Women of Canada (1930), revisited

Women of Canada. Montreal, QC: Women of Canada, 1930.

I posted this back in January of 2012, but I thought I would revisit the volume, to offer, as I have done with the National Reference Book, my services as a pseudo-librarian. This book is out of copyright, and it is a beautiful volume, I have TIFF files for every page, and have contemplated posting it in its entirety, but the files are too large and too many (about 300 pages). So if anyone would like information about on of the women included, please email me, and I will Dropbox the appropriate page image.

The original post

No poem today, but a list of women included in this remarkable biographical collection. If anyone is working on early Canadian women artists, or musicians, you must read through this text; I am sure you will glean some fascinating new names and biographical information. The collection does not appear to be based on level or quality of production, but rather on who felt like getting a page together in honour of a woman they thought should be included.  Some of the pages’ sponsors are explicitly named, but most aren’t.

A few of the women are “famous” for being the wives of famous or affluent men, but for the most part these women have contributed significantly to the building of Canadian society: some authors, artists, and musicians, but also a number of women who sat on boards or were active campaigners for social justice and change.

I have marked those authors who we are to include with an asterisk*, and identified the two (yes, only two!) that we already have included in our database at Simon Fraser University.  But the wealth of information was something I could not put back on the shelf unrevealed, so I have marked the names of all of the women, as they appear in the book. This way, too, when one of them shows up on our radar in the future, we will know she is here…

Enjoy!

Women of Canada: Contents

Willingdon, Viscountess (née Lady Marie Adelaide Brassey)

Aikens, Lady (née Mary French Colby)

Aikens, Mrs. W.H.B (née Augusta Wood Hawkesworth)

Allan, Lady (née Margaret Ethel MacKenzie)

Allan, Mrs. Andrew (née Charlotte Elizabeth Torre)

Anderson, Mrs. H.B. (née Florence Northway)

Ashdown, Mrs. James Henry (née Crowson)

Atkinson, Mrs. J.E. (née Elmina Elliott; “Madge Merton”)*

Austin, Mrs. A.W. (née Mary Richmond Kerr)

Aylmer, The Honourable Mrs. Henry (née Louisa Blanche Fanny Howe)

Bagg, Mrs. R. Stanley (née Clara Smithers, but see for Catherine Bagg—daughter?)

Baillie, Lady (née Edith Julia White)

Bates, Miss Mona*

Beal, Mrs. Norman R. (née Mary Elizabeth Gould)

Beaudoin, Madame Charles (née Mary Lanahan)

Beck, Lady (née Ottaway)

Bell, Mrs. Leslie Gordon* (née Florence E. Seymour)

Bennett, Miss Mildred

Bell, Mrs. R.D. (née Marguerite Phyliss Wainwright)

Birge, Mrs. C.A. (née Mabel Irene Sturt)

Black, Mrs. J.H. (née Elizabeth Morrow)

Black, Mrs. William* (née Margaret Edgar Wright)

Boomer, Mrs. Harriet A.* (née Mills)

Boothe, Mrs. Charles (née Margaret Florence Boyle)

Boswell, Mrs. Vesey (first marriage to Mr. Hugh Browne; née Elizabeth Margaret Bowen)

Bowen, Mrs. A.C.H. (née Minnie Henrietta Bethune Hallowell)

Bracken, Mrs. John (née Alice Wylie Bruce)

Bowman, Mrs. A.A. (née Lily Louise Dyer Morey)—included

Brown, Mrs. T. Albert (née Jane M. Bickell)

Brown, Lady McLaren (née Eleanor Grahame Crerar)

Bruce, Mrs. John (née Helen Roswell Tiers)

Bullock, Mrs. T.H. (née Jeannette Chestnut Wood)

Bundy, Mrs. John Wesley (née Henrietta Thompson)

Burden, Mrs. C.E. (née Margaret Beattie Eaton)

Burland, Mrs. Jeffrey H. (née Isabel May Megarry)

Campbell, Mrs. Austin (née Alicia Carveth)*

Campbell, Mrs. W.R. (née Gladyes Emily Leishman)

Carroll, Mrs. Henry George (née Amazelie Boulanger)

Cape, Mrs. E.G.M. (née Lilian Elizabeth Guest Smith)

Chambers, Mrs. W.D. (née Evelyn Brown)

Chaplin, Mrs. R.S. (née Henrietta Maud Dunsmuir)

Charlton, Miss Elsie*

Christie, Mrs. R.J. (née Emma Louise Lee)

Clemes, Mrs. W.H. (née Mary Bertha Williams)

Codere, Madam Louis Edward* (née Josephine Doherty)

Codère, Madam Louis-F. (née Annette Desnoyers)

Coghlin, Mrs. Bernard W.P. (née Louise Jean Dawes)

Colby, Mrs. C.C. (née Child)

Colquohon, Mrs. Evelyn E.* (née Gourlay)

Colville, Mrs. A.B. (née Kemp)

Conant, Mrs. G.D. (née Verna Rowena Smith)

Cowan, Mrs. F.W. (née Lily McMillan)

Crawford-Brown, Mrs. T. (née Eallien Necora Melvin-Jones)

Crombie, Mrs. E. (née Elizabeth Jane Pendleton)

Crowe, Mrs. G.R. (née Mary Elizabeth Alexander)

Cummings, Mrs. Willoughby (née Emily Shortt)*

Davies, Mrs. Dalton (née Chaplin)

Dawes, Mrs. Norman J. (née Claggett)

Dignam, Mrs. J.S. (née Mary Ella Williams)

Dixon, Mrs. Wellington (née Isabel Greenshields)

Doolittle, Mrs. P.E. (née Emily Ester Pearson)

Drummond, Lady

Drummond, Mrs. H.C.* (née Helen Frances Mitcheson Bagg)

Dunnington-Grubb, Mrs. H.B.* (née Lorrie Alfreda  Dunnington)

Dunlap, Mrs. D.A. (née Jessie Donalda Bell)

Dupuis, Madam J. Bachand (née Bachand)

Eaton, Lady* (née Florence McCrae)

Eaton, Mrs. R.Y. (née Hazel Margaret Ireland)

Eaton, Mrs. Timothy (née Margaret Wilson Beattie)

Eaton, Mrs. W.F. (née Gertrude Nora Cook)

Edwards, Mrs. A.T. (née Fanny Laura Derby)

Edwards, Mrs. George (née Alice Catharine Edwards)

Elliott, Mrs. Dawson Kerr (née Mary Alice McCreary)

Etherington, Mrs. Frederick (née Richardson)

Fairbairn, Mrs. Rhys D. (Ida Dregge Aikins)

Ferguson, Mrs. George Howard (née Ellen Cumming)

Ferguson-Burke, Mrs. A.J. (née Annie J. Ferguson; Mrs. William Robert Burke)

Finniss, Mrs. C.M. de R. (née Turner)

