“Balm of Gilead,” by Irene H. Moody

Moody, Irene H. “Balm of Gilead.” Wraiths (Toronto: Macmillan, 1934): 35.

Canadian Authors Association National Conference, Banff, Alberta, July 1928

Our friend and colleague Mary Chapman at UBC, who is (IMHO) one of the world experts on the Eaton sisters—Edith, Winnifred, Grace, and Sarah are all members of our project—is looking for assistance in identifying the women in this photograph of the Canadian Authors Association National Conference, Banff, Alberta, July 1928. She is especially wanting to know if Winnifred Eaton is one of them. The original photo is held at the Glenbow Museum in Calgary and posted in their online catalogue. As we neither have the funds to buy a copy, nor anyone on the ground in Calgary to go see the original, we’ll have to make do with this too-low-res screenshot.

Does anyone out there have any idea?

 

As a point of interest, I have searched all our files, and these are the women who at some point belonged to the Canadian Authors Association. Of course, membership in 1928 would be fewer, and the number of members attending the national conference even fewer than that, but the length of the list (213 women) is illuminating in its own right.

Women in Our Project Who Were Members of the CAA

Abbie Lyon Sharman
Agnes Joynes
Alice Ashworth Townley
Alice Elizabeth Wilson
Alice Maud Winlow
Amabel Reeves King
Amelia Beers Warnock Garvin
Amy Redpath Roddick
Angeline Rose Hango
Ann De Bertrand Lugrin
Anna Peel Durie
Anne Marriott
Anne Sutherland Brooks
Annie Beatrice Hickson
Annie Bethune Mcdougald
Annie Charlotte Dalton
Annie Garland Foster
Annie Howells Fréchette
Annie Margaret Angus
Audrey Alexandra Brown
Beatrice Caroline Rowley
Beatrice Embree
Beatrice Nasmyth
Bertha Jane Thompson
Bertha Lewis
Bertha Weston Price
Beryl Gray
Blodwen Davies
Carol Coates
Caroline Eleanor Wilkinson
Catherine Bagg
Christina Willey
Christine Lighthall Henderson
Christine Van Der Mark
Claire Harris Macintosh
Clara Bernhardt
Clara Hopper
Constance Beresford-Howe
Constance Davies Woodrow
Constance Fairbanks Piers
Constance Travers Sweatman
Constance Ward Harper
Daisy Louise Saunders
Daisy Mcleod Wright
Donalda James Dickie
Dorothy Choate Herriman
Dorothy Dumbrille
Dorothy Duncan
Dorothy Livesay
Dorothy Sproule
Edith Jessie Archibald
Edna Jaques
Edna Lillian Morley
Edna Staebler
Eiko Henmi
Elaine M. Catley
Elise Aylen Scott
Elizabeth Donaldson
Ella Bell Wallis
Ellen Fulton
Ellen Lavinia Clutterbuck Jones
Eloise Street
Elsie Fry Laurence
Elsie M. Pomeroy
Emily Murphy
Emily Poynton Weaver
Emily Spencer Kerby
Emma Jean Taylor Mcdougall
Emma Veazey
Estelle Jean Worfolk
Estelle Muriel Kerr
Ethel Hume Patterson Bennett
Ethel Kirk Grayson
Evah Mckowan
Evelyn Gowan Murphy
Evelyn L. Weller
Evelyn Richardson
Evelyn Sybil Mary Eaton
Florence Ayscough
Florence Edith Bevans
Florence Elizabeth Westacott
Florence Nightingale Horner Sherk
Florence Ralston Werum
Florence Randal Livesay
Florence Robina Monkman
Florence Steiner
Floris Clark Mclaren
Flos Jewell Williams
Frances Beatrice Taylor
Frances Ebbs-Canavan
Frances Fenwick Williams
Frances Shelley Wees
Gertrude Bartlett Taylor
Gladdis Joy Tranter
Grace Campbell
Grace Helen Mowat
Grace Jones Morgan
Grace Mcleod Rogers
Hannah Isabel Graham
Helen Dickson Reynolds
Helen Merrill
Helen Shackleton Brietzcke
Helen Slack Wickenden
Helena Jane Coleman
Hilda Glynn Howard
Hilda Ridley
