“Ice-lore,” by Lydia Frances Williamson

Scrace, Richard [Lydia Frances Buckland Williamson]. “Ice-lore.” OAC [Ontario Agricultural College] Review 36.6 (February 1924): 6.

Some lists from Poteen: A Pot-pourri of Canadian Essays (1926), by William Arthur Deacon

William Arthur Deacon, Poteen: A Pot-Pourri of Canadian Essays (Ottawa: Graphic, 1926)

In searching for information about one of our authors (Anastatia Hogan), I had occasion to go through a collection of texts by William Arthur Deacon, an eminent Canadian literary critic of the early twentieth century. I found reference to Anastatia in only one of his books (The Four Jameses), but did uncover a couple of other interesting tidbits. One is the appearance of two lists of titles at the end of Poteen: A Pot-Pourri of Canadian Essays (1926) (which, interestingly, was first copyrighted by the author in the USA in 1925, but copyrighted in Canada and published in Ottawa in 1926, but that is another story…). The first list in Poteen is “representative of Canadian literary achievement,” containing books by those authors W.A. Deacon considered important in 1926, but is “limited to books which are reasonably credible and still in print” (221). The second is a list of authors whose poems are included in a number of collections published at the time. (Perhaps this isn’t as interesting to others as it is to me, but let it be said that I have compiled an (incomplete) comparable list that I keep in an Excel spreadsheet.) In our entries for individual authors, we have included Deacon’s collection of collections, but Deacon has actually indexed all of the authors, male and female, in the following titles: (Note, though, that the editors’ names, editions, and publication dates don’t always correspond with the published texts I have held in my hands).

Broadus, E. K., and E. H. Broadus, eds. A Book of Canadian Prose and Verse (Toronto: Macmillan, 1923).

Campbell, Wilfred, ed. The Oxford Book of Canadian Verse (Toronto: Oxford UP, 1913). [Deacon has “Campbell, Logan, Oxford Book, 1913”; the 1913 edition was edited by William Wilfred Campbell alone, although John Edward Logan contributed to the collection significantly.]

Caswell, Edward S., ed. Canadian Singers and Their Songs: A Collection of Portraits, Autograph Poems and Brief Biographies. 3rd ed. (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1925).

Garvin, John W., ed. Canadian Poets, 2nd ed. (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1926).

Lighthall, William Douw, ed. Canadian Poems and Lays (London: Scott, [c1892]).

Rand, Theodore H., ed. A Treasury of Canadian Verse: With Brief Biographical Notes (New York: Dutton, 1900).

Watson, Albert Durrant, and Lorne Pierce, eds. Our Canadian Literature: Representative Verse, English and French (Toronto: Ryerson, 1922). [Deacon has “Watson-Pierce, Our Can Lit., 3rd ed., 1923”; the 3rd edition was actually edited by Bliss Carman and Lorne Pierce, and published in 1934.]

My list, compiled so I could determine which authors were out of copyright, and thereby know which titles I could share on our blog, includes (so far) the following titles:

Canadian Authors Association, Voices of Victory: Representative Poetry of Canada in War-time (Toronto: Macmillan, 1941).

Garvin, John W., ed. Canadian Poets, 1st ed.  (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1916).

Garvin, John W., ed. Canadian Poems of the Great War (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1918).

Maxwell, Lillian Mary Beckwith, ed. River St. John and Its Poets (Sackville, NB: O’Brien, 1947).

Roberts, Charles G.D., ed. Flying Colours (Toronto: Ryerson, 1942).

Stephen, A.M., ed. The Golden Treasury of Canadian Verse, illustrated by E. Wallcousins. 1928 (Toronto: Dent, 1931).

“Book-List” and “Where Canadian Poets May Be Found”

Here are the pages, and the searchable pdf, from Deacon’s pot-pourri.

 

 

 

 

 

William Arthur Deacon on “The Ladies”

Despite it’s condescending title, “The Ladies: God Bless Them!”, a short article in William Arthur Deacon’s The Four Jameses (1927), is important in that it contains reference to some of “the ladies” who interest us: notably Anastatia Hogan.

In going back and revisiting authors we had revised in the SFU database, I noticed that our information about Anastatia Hogan might be erroneous. It might also be exactly true. The problem is, I can’t tell which. It turns out that there were at least three Anastatia (or Anastasia) Hogans born in Newfoundland at the right time to be our author, and we have no concrete evidence about which is the poet Anastatia.

W.A. Deacon’s article does not shed much light on this biographical conundrum, but it does tell us a little about Anastatia Hogan as a poet, and a very little, too, about other female poets of the time.

The opening poem in the article is by Lady Roddick (Amy Redpath Roddick). James McIntyre’s daughter Kate Ruttan is discussed in the text—not surprisingly as he in one of the “four Jameses”—along with only two other women: Anastatia Hogan from Newfoundland, and Lillian Forbes Gunter of Regina, Saskatchewan. Of these, most attention is given to Anastatia Hogan, but we are still left wondering who she was, who her parents were, where she lived, and how poetry was integrated into her fuller life.

