list of places still to visit in Canada. It will likely be a long time before I get there, if ever, so it pleases me when I stumble across writing by one of our authors that makes me delve that little bit more into the fascinating history of the Red River Valley: in this instance, what is now Ross House Museum. Isabel Elizabeth Henderson, about whom we know next to nothing, published this piece in the Winnipeg Free Press on 27 June 1949.