Flavelle, Lady (née Clara Ellsworth)

Fleming, Mrs. Sandford (née Gertrude Dickinson Mackintosh)

Forbes, Mrs. Kenneth K. (née Jean Mary de Coetlogan Edgell)

Forget, Lady (née Blanche McDonald)

Forster, Mrs. J.W.L. (née Emma Frances Aikens)

Foster, Mrs. Ellen Green (née Ellen Green)

Frame, Miss Margaret*

Fraser, Mrs. J.B. (née Beatrice Bertha Curran)

Freiman, Mrs. Archibald J. (née Lillian Bilsky)*

Fuller, Mrs. James Gibbs (née Alice Nunns; Mrs. John Edward Keough (d. 1895)

Furber, Mrs. Montague (née Beatrice Alma Ashley Vernon)

Gage, Lady (née Ina Grafton Burnside)

Gartshore, Mrs. W.M. (née Catherine McClary)

Gerin-Lajoie, Madam Marie* (née Marie Lacoste)

Gibson, Lady (née Elizabeth Malloch)

Godfrey, Mrs. Forbes (née Mary Melissa Carson)

Goffatt, Mrs. W.C. (née Fannie Alice Gill)

Gooderham, Mrs. A.E. (née Mary Reford Duncanson)

Gordon, Lady (née Edith Ann Brooks)

Gouin, Lady (née Alice Amos)

Greening, Mrs. O.S. (née Jane Herald)

Griffith, Mrs. J.H. (née Katharine Ada Bagg)

Guerin, Miss Bellelle*

Gullen, Dr. Augusta Stowe*

Gundy, Mrs. J.H. (née Serena Lake Clarke)

Hamber, Mrs. E.W. (née Aldyen Irene Hendry)

Harte, Mrs. Edwin (née Gwendolyn Anne McGregor)

Harris, Mrs. Sam (née Currie)

Hawkins, Mrs. W.C. (née Mary Elizabeth Chambers)

Hearst, Lady (née Isabella Jane Dunkin)

Hendrie, Mrs. (née Mary Murray)

Henry, Mrs. George S. (née Anna Ketha Pickett)

Hodgins, Mrs. W.E. (née Eleanor Jaffray Ritchie)

Hodgson, Mrs. William Cassils (née Madelene Joleaud de St. Maurice)

Howard, Mrs. Benjamin Cate (née Salls)

Howard, Mrs. Charles Benjamin (née May Campbell)

Huestis, Mrs. A.M.

Hughes, Mrs. James L. (née Adalaide Augusta Marean)

Hume, Mrs. George L. (née Elizabeth Sarah Smith)

Jones, Mrs. Sarah A. (née Oakes)

Joseph, Mrs. Henry (née Ethel Walkem)

Justin, Mrs. B.F. (first marriage to Gerrard Noble; née Mary Louise Brick)

Kemp, Lady (first marriage to Norman Copping; née Virginia Norton)

Kennedy, Mrs. Robert A. (née Victoria Jane Dent)

Kiely, Mrs. P.G. (née Elizabeth Bethune McDougall)

Langmuir, Mrs. John William (née Esther Lee Comstock)

Lawler, Miss Elizabeth Gertrude*

Learmont, Mrs. Joseph B. (née Charlotte Smithers)

Leonard, Mrs. Ibbotson (née Sarah Brinton)

Lovering, Mrs. W.J. (née Henrietta Allicen Bury)

Macaulay, Mrs. T.B. (née Palin)

MacDonald, Miss Eldred

MacDonald, Mrs. Donald Walter (née Edith Myra Kerr)*

MacKinnon, Mrs. George Douglas (née Mary Louise Bowman)

Macklem, Mrs. F.P. (née Heloise Keating)

MacLaren, Mrs. J.P. (née Edith Constance Elwood)

MacLean, Mrs. J.B. (née Anna Perkins Denison Slade)

MacTier, Mrs. A.D. (née Ethel Louise Waddell)

Mann, Lady (née Jane Emily Williams)

McBride, Mrs. Samuel (née Frances Jane Whitcombe)

McDougald, Mrs. A.W. (née Annie Bethune)*

McKenzie, Mrs. M.E. (née Florence Barbara Edwards)

McKinney, Mrs. J. (née Louise Crummy)

McLaughlin, Mrs. R.S. (née Adelaide Louise Mowbray)

McMarton, Mrs. John (née Mary Catherine McDougald)

Mercer, Mrs. Frederick (née Margaret Isabellah Ferguson)

Meredith, Lady (née Isobel Brenda Allan)

Meredith, Mrs. Charles (née Elspeth H. Angus; sister-in-law of the above)

Merritt, Miss Emily Lena

Millichamp, Mrs. R.W. (née Paterson)

Mills, Mrs. C.N. (née Helen Beatrice Thomas)

Miner, Mrs. W.H. (née Mabel Elizabeth Chambers)

Mitchell, Mrs. Nelson (née Marion Sophia Roberts)

Molson, Mrs. J. Dinham (née Mary Cronyn Wilson)

Mulock, Mrs. William P. (née Kathleen Eleanor Johnston)

Nanton, Lady (née Ethel Constance Clark)

Neill, Mrs. C.E. (née Mary Louise Crerar)

Niven, Mrs. J.S. (née Mary MacBeth)

Northover, Mrs. C.A. (née Gertrude Constance Fraser)

Norquay, Mrs. John (née Elizabeth Setter)

O’Flynn, Mrs. H.H. (née Edith Mulock)*

Ogilvie, Mrs. D.W. (first marriage to C. St. L. Mackintosh; née Eileen Mary White)

O’Neill, Mrs. G.H. (née Bertha Fadehla Drake)

Pantazzi, Madam Ethel* (née Ethel Greening)

Patterson, Dr. Margaret (née Norris)*

Perley, Lady (née White)

Perron, Mrs. Joseph Leonide (née Berthe Brunet)

Pettes, Mrs. Nathaniel (née Narcissa Farrand)

Phin, Mrs. W.E. (née Bertha Scarfe)

Pillow, Mrs. Howard Winthrop (née Lucile E. Fairbank)

Pitblado, Mrs. John (née Mary Lydia Inglis)

Price, Mrs. C.B. (née Marjorie Meredith Holden Trenholme)

Price, Mrs. William H. (née Alice Gentles)

Richardson, Mrs. James (née Muriel Sprague)

Robb, Mrs. James A. (first marriage to Albert Kenneth Wattie; née Mary Elizabeth Fletcher)

Robb, Mrs. W.D. (née Catharine Haggart Black)

Robins, Mrs. F.B. (first marriage to Charles Reed; née Jessie McDonald Skitt)

Roddick, Lady (née Amy Redpath)—included

Roell, Madam Adrian (Lady) (née Kathleen Myra Kerr MacDonald

Rogers, Mrs. Robert Arthur (née Edith McTavish)