We’ll delve a little deeper, of course, but so far we have no way of determining which Anastatia to follow, biographically. If anyone out there has more information, please let us know!

Deacon, William Arthur. “The Ladies: God Bless Them!” The Four Jameses (Ottawa: Graphic, 1927) 181-185.

“Lines to Mrs. Margaret Dixon McDougall,” by Thomas Higginson

Higginson, Thomas Henry. “Lines to Mrs. Margaret Dixon McDougall.” Poetical Works of Thomas Higginson. Vankleek Hill, ON: A.W.Otto, 1888. 77.

A couple of weeks ago, we were contacted by Nancy Guppy, the great-great-granddaughter of Margaret Dixon McDougall, who had some minor edits to make to our original entry, in the static database at SFU. We had not yet revised the entry for inclusion in the new database, so I took on that task. What a complicated family! But between us we have figured it out, I believe.

In searching for information, I came across this poem by Irish-Canadian poet Thomas Higginson, an encomium to Margaret Dixon McDougall, who by this time had moved to Michigan to live with her parents and her half-brother’s family. She subsequently moved to Washington state, and died on a visit to Seattle in 1899.

 

 

“The Praying Mantis,” by Annie Charlotte Dalton

This poem was first published in Annie Charlotte Dalton‘s Lilies and Leopards (1935), which (as I said yesterday) was illustrated by Rowena Pauline Gross. I have no record of where this image came from, nor whether or not it is in Dalton’s hand, but as one of our correspondents was the niece of one of Dalton’s friends, it is possible. Let this be a warning to students out there everywhere to take meticulous notes while researching…

An Index to The Paint Box (1926-1930)

Val Lem at the Ryerson University Library, called to my attention an artist, Rowena Gross, who attended the Vancouver School of Decorative and Applied Art in 1927-28, and published in The Paint Box, a school publication intended to advance interest in the decorative arts, especially in BC.

What makes Rowena Gross particularly interesting to our project is that she also illustrated Lilies and Leopards (Ryerson, 1935) by Annie Charlotte Dalton, as well as designing the cover for Dalton’s The Call of the Carillon (posted earlier on our website).

Val sent me a link to the complete run of The Paint Box, which has been digitized by the Emily Carr University of Art + Design here in Vancouver, so I have diligently gleaned the names of all of the contributors so we could add the women authors to our Database of Canada’s Early Women Writers. The volumes may be useful for artists’ biographers, as they list the names and addresses of students; the 1930 volume also provides short biographies of some graduates. It appears, though, that our Rowena attended for only two years before branching out into her artistic career. I am only beginning to research the finer details of her life, which will be available in our project in a few weeks. The point of this posting is to share with you the comprehensive index of contributors to The Paint Box during its five-year run.

The index below lists all authors and artists identified by name. Dates in isolation indicate a written contribution; other contributions (art, executive committee rolls) are labelled on a separate line.

In addition to the index, I wanted to share this image with you. Each volume has two pages for autographs; in the Emily Carr collection, only in volume 2 (1927) have the autograph pages been used.

 