Ida Isabel Thompson
Irene Chapman Benson
Irene Mcelheran
Irene Moody
Isa Grindlay Jackson
Isabel Ecclestone Mackay
Isobel Mcfadden
Jane Elizabeth Gostwycke Roberts Macdonald
Jean Blewett
Jean Kilby Rorison
Jean Mitchell Smith
Jean Percival Waddell
Jessie Findlay Brown
Jessie Georgina Sime
Jessie Louise Beattie
Joan Walker
Josephine Phelan
Juanita O’connor
Julia Grace Wales
Julia Wilmotte Henshaw
Kate Simpson Hayes
Katherine Livingstone Macpherson
Kathleen Strange
Kathryn E. Colquhoun
Kathryn Munro
Kay Smith
Laura Elizabeth Mccully
Laura Goodman Salverson
Laura Ridley
Laura Vivian Belvadere Arnett
Lenore Alexandra Pratt
Lereine Ballantyne
Lilian Fortier Taylor
Lilian Leveridge
Lilian Vaux Mackinnon
Lilla Stewart Nease
Lillian Beynon Thomas
Lillie A. Macmillan Brooks
Lily Adams Beck
Lily Alice Cooke Lefevre
Lily Barry
Lois A. Hunter Gilpin
Louise Morey Bowman
Lucy Gertrude Clarkin
Lucy Maud Montgomery
Lyn Cook
Maara Haas
Mabel Burns Mckinley
Madge Macbeth
Malca Friedman
Malvina Copp Pasmore
Margaret Avison
Margaret Bossance Boreham
Margaret Marshall Saunders
Margaret Wade
Marian Francis Osborne
Marion Elizabeth Moodie
Marion Isabel Hand Angus
Marjorie Douglas Weir
Marjorie Pound
Marjorie Wilkins Campbell
Marjory Macmurchy
Martha Eugenie Perry
Martha Louise Black
Martha Martin
Mary Agnes Bernard Fitzgibbon
Mary Edith Perceval Judge
Mary Elizabeth Colman
Mary Elizabeth Hickson
Mary Ellen Macnab
Mary Esther Miller Macgregor
Mary Graham Bonner
Mary Josephine Trotter Benson
Mary Kinley Ingraham
Mary Loretto Weekes
Mary Matheson
Mary Rice Schooley
Mary Sollace Saxe
Mary Van Der Mark
Mary Woodworth Lorton
Maude Abbott
Maude Elizabeth Paterson
Mazo De La Roche
Melita O’hara
Mildred Low
Minnie Blanche Bishop
Minnie Hallowell Bowen
Molly Bevan
Mona Gould
Muriel Miller Miner
Nelda Mackinnon Sage
Nellie Letitia Mcclung
Nora M. Duncan
Norma Ethel Smith
Olive Knox
P.K. Page
Pearl Foley
Ruth Massey Tovell
Sara E. Carsley
Sister Maura
Sophie Margaretta Almon Hensley
Una Mackinnon
Valance St. Just Patriarche
Vera Lysenko
Verna Loveday Harden
Winifred Mary Stevens
Zillah Katherine Macdonald

Along the Northumberland Strait: Poems of Nova Scotia (1926), by Ellen M. Fulton

This chapbook is my most recent foray into digitization (which I do at home, on my ancient, very slow, but quite good-quality scanner). It was originally scheduled to be posted later this year, but the volume has now moved to the top of my list. Here’s why.

Yesterday, I received an email from Anne Sproull, whose grandmother was a dear friend to Ellen M. Fulton.  Anne now owns the cottage where, as far as we can tell, Ellen composed her two books of poetry, Acadian Summers and Along the Northumberland Strait. Here’s what Anne tells us:

My maternal grandmother and Ellen were dear friends, then neighbours in Little Harbour / Black Point. Ellen sold to her the property on which my grandmother built her family cottage, and also sold her own property to my grandmother in due course, when Ellen decided to return to Florida, before passing away in 1960. This property is where Ellen actually wrote much of her material, I’m sure. The “Blink Bonnie” she writes about in both Acadian Summers and Along the Northumberland Strait in the poem titled “Naming My House” is the very same, tiny writer’s cottage. I’ve in turn inherited it from my mother, last year, and have turned my attention to its contents.