Rogers, Mrs. Robert (née Aurelia Regina Widmeyer)

Ross, Mrs. William Donald (née MacKay)

Ross, Mrs. Philip Dansken (née Mary Beasley Littlejohn)

Routledge, Mrs. George Albert (first marriage to James Bunyan Morgan; née Emily May Vanderburgh)

Ryde, Mrs. W.O. (née Edith Sarah Dawes)

Samuel, Mrs. Norman (née Constance Montgomery Wilson)

Sanford, Mrs. W.E. (née Vaux)*

Sangster, Mrs. Andrew (née Maud Giff)

Scott, Mrs. John (née MacMaster)

Sewell, Mrs. Colin C. (née Webster)

Shortt, Mrs. Adam (née Elizabeth McGee Smith)*

Shuter, Mrs. J.G.R. (née Marjorie Anna Heney)

Smith, Mrs. E. Atherton (née Nan MacPherson Robinson)*

Smith, Mrs. E.D. (née Christina Ann Armstrong)

Smith, Mrs. Julian Cleveland (née Bertha Louise Alexander

Smythe, Mrs. R.G. (née Agnes Mary Lind)

Spence, Mrs. James (née Margaret Hackland)

Starr, Mrs. F.N.G. (née Anne Callander Mackay)

Stewart, Mrs. John A. (née Jessie Mable Henderson)

Stewart, Mrs. J.W. (née Elizabeth Jane Moran)

Stewart, Mrs. McLeod (née Linnie Emma Powell)

Taschereau, Madam L.A. (née Adine Dionne)

Sweezy, Mrs. R.O. (née Harriet Whitcombe Watson)

Tate, Miss Gertrude

Tory, Mrs. J.C. (née Caroline Emma Whitman)

Tooke, Mrs. Benjamin (née Kirk)

Tulleken, Lady Van Hoogenhouck (née Frances Lillian Dignam)

Turnbull, Mrs. John (née Castle)

Waagen, Mrs. Carsten B. (née Mary Elizabeth Hickson)*

Warren, Mrs. Harry Dorman

Watson, Mrs. Robert (née Isabel Brown)

Webster, Mrs. Lorne C. (née Taylor)

Webster, Mrs. William Robert (née Mary Ellen Jane Shorey)

Weller, Mrs. William (née Evelyn Louise Gowan)*

Whelen, Mrs. Peter (née Lydia M. Hume)

White, Miss Eva Matheson

Wilkinson, Mrs. William Lackie (née Caroline Eleanor Carter)*

Williams, Helen Ernestine*

Williams-Taylor, Lady (née Jane Henshaw)*

Wilson, Mrs. E.W. (née Sara Etta Lamb Bricker)

Wilson, Mrs. John Armistead (née Henrietta Lætetia Tuzo)

Wilson, Madam Joseph Marcelin (née Alexina Geoffrion)

Wright, Mrs. Gordon (née Sara Alice Rowell)

Collaborating with other academics

Our project director, Carole Gerson, has these stories to tell of collaboration with other researchers…

Carole was in touch with Sarah Jamieson Craig’s great-granddaughter, Professor Joanne Findon. Together, they wrote her entry, based on discussions and Findon’s biography of her great-grandmother, Seeking Our Eden.

Sarah Jameson Craig has been brought out of the shadows because her great-granddaughter, Joanne Findon, is an English professor who skillfully gave us Craig’s remarkable story in Seeking Our Eden. While writing was not the major focus of Craig’s life, her various activities as a feminist, health reformer, and utopian thinker were expressed at times in print.

When Carole was visiting her family in Toronto, she reached out to Brendan Edwards, Head of Library and Archives at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM).

Brendan Edwards, Department Head, ROM LIbrary and Archives

While I’ve been in contact with many archivists and librarians at obvious institutions, it didn’t occur to me to check the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) until I heard that Brendan Edwards had become Head of their Library and Archives (I happen to know Brendan from an earlier project). Previously, while researching Pauline Johnson, I had seen some of the ROM’s stored Indigenous materials, but I had no idea that its cavernous resources include a library and archives (in addition to dinosaurs, Egyptian mummies, and the bat cave, main attractions for my granddaughters in Toronto). Brendan helped identify several women not yet on our lists, including pioneer paleontologist Madeleine Fritz. Others, whose involvement with the ROM led to some of their papers and publications being stored there, had engaged in a range of activities: Margaret MacLean published educational articles about the ROM’s collections in Saturday Night in 1917; classicist Cornelia Harcum published a book about Roman cuisine in 1914 and articles about the ROM’s classical collections in the 1920s; art historian Helen Fernald worked as Keeper of the ROM’s East Asian Department; and the extensive careers of Katherine Maw Brett and Dorothy K. Burnham in the ROM’s textile department began with Brett’s 1945 exhibition pamphlet and Burnham’s first book, published in 1950.

The first woman in Canada to receive a PhD in the field of geology and palæontology, Madeleine Fritz produced an extensive list of scholarly publications, many in association with the ROM

Margaret MacLean developed a career as the first public educator at the ROM and published many articles about the Museum’s holdings

After earning a doctorate in classical archaeology, Cornelia Harcum moved from the United States to Toronto, where she published on ancient Greek and Roman culture

A textile expert at the ROM, Katherine Maw Brett authored books and articles on the history of fabrics and clothing

Dorothy Burnham enjoyed a long career in the textile department at the ROM, which led to her many publications in the field of Canadian and global textiles and costumes

So many connections!

Back in October of 2016, I created a post listing all of the ways that Canada’s Early Women Writers project is connected to the greater digital community. For the most part, it is through contributions from relatives, historians, genealogists, and other researchers who answer our questions, or provide biographical and bibliographical information about the women in our project. Sometimes we help others, too, as is the case with Elizabeth Donaldson (many posts about that), or Jane Layhew, or Isa Grindlay.

So this post it to reiterate our thanks to all the people who have shared information, photos, and family stories with us to help make our project stronger.

Here are some of our research stories, many of which have separate blog posts, but not all.