A Student Potter	1928
Amess, Fred	1928; 1929; 1930 cover design, 1928; woodcut, 1928; linoleum cut, 1929
Atkins, Violet; as Vi Atkins	1929
Bell-Irving, B.	1926
Binning, Bertram	1930 business manager, 1930
Brown, Louise	1930
Carter, Edith	1926
Carter, Margaret	1930
Cianci, Vito; also as V.S. Cianci	1926; 1927; 1928; 1930 editor, 1927; woodcut, 1928
Corry, Margaret	1926; 1927
Cummings, Parke	poem from Saturday Evening Post, 1927
Cuppage, E.M.; also as Mrs. Cuppage	1929
Currie, Ada F.	1928; 1929 woodcut, 1928; linoleum cut, 1929
Davey, Brenda	1926
De Pencier, Betty	1927
Erb, Marion	linoleum cut, 1930
Farley, Lillias	woodcut, 1928
Farmer, Madge	1927; 1928; 1929 editor, 1929; woodcut, 1928; linoleum cut, 1929
Findlater, Betty	1929
Fisher, Orville	linoleum cut, 1930
Fowler, P.M.	1926
Fuller, Phoebe	linoleum cut, 1929
Gatewood, Frances V.	1926; 1927; 1928
Gordon, Mary	linoleum cut, 1930
Gostick, Marg	linoleum cut, 1929
Gross, Rowena	1927; 1928 editorial staff, 1928
Harris, Irene E.	1929 editorial staff, 1929, 1930; linoleum cut, 1929, 1930
Harrison, Katherine	1927; 1928 cover designer, 1927; business manager 1928; woodcut, 1928
Hensman, Dorothy	1926; 1927; 1928
Herchmer, Laurencia A.	1927
Hill, Sybil	1927; 1928 editor, 1928; woodcut, 1928 (often about First Nations: those Hills?)
Hoffar, Irene	1930 woodblock design, 1928; linoleum cut design, 1929; linoleum cut 1930
I.E.H.; likely Irene Harris	1930
I.W.	1930
Jensen, Maude	1926 woodblock design, 1928
Johnson, Ruby; also as R.J., R. Johnson, and Ruby Johnston	1927; 1929
King, Hermione	1926 business manager, 1926
Kirkpatrick, Phillis M.; also as Phyllis	1926; 1927; 1929 woodblock design, 1928; linoleum cut, 1929
Lennie, Beatrice; also B. Lennie and Bee Lennie	1927; 1928; 1930
Lewis, Margaret	1928 woodcut, 1928
Lyne, Marjorie	1929 cover design, 1929
M.A.L.	1927
M.C.	1930
MacDonald, Ione; linoleum cut, 1930
MacDonald, J.W.G.	1927; 1928
MacIntosh, H.	1927
MacPherson, Alice M.; also as Grease-Monkey Al Mac in 1930	1929; 1930 linoleum cut, 1929
Marega, Charles	1926
Mason, Dorothy	linoleum cut, 1929
McGregor, E.	1927
McKechnie, Eleanor	1929
Meilleur, Peter	business manager, 1927; editorial staff, 1928; woodcut, 1928
Melvin, Grace W.	1928. 1929; 1930
Moore, Ellen M.	1926; cover design, 1926; cartoon sketches
Moore, Rosalie	linoleum cut, 1930
One Who Knows	1930
Park, Marjorie K.	1928; 1929
Park, Norma	linoleum cut, 1930
Patterson, Monica	1930
Pluto	1927
Priestman, Roger B.	1927
Quinn, Bert	1927 assistant business manager, 1927
Robertson, Masie	linoleum cut, 1929; woodcut, 1930; cover design, 1930
Scott, Charles H.	1927; 1928
Sharland, Mrs. T.J.	1927
Sharpe, Alice	editorial staff, 1929; woodblock design, 1928; linoleum cut, 1929
Sherman, Maud	1926; 1927 woodcut, 1928
Smith, Kate A.; Mrs. Frank Hoole	1928; 1929 linoleum cut, 1929; linoleum cut, 1930
Sutherland, Mary B.	1926; 1927; 1928
The Potter	1928
Tisdall, Dorothy A.; also as D.A.T. and Pindy Tisdall	1929; 1930 business manager, 1929 (Pindy Tisdall) moved to Kamloops after graduation
Turpin, Dorothy	editorial staff, 1928, 1930
Tweedie, Edith	1929; 1930 editorial staff, 1930
Underwood, Evelyn	linoleum cut, 1929
Vanderpant, J.	1928
Varley, F.H[orsman]	1927; 1928
Vera, Ada and Theodore	1928
Walker, Eula B.; “alias ‘Peter at the Dam’”	1928; 1929; 1930
Ware, Ruth; also Ruth Ware Notzle, and R.W.N.	1927; 1929; 1930 editorial staff, 1929 married Clifford Arthur Notzle, 27 Sept 1930
Weatherbee, Vera	woodcut, 1928; linoleum cut, 1929
Weston, Betty	woodcut, 1928
Wilcox, Laura	linoleum cut, 1930
Williams, Margaret; also M.A.W., Margaret A. Williams, and M.A. Williams	1926; 1927; 1928; 1929 editor, 1926; woodcut, 1928 moved to Los Angeles, CA, after graduation

 

The Call of the Carillon (c1935), by Annie Charlotte Armitage Dalton

This lovely little volume was privately printed by the author in about 1935. Here is a searchable pdf as well as the page images.

“Memories of a Saskatchewan Winter,” by Caroline Doyle

While going through the files in our office, we came upon this letter and poem, from Helen Chapman to the editor of a book commemorating (as far as one can determine) the 75th anniversary of Saskatchewan becoming a province of Canada in 1905. Previous to that, it had been a part of the North West Territories: at that point Alberta, Saskatchewan, Athabasca, and Assiniboia. Manitoba had become a province in 1870, but that is its own separate fascinating history.

I can’t find the book, so I have no idea if the poem was ultimately included. And Helen Chapman no longer seems to live in Surrey, BC, so I can’t just call and ask her anything more about Miss Caroline Doyle or the poem. There was a Caroline S. Doyle who died in Lanigan, Saskatchewan, in 1959, who might be our lady, but without a little more to go on, we can’t be certain.

Regardless, having found this little gem, I wanted to share it with you all. Perhaps Caroline’s nieces, “The Blessed Girls,” will see this and tell us more about their aunt the Lanigan poet.