Ellen Fulton’s work is quite difficult to find. The marvellous Ioana Liuta at SFU interlibrary loans managed to procure a copy of Along the Northumberland Strait for me, and I have scanned it to publish here. Anne has copies of more of Ellen’s work, which hopefully she can share with us all. Don’t touch that dial…

Fulton, Ellen M. Along the Northumberland Strait: Poems of Nova Scotia (s.l.: Author, [1926]).

“A Farewell,” by “Pendragon”

“Pendragon.” “A Farewell.” Crucible (Autumn 1936): 8.

Perhaps it is an erroneous assumption to present Pendragon as a woman, but if I don’t post this, how will the digital community be able to let me know?

 

“Mount Royal,” by Marjorie Weir Simpson

Simpson, Marjorie Weir. “Mount Royal.” Montreal in Verse: An Anthology of English Poetry by Montreal Poets. Ed. Writers of the Poetry Group. Montreal; QB: Canadian Authors Association; 1942. 38.

For Remembrance (1944), by Margaret Robertson Complin

Complin, Margaret. For Remembrance ([Regina, SK]: Author, 1944).

I posted Margaret Complin’s Winged Moccasins to Winged Words (1940) last month. Here is her other poetry chapbook, published four years after Winged Moccasins.

“I Did Not Know,” by Dorothy Trail

Trail, Dorothy. “I Did Not Know.” Vancouver Sun (3 July 1943): 2.

“The poems appearing today were written by members of the ‘B’ (junior) Section of the Vancouver Poetry Writers’ Group which is affiliated with the London Poetry Society. […] One dollar was paid for every poem on this page.”

 

“The poems appearing today were written by members of the ‘B’ (junior) Section of the Vancouver Poetry Writers’ Group which is affliated with the London Poetry Society.”
“One dollar was paid for every poem on this page”
Vancouver Sun 3 July 1943, page 2

“Topsail,” by Florence Miller

Miller, Florence. “The Old Home Town 5: Topsail.” Atlantic Guardian (May 1945): 21-24.

“Hidden Beauty,” by Dorothy Sproule

Sproule, Dorothy. “Hidden Beauty.” The Crucible (Autumn 1936): 10.

The Crucible (Autumn 1936): 10.

Old Songs in New Meters (1924), by M.G.A.

M.G.A. Old Songs in New Meters (Toronto: Longmans, Green, 1924).

M.G.A. was a teacher at the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Loretto Abbey, Toronto, according to the title page of Old Songs in New Meters. The author’s introduction, though, is signed at “Loretto—Hamilton, Ontario.” According to the history of Loretto Abbey Catholic Secondary School website, the school has always been in Toronto, but according to the Loretto Sisters’ website, there were at times Loretto Abbey schools elsewhere in Ontario. The Loretto Academy in Hamilton was open from 1865-1941, so we can infer that M.G.A. taught at the Hamilton school.

But who was M.G.A.? We can infer that M.G.A. was a woman, in that the nuns for the most part signed their work with the initials of their religious names, while priests and other men signed with their names and degrees. (The social rationale for and impact of that choice makes for an interesting discussion, but not one that I’m going to engage in here.) The Loretto Academy Facebook page (yes, there is one, despite the building having been torn down in 1986), is “open to all that attend or taught at Loretto Academy on King Street West in Hamilton. Here is an opportunity for all your “Ladies of Loretto” to take renew friends and stroll down memory lane!” Which again suggests that teacher M.G.A. was female. More than this inference, though, I cannot give you. Perhaps if any of our readers is one of the “Ladies of Loretto,” she can dig into the archives and find more about the author of Old Songs in New Meters.