• • Phyllis Argall: The second husband and son of this author are still alive, and were very helpful in providing details of her life after she moved to the United States. Her story is complicated, extending as it does from Canada to England to Japan to the United States during the Second World War. I would never have been able to unravel the truth of her Canadianship had it not been for their family stories.
  • Irene Baird: We tracked down Irene Baird’s granddaughter, Nora Spence, who is a school principal in Toronto. We also located an old colleague, Helen Piddington. Both women contributed data in the form of stories as well as dates and biographical details; Nora Spence had a copy of a photo of Irene Baird taken by Karsh in the early 1930s, and was prompted by her interest in our project to obtain a the original negative, which she was very glad to have.
  • Emily Beavan: This is one of my favourites. Lyn Nunn, of Australia, a descendant of Emily Beavan, had in her possession a number of scanned images from Emily Beavan’s personal scrapbook. Sadly (says Lyn), the scrapbook was in the possession of a cousin who was not as interested in literary history as she and we are. Nonetheless, she got in contact with our RA, Linnea Regier, and they sorted out a number of facts about the author’s life together. The fun part is the image of an acrostic “Napoleon,” had-written by the author, which we could not entirely decipher. I posted the acrostic on our blog, and between Lyn, her friend Chris, and other contributors, we eventually manages to transcribe the poem successfully—or at least to the satisfaction of all. Community effort indeed.
  • Mamie Maloney Boggs: Encountering a poem on our website, Mamie Maloney Bogg’s grandson contacted us with an offer of contributing any information they could to our project; I have sent our standard biography form, which he promises to complete in conjunction with his uncle.
  • Jessie Findlay Brown: The library at SFU was contacted by Phil Harris, who had questions about Jessie Findlay Brown’s identity. It seemed a simple question, but the ancestry.ca quagmire soon bogged us down. Ultimately, we were able to establish that there were three Jessies who might have been our author: Jessie F. Brown, a member of the Canadian Authors Association in Winnipeg; Jessie Griffin who died in Victoria, BC (we know that Jessie Findlay Brown married Robert Griffin); and (the real author), Jessie Findlay Brown of Ontario. The SFU entry was improved, and the entry in the new database at CWRC presents the conundrum in more careful detail.
  • Lyn Cook: When this author was still alive, I wrote to ask about her life, and she replied by sending her standard bio sheets, and also her telephone number and an invitation to call any time. When I telephoned, she provided a long and lively account of her life, including her use of her grandmother’s name, Margaret Culverhouse, as a pseudonym, which helped connect the two names already on our list. She recalled having published a poem in the 1940s in Canadian Poetry Magazine, but no more. I was able to find the poem, and send her a copy, which pleased her greatly.
    Since our first contact, I have been in touch a number of times with her daughter. Significantly, I had a woman associated with the Stratford Festival in Ontario contact me in an attempt to obtain permission to stage a play adapted by Lyn Cook from one of her books. I facilitated communications between the two, and in the course of the transactions reacquainted the author—who at 98 is still active and sharp—with our project.
  • Martha Craig: The story of Martha Craig developed slowly from our knowing only that she wrote a slim volume entitled Legends of the North Land—in which the frontispiece shows her in Indigenous costume, calling herself “Princess Ye-wa-go-go-nee”—to more biogrpahical information that we could possibly include in our project. This is all thanks to an avid historian, Nevin Taggart, in County Antrim, Ireland, where Martha Craig was originally from. I cab’t even recall how Nevin found us, but he connected our RA Linday Bannister with Martha Craig’s decendents here in Vancouver, as well as sharing a plethora of documentation about her highly eccentric life. The relationship between Nevin and our projects—as is true in a number of cases with other historians—continues, as he provides us with names he thinks might belong.
  • Bonnie Dafoe: On our blog, Bonnie’s granddaughter Holly Jonson provided a link to her own blog, on which she had posted a recording of her grandmother Bonnie reading a poem written for Holly.
    “I just came across this post and feel happy to see that my Great Auntie Bonnie’s writing is out there in the land of the internet! If you are interested in hearing a poem she read for me not too long ago, I uploaded it to my blog here. Poetry is definitely meant to be read aloud, and heard (not just read silently). And, my Great Auntie Bonnie loves to read her writing to family and friends, so I’m thrilled to see it living on with other people as well. I hope you enjoy listening to her as much as I have; she’s pretty amazing.”
    She also shared with us the news of her grandmother’s death, and the poem she had written in commemoration: a tradition of Canadian women’s poetry lives on.
  • Mary Elizabeth (Connell) Donaldson: Seeing one of Elizabeth Donaldson’s poems on our website, her great-nephews, Paul Ross and Mark Donaldson, approached me with the question of which of the Mary Elizabeth Donaldsons in their family tree was the poet they had heard of, and was it the same person as our Elizabeth Donaldson. Together we solved the mystery, during which time I discovered a number of her poems in various old journals and posted them on our website. They located another relative, the author’s granddaughter, Eleanor Best, and gave us her contact information. In addition to providing biographical information about her grandmother to our project, Ms. Best was looking for a place to donate her grandmother’s papers. As we are not archival in that way, I contacted the archivist at York University, Michael Moir, who was interested in Donaldson’s papers. (Although that has been left in Ms. Best’s hands; I do not know what has come of it at this point.)
  • Dora Farncomb: Kathy Le Gresley, Dora’s great-great-niece, found us somehow and sent an email with am abundance of biographical details about Dora Farncomb. Kathy is, it turns out, in the process of writing a fictional, biography of her great-great-aunt, and was eager to share with and learn from us. So engaged was Kathy that the back-and-forth of emails, including the involvement of a student at Guelph University, led to a comprehensive entry—complete with photograph—being completed in only three days.
  • Ellen M. Fulton: Anne Sproull contacted us with the story of a cottage she has inherited from her grandmother in Little Harbour, Nova Scotia. As Anne writes: “My maternal grandmother and Ellen were dear friends, then neighbours in Little Harbour, [Nova Scotia]. 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.” Anne provided us not only with copies of Ellen Fulton’s books to scan, but also let us pore through what she believes are Ellen Fulton’s diaries and photo albums. She continues working on this mystery, now that—with her help—we have published a complete entry on Ellen Fulton.
  • Amy Clare Giffin: Ashley Armsworthy and her boyfriend bought Giffin’s family home, and found her name carved by a childish hand (hers) in the glass of the kitchen window. They also found a box of writing and ephemera in the attic. Intrigued, they were researching her when they stumbled upon our website and contacted us. Between us, we learned more of her life, but there are still holes in the biography. She has since found a box of Amy Clare Giffin’s photographs and offerred them to our project.
  • R.H. Grenville: This author—Beatrice Rowley—is still alive, but reclusive; she has recently moved to a rest home in Victoria, BC. While I had created a blog to post list of authors’ names in hope of soliciting information from the general public, the idea of posting obscure authors’ poetry and short articles arose from my appreciation of RH Grenville’s poetry; the first poem I posted was her “Tabloid,” from her only published text, Fountain in the Square (1963). I had encountered her poetry written before 1950, but was not certain (despite my suspicions) that the author was a woman. Googling her name, I came across a comment on another blog, answering my question: her daughter, Cathy Rowley, posted that yes, “RH” was a woman: “She was my mother! So There!” I contacted her, and later met with her in Toronto and gathered a great deal of information about her mother. She tried to assist me in arranging a meeting with her mother, who lives in Victoria, but given the author’s health and reclusiveness, that fell through. We have since been contacted as well by the author’s step-son, Charles Rowley, who has met with me for tea on a couple of occasions and contributed more information, including a copy of Fountain in the Square, signed and with a photograph. He also gained permission from the author for us to publish any of the poems and information he has lent to us for scanning; this includes a number of poems written as private gifts and never before published.
    As well, a woman in South Africa, Louise Saayman, ran across R.H. Grenville’s poetry on our site and sent another poem by Grenville, published in the British Women’s Weekly in the 1970s. She loved the poem, but knew nothing about the author.
    Another reader, Jeff Clarke, has a framed, hand-written poem of Grenville’s, that he inherited from his grandfather; he sought our assistance in authenticating the poem, and has since been in contact with both Charles and Cathy Rowley regarding his queries. He sent along a photo of the framed poem for us to post, too.
    Other contributors to our site from the community include Craig Walker and Lynn Cicarvalho, both of whom posted their own “RH Grenville” poems in the comments section, spurring a conversation between Charles Rowley and his step-mother’s admirers. The connections formed through these women’s poetry extend far beyond the borders of our project.
  • Isa Grindlay Jackson: This is perhaps my favourite story. Once again, the greater digital community came to our aid, this time in the work of Dr. Samantha Philo-Gill from the UK. Dr. Philo-Gill has published a book about the WAAC, The Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps in France, 1917–1921, and discovered in her research a small volume of poetry, Ripples from the Ranks of the Q.M.A.A.C. (London: Erskine Macdonald, 1918), by Isa Grindlay. Thinking this might be the same person as our Isa Grindlay Jackson, who wrote Ballades and Bits (Toronto, ON: Ryerson, 1937), she contacted us with her information. Combining that with our biographical data, we did determine (not surprisingly) that the author of these two books of poetry was one and the same. We also pieced together Isa’s fascinating peregrinations: from her birthplace of Slamannan, Stirlingshire, Scotland in 1884; to Alberta with part of her family in 1910, where she married Charles Grindlay; back to Scotland after his death in the trenches in 1916 to join the QMAAC at the Scottish Command School of Musketry in St. Andrew’s; back to Alberta in 1919, where she married her brother-in-law Leon Jackson. She applied for a homestead in Lonira, Alberta, in 1920, shortly before marrying Leon, and lived there until some time in the mid-1940s. She then moved to Vancouver, where she lived until 1981.
    The saga continues. More than the unravelling of biography that Dr. Philo-Gill and I managed, was the serendipitous discovery of our project by Jason Johnson, Isa Grindlay Jackson’s great-grandson, whose kind offer of help was gratefully accepted. It turns out, too, that he lives only half-an-hour away, so I visited and he shared tea and photos and papers and books… Again, as with Martha Craig, we ended up with far more information than could be included in our entry.
  • Jane Layhew: Dr. Coral Ann Howells from the University of Reading, UK, wrote for help determining the relationship of a Jane Layhew, nurse from Prince George to a Jane Layhew, author of Rx for Murder, of Montreal. The back and forth exchange of information created a rich understanding of the life of this author of a sole book, who (it turns out) was actually married to Northrop Frye’s cousin Lew Layhew. We have a lengthy blog-post about the twisty research path we wandered down on this one.
  • Catherine de Vaux MacKinnon and Lilian Vaux MacKinnon: Our assistant Linnea was in touch with these authors’ relatives—Daphne Biggs and Christine Kilpatrick—who are also related to Ethel Lenore Nichol Gnaedinger, another author on our list. They were immensely helpful in contributing biographical information and photos, and very please to have contributed: “This is an absolutely wonderful project that you’re working on and I’m thrilled to have played a tiny part in it” (Christine Kilpatrick). As in the case of Elizabeth Donaldson, our working with these relatives helped them to sort out the intricate relationships within their family tree.
  • Margaret Millar: Brian Busby, one of the editors of Canadian Notes and Queries and the owner of The Dusty Bookcase blog, noticed that we did not actually have Margaret Millar—one of his favourite mystery writers—in our project. He not only contacted us with the rationale for her inclusion (we had previously not known of her earliest publications), but offered to write the entry for us. Although many relateis have given us extensive biographical information, he is one of only two or three guest authors in our project. He has also recently provided information for the entry for Margerie Scott, whom we had previously considered British; she did, however, live in Ontario for much of her adult life.
  • Lesley Drummond Ross, Helen Frances Bagg Drummond, Katherine Bagg, and Lily Lewis: We did not have input, exactly, on all these authors, but Janice Hamilton of Montreal, the great-granddaughter of Helen and Katherine’s brother, and I engaged in an extensive email discussion about their family, pulling out a number of fascinating and not necessarily sharable stories. At the same time, I was carrying on an email conversation with Helen Elizabeth Ross, Lesley Drummond Ross’s daughter. The shared Drummond name is actually coincidental, but they did help me to uncover more about journalist Lily Lewis’s very mysterious brother, Albert, who was Helen Frances Bagg’s first husband. These conversations also helped verify that poet Catherine Bagg (from Toronto, we learned) was not in fact the same person as author Katherine Bagg of Montreal.
  • Evelyn Craig Rusby: In January of 2012, Evelyn Craig Rusby’s daughter, Judy Schuett, discovered her mother’s name in our Index of Authors. She wrote to provide more information about her family, and generously offered to send us copies of her mother’s chapbooks, Spring Fever (likely written while an undergraduate at the University of Toronto) and Schoolday Impressions (written when she was a high school student). She also more-or-less wrote the entry for her mother, as she is herself in the process of writing her biography, hopefully to be published in a couple of years.
  • Lois Saunders: Dr. Eva-Marie Kroller contacted us, because Deirdre Bryden, archivist at Queen’s University Library, had sent her a pdf about Lois Saunders, whom Dr. Kroller did not find in our database (because she wasn’t there, but she is now). The pdf gave us enough information to create an entry for Lois Saunders, who also was archivist at Queen’s as well as the author of Strangers and Foreigners (1912).
  • Marjorie Douglas Weir Simpson: Initially, we were contacted by the author’s great-niece. Once she found us receptive to ammending our entry, she passed us over to the author’s grandson, Ron Simpson, who offered to contact his father for information. And thus it began. Marjorie Weir Simpson’s son, Stephen,was himself a writer, and so became very involved in the creation of his mother’s biography. So involved, indeed, that it was suggested that he co-author the entry. This way, I could use his words—as he desired—without quotation marks all over the entry. This way, too, he felt justified in adding little tidbits of his father’s very fascinating life in the military and as the author of the English words to “Oh Canada.” After many many emails, the result is a very thorough entry, and all are happy.
  • Rhoda Sivell: Linnea was in contact with the author’s grandson, William Sivell, who lives in Victoria and has reissued his grandmother’s collection of “cowgirl poetry.” I had the opportunity to visit him and his wife, during which we shared information on the author, each contributing to the other’s project substantially. He not only gave us copies of her work, but also a recording of an interview she conducted before her death.
  • Gladys Devlin Stacey: We were contacted by the author’s granddaughter, Callie Stacey, who through lengthy email exchanges, provided a great deal of information about her grandmother and her various complicated pseudonyms. Callie also located references to another author on our list, Georgina Cecilia Mary White, who wrote under the pseudonym of “Bridie Broder.”
  • Kathleen Strange: Kathleen’s granddaughter Kitt Maitland is active on ancestry.ca. When we contacted her, she not only agreed to read through the entry we had created about her grandmother, but invited us out to her home in Coquitlam to rummage through her grandmother’s copious scrapbooks. A number of these we took away and digitized, sending the digital images back to Kitt for her records and to share with her family.

  The following individuals have also shared their stories and research with us, either by commenting on our blog or DoCEWW website, or by asking or answering questions on ancestry.ca.

  • Helen L. Whyte provided information about her relative Alice Maud Ardagh.
  • Jim Arnett provided information about and publications by his grandmother, Laura Vivian Belvadere Arnett.
  • Cairine Macdonald provided information about her grandmother, Lucy Bagnall.
  • Julie Fines, the author’s great-niece, has provided all of the biographical information for an entry on Alice Sharples Baldwin.
  • Helena M. MacLean and Arthur W.F. Barrett provided information about their relative Ena Constance Barrett.
  • Ajai Khattri provided information about his relatives Celeste and Jane Belnap; Jane’s granddaughter Gillian also chimed in on out blog comments.
  • Geneviève Bruneau provided information about Minnie Evans Bicknell.
  • Zoe Bieler’s daughter, Caroline Bieler Brettell, another very helpful relative, guest authored her mother’s entry.
  • Lester Batten provided information about his great-great-aunt, Lydia Campbell.
  • Brydon Gombay sent us information to correct our biography of Margery Grant Cook, her “Aunt” Margery (her mother’s best friend).
  • Mike Quinton of Ottawa provided information about the pseudonyms for Amy Cox (“Veros Carleton”) and Madge Macbeth (“Gilbert Knox” and “W[illard] S. Dill”).
  • Eileen Santlal provided information about her grandmother, Corolyn Cox, correcting our information.
  • Beverlee (Croft) Nelson, daughter of the author, and another relative, Paula Niall, provided information about Melba Morris Croft.
  • Liz Tracy Hartzler provided information about her relative Lotta Dempsey.
  • Paul Ross and Mark Donaldson, and Eleanor Best provided information about their relative Elizabeth Donaldson.
  • Mhairi Kerr at York University started us on the path to learn more about “Nancy Durham” (Agnes Delamore) who wrote the introduction to Creative Young Canada, by providing an obituary and other information to help answer the twisted question of which was her real, which her pen name.
  • Diana Birchall, Winnifred Eaton’s grand-daughter, and Dr. Karen E.H. Skinazi, Princeton University, provided information about Winnifred Eaton.
  • Bruce Gordon provided information about his relative Beatrice Minnie Embree.
  • John Grove provided information about his relative Elizabeth Grove.
  • Sheldon Rose, at the University of Toronto, is working on Mary B. Huber, in connection with Dr. Grenfell, and contacted us with documents and his newly created Wikipedia entry.
  • Judith Kee sent us biographical information about her mother, Estelle Kee, who contributed to The Golden North Cookbook (1926).
  • Vivian Moreau provided sufficient information about her mother, Elma Rose Machan, to create an entry.
  • M.D. McWilliam, Edinburgh, provided information about his relative Mary Maitland.
  • Jean McCollum contacted us on our website comments to send us information about Alwilda McKenzie, a little-known author who was also a school teacher in Nova Scotia.
  • Pam McCorquodale provided information about her grandmother, Hughena McCorquodale, as well as another relative, Isabel C. Armstrong.
  • Nancy Guppy contacted us about errors in the entry for Margaret Dixon McDougall, and after extensive collaborative research, the biography was revised to both of our satisfaction.
  • Jon Palmer Broderick provided information about his relative Mary Anne McIver.
  • Ron Robichaud contacted us with questions about Mary Ann Cort, but then subsequently provided a great deal of information about her relative Melita O’Hara.
  • Michael Edward Bath and Alan Kultschar provided information about their relative Marian Francis Osborne.
  • Geir Jaegersen, Norwegian Language Institute advisory board member, gave us translation assistance for our entry on Martha Ostenso.
  • Stephen Cox provided research contributions, and Dresdin L. Archibald provided family information about Isabel Mary Paterson.
  • Tony Patriarche contributed a number of titles—include of a screenplay—to the entry for his mother, Valance St. Just Patriarche.
  • Kaye Soulsby, in Melbourne, Australia, and the New Zealand Peace family archives provided information about Margaret Sharp Peace.
  • Michael Peterson sent us a list of publications his mother, Phyllis Lee Peterson, contributed to, as well as augmenting our biographical data.
  • Jan Gregory provided information about her relative Jane Porter.
  • Dennis Brooks provided information about his relatives Kate and Laeta Ramage.
  • David Reed, descendant of G.B. Reed’s brother, provided information about his grandfather’s wife, author Elsie Clarissa Porter Reed, and her cousin, author Helen Leah Reed.
  • Elizabeth Donaldson, Patricia McDonald, and Carol Fraser provided information about Kate Ruttan; Kate Ruttan’s great-great-granddaughter, Carolyn Brown, also contributed to our blog comments.
  • Daniel Madden provided information about his relatives Mary Anne Sadlier and her daughter Anna Theresa Sadlier.
  • Professor A. Elizabeth McKim of St. Thomas University (Fredericton, NB) shared her significant knowledge of the life and work of Kay Smith; David Mawhinney, University Archivist at Mount Allison University, provided Kay Smith’s graduation records.
  • Callie Stacey provided information about her grandmother Gladys Devlin Stacey.
  • Margaret Sweatman provided information about her relative Constance Travers Sweatman.
  • The work of researcher Janice Dowson on Christine van der Mark contributed significantly to our entry on Christine van der Mark.
  • John Tepper Marlin of New York, and Randal Marlin of Ottawa provided information about their relative Hilda van Stockum.
  • Maud Morrison Stone: I was contacted by Maud Morrison Stone’s great-niece, Christine Owen, a recently retired lawyer who had been sorting through her parents’ papers. She kept running across papers referring to and written by this author relative, and so began to search the internet for more information. And found us. All we had about Maud Morrison Stone at the time was a reference to one book: This Canada of Ours (1937). After a great couple of afternoons poring through Maud Morrison Stone’s piles of papers together in Christine’s West End apartment, we managed to create a complete entry, as well as an informative blog post about Canada’s first (albeit non-fiction) graphic “novel” for youth.
  • Dorian Gieseler Greenbaum provided information about her relatives Peggy Webling and Lucy Webling McRaye.
  • Jacqueline E. Stuart gave us the life dates, full names, and further publication details for author Vivian Maurine Wilcox.
  • Victor Willerton, son of the author, and Stephen Blake Willerton, grandson of the author, provided information about Irene Willerton.
  • Mary Joanne Peace Henderson provided information about her relative Anna May Wilson.
  • Author Margaret Buffie provided information about Audrey St. Denys Wood.

The Winnifred Eaton Archive

Image courtesy of Diana Birchall, Winnifred Eaton’s granddaughter.

 

Today is Winnifred Eaton’s birthday. More than that, it is the official launch of the new Winnifred Eaton Archive at the University of British Columbia. I was going to write a post myself, but the email by project director Dr. Mary Chapman announcing the launch is better than anything I could write. So I repeat it here for you all.

Today is the birthday of the bestselling Asian North American author best known as “Onoto Watanna”! In honour of her 145^th birthday, we are officially launching the Winnifred Eaton Archive (WEA).

The Winnifred Eaton Archive is an accessible, fully searchable, digital scholarly edition of the collected works of novelist, journalist, playwright, and Hollywood screenwriter Winnifred Eaton Babcock Reeve (1875–1954), best known for the popular Japanese romances she signed “Onoto Watanna.” Building on an earlier digital edition of Eaton’s work created by Jean Lee Cole (Loyola U Maryland), the Winnifred Eaton Archive comprises page images and transcriptions of almost 200 located publications and manuscripts, as well as supplemental materials, including photographs, a biographical timeline, secondary sources, and more. Ultimately, it aims to collect all known publications, manuscripts, and films by Eaton in one location. Université de Moncton professor Andrea Cabajsky called it “one of the most user-friendly, materially rich, and visually pleasing electronic archives I’ve had the pleasure to consult.”

The younger sister of Edith Maude Eaton (1865-1914) who wrote sympathetic portraits of diasporic Chinese signed “Sui Sin Far”, Winnifred Eaton is often referred to as the “bad” Eaton sister because of her sustained masquerade as a Japanese author, beginning in 1897. But as many texts collected at https://winnifredeatonarchive.org demonstrate, Winnifred Eaton was much much more! She wrote one of the earliest short stories about Montreal’s Chinatown. She was a dogged woman journalist in 1890s Jamaica and 1900s New York City. In the 1920s, she authored screenplays, including an early draft of Showboat, and ran Universal Studio’s script department. And from her home in Alberta ranch country, Winnifred Eaton championed Canadian literature and community theatre from the 1920s until her death in 1954.

Please join us for a virtual launch at 12pm (PDT) on Wednesday, September 16.

Register here:  https://forms.gle/Xb2PHQyhz3g5orAF6

At the launch, we will demonstrate the many ways you can use the archive for research, show how the archive can be used in the classroom, and explain how researchers and students can become more involved in Phase Two of the project. We will also have a few remarks and a Q&A session with the current WEA team and special guest Diana Birchall (Eaton’s biographer and grand-daughter).

Hope to see you on September 16th!

Mary Chapman (Director)
Jean Lee Cole (Senior Consultant)
Joey Takeda (Technical Director)
Sydney Lines (Project Manager)
and the team of research assistants, past and present

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

Beatrice Caroline Rowley (“R.H. Grenville”), 1917-2017

I did not post this last September, for personal reasons. Bea Rowley—R.H. Grenville—died on the 4th of September, 2017, in Victoria, BC. I received the news from her step-son, Charles, and daughter, Cathy, both of whom have been very helpful on our project. I have visited both Cathy in Toronto and Charles here in the Lower Mainland, and feel connected to their family through our work together. My sorrow was deepened in that Bea’s poetry spoke to me in a way that most of our poets’ works do not. So last year, I felt I could not write a encomium that appropriately expressed the complex combination of professional interest and personal appreciation that I have for Bea, her poetry, and her family. By October, it seemed too late, so here, on the first anniversary of her death, is my inadequate acknowledgement of Bea’s passing, and of our gratitude to her and her family.

* * * *

One of the interesting aspects of our project is that, because our dates of inclusion end at 1950, most of our authors are no longer with us. It is very special, then, to be able to speak to one of them on the telephone, as I have done with Beatrice Rowley back in the summer of 2011. At that time, she was rather flabbergasted that anyone would still be interested in her poetry. I like to think that over the past few years—as indeed emails with her step-son Charles and daughter Cathy have suggested—online interest in her poetry has helped her to understand the enduring legacy good poetry such as hers leaves.

“They say I’m a celebrity!” she grinningly told Cathy, who was with her on her 100th birthday in July. This was in response to letters from “the big shots,” as Cathy calls them, who wrote to congratulate her on reaching her centenary: the Queen, the Prime Minister, the Governor-General, the Lieutenant-Governor… As well as letters from these eminent people, Cathy read her mother poems from The Fountain in the Square, Bea’s only published book of poetry. It is not only in reaching 100 that Bea will be remembered, but for her contribution to Canadian literature, now made increasingly accessible

“I do not fear the dark, for what is night?
Only the shell that holds the pearl of light. (“Night Piece,” by RH Grenville)

Her work retains all those lovely qualities of genuine poetry that the moderns persist in rejecting: I mean poetry thought, clarity, imagery that we recognize as authentic, music, meaning, poignance, and a certain heart-breaking fathoming of the wonder and mystery of human life.” Archibald Rutledge, Foreword to Fountain in the Square

A sad goodbye: Lyn Cook (1918-2018)

On 15 July 2018, the day after children’s author Lyn Cook died, her son Christopher contacted us with the news. Evelyn Waddell, who wrote her children’s books as Lyn Cook and poetry as Margaret Culverhouse, was one of the few authors in our project who was still living when we began our digital revisions in 2008. I spoke to her a number of times on the phone, and exchanged emails with her regarding our work and specifically her entry, which she helped to write. At 95, the age she was when we last spoke, Evelyn was a bright, intelligent woman with a sharp sense of humour and a delight in sharing her life and thoughts with us.

When I visited Ontario in 2012, I was really upset that I did not have time to drive up to Port Hope, where she was living at the time with her daughter Deborah; it would have been fabulous to meet her in person. I was honoured that she and her family appreciated to our project sufficiently that they let us know so soon after her passing.

The following is her obituary, published in the Toronto Globe and Mail on 17 July 2018.

 

More about Isa Grindlay Jackson (1884-1981)

Isa Grindlay, c1918

The saga continues. The little we knew about Isa back at the beginning of the project was captured in her entry in the now-static database housed by the library at SFU. Our current entry, in addition to being far more thorough, is far more correct. But not as correct as we would like, it turns out.

The first set of changes occurred in about 2010, when the database at SFU was revised completely with the help of our diligent RAs, Linnea McNally and Alison McDonald. Our entry was recently revised as a result of questions posed by Dr. Samantha Philo-Gill, who wrote about the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps in France during the First World War. That story is detailed in an earlier post. The influx of new information led to the updated version in the current project, but the story does not end there. More than the unravelling of biography that Dr. Philo-Gill and I managed, was the serendipitous discovery of our project by Jason Johnson, Isa Grindlay Jackson’s great-grandson.

On Canada Day, Jason commented on both our blog post about Isa and the digital copy of Ripples from the Ranks of the Q.M.A.A.C (1918). His kind offer of help (which I inferred from his comment that he had photos and publications of hers) was gratefully accepted. It turns out, too, that he lives only half-an-hour away, so last Sunday I visited for coffee and genealogy. When I arrived, he had laid out about 50 photos of Isa and her family, with stacks of documents and clipping neatly piled beside. I was in heaven! The only problem was, of course, that there is far too much information for us to include in what is already a more-or-less completed entry.

I am really hoping that Jason and his brother manage to find the time to go through, organize, or even catalogue the treasure trove of information about this author’s life. All of our authors are interesting, by virtue of being part of our Canadian literary history, but Isa Grindlay Jackson stands out. She lived a fascinating life, inhabiting a number of disparate spaces, reflected in her poetry and recorded in the diary that Jason has read and annotated.

Our entries list her movements, but do not delve into the deeper experiences of her life: in 1910, at the age of 26, she immigrated to the newly formed province of Alberta; lost a husband and enlisted in the WAAC in the First World War; homesteaded north of Edmonton through the Great Depression and the Second World War; and finally moved to Vancouver, where her second husband died in 1955 and she in 1981, almost reaching her centenary. Hidden within her biography is the fodder for an investigation into the intersection of her strength with the hardships she endured, one of so many women who both settled and wrote about Canada, and Canada’s place in the British Commonwealth, during the first half of the twentieth century. Isa Grindlay Jackson’s life and work would make a fabulous topic for a graduate thesis; were I at the beginning instead of nearing the end of my academic career, I would jump on this one. I’d love to see someone else take up this torch.

 

CEWW and DoCEWW launch, May 25th, 2018

It is with great joy that we are able to announce that as of today, May 25^th, 2018, we are up and live!

Canada’s Early Women Writers (CEWW)

The Canada’s Early Women Writers project at the Canadian Writing Research Collaboratory is now populated with the biographies and bibliographies of 730 female authors. Novelists, poets, journalists, scientists: our authors write in a number of genres, come from a multitude of social spaces and ethnicities, and have published in forums ranging from local newspapers to internationally recognized journals, from small family-owned presses to major players in the publication world.

The stories of these women, and of our delving into their histories, are fascinating. I have posted in the past about our research adventures, such as the discovery of Isa Grindlay Jackson’s peregrinations; or the mystery of nurse Jane Layhew, who married Northrop Frye’s cousin; or the rather convoluted history of Margaret Vance Rody’s one book of poetry, Gleanings (1925, 1931, 1942). The stories are myriad, and it is our privilege to share them with you all.

The Database of Canada’s Early Women Writers (DoCEWW)

At the outset of the project, our task was to find as many early Canadian women authors as possible, after which we would try to fill in the details for as many as we could. We were astonished to discover over 4800 Canadian women who published their first works in or before 1950.

We knew, though, that we would not be able to find biographical details for all 4800 authors, although bibliographical data was more likely to be comprehensive. In order not to lose what information we had amassed, with the assistance of the Digital Humanities Innovation Lab at the Simon Fraser University Library, we created a more extensive and yet simpler database: DoCEWW.

Where CEWW offers extensive bio-bibliographic entries, DoCEWW records each author’s name, alternative names, dates and places of birth and death, residences, titles written, and collections and periodicals contributed to.

While DoCEWW already contains some 4800 authors, the list is not yet comprehensive, so if you know of any other authors to include, or have information to add or corrections to make, please contact us! Neither of our projects would be half as rich without the help of the online community.

 

So thank you all!

Our heartfelt thanks go out to all of the relatives, and friends, and academics who have shared their knowledge and research and family stories with us. This is what our project is all about: sharing stories and information and making sure the women who helped build Canada’s literary world are not forgotten.

Here is the list of some of the wonderful people who have assisted us; if you should be on here and are not, please contact me so I can rectify the omission.

A. Elizabeth McKim
A.M.D. McWilliam
Ajai Khattri
Alan Kultschar
Anita Birt
Annette Fulford
Arthur W.F. Barrett
Ashley Armsworthy
Beatrice Rowley
Beverlee (Croft) Nelson
Bill Wills
Brenda Hattie
Brian Busby
Bruce Gordon
Cairine Macdonald
Callie Stacey
Carol Fraser
Carolyn Brown
Cathy Rowley
Charles Rowley
Chris Boggs
Christine Kilpatrick
Christine Owen
Coral Ann Howells
Daniel Madden
Daphne Biggs
David Mawhinney
David Reed
Debra Martens
Dennis Brooks
Diana Birchall
Dorian Gieseler Greenbaum
Dresdin L. Archibald
Eileen Santlal
Eleanor Best
Elizabeth Donaldson
Eric Pedersen
Eva-Marie Kroller
Evelyn Bromley
Geir Jaegersen
Geneviève Bruneau
Glenn Belyea
Helen Elizabeth Ross
Helen L. Whyte
Helen Piddington
Helena M. MacLean
Holly Jonson
Jan Gregory
Janice Dowson
Janice Hamilton
Janice Kelly Brown
Jean McCollum
Jim Arnett
John Grove
John Tepper Marlin
Jon Palmer Broderick
Judy Schuett
Karen E.H. Skinazi
Kathy Le Gresley
Kaye Soulsby
Kitt Maitland
Lester Batten
Linda and Bill Jones
Linda Pellerin Cass-Jones
Lindsay Carroll
Liz Tracy Hartzler
Lyn and Debra Cook
Lyn Nunn
Margaret Buffie
Margaret Sweatman
Mark Donaldson
Marte Brengle
Mary Chapman
Mary Joanne Peace Henderson
Michael Edward Bath
Nevin Taggart
Nick Drumbolis
Nora Spence
Pam McCorquodale
Patricia McDonald
Paul Ross
Paula Niall
Ray Saintonge
Ron Robichaud
Samantha Philo-Gill
Sheldon Rose
Simon Pole
Stephen Cox
Steve Willerton (and his father Victor)
Vivian Moreau
William Sivell

Children’s author Lyn Cook turns 100

A few days ago, on 4 May 2018, Canadian children’s author Lyn Cook turned 100, the second of our authors to do so during the course of our project’s development.

I spoke to Lyn a few years ago—I believe she was 96 at the time—and she was a sharp, engaging woman, whose acumen belied her advancing age. It pleases me greatly that she is still with us, especially as her daughter, Deborah, with whom I was in contact, died recently of cancer. At the time, Lyn promised to send me copies of her poetry chapbooks—she self-published three in the 1940s under the pseudonym Margaret Culverhouse, a combination of her second name with her maternal grandmother’s maiden name—but sadly Deborah was unable to find them (“I know I have extra copies somewhere…”).

Lyn Cook was an extremely popular children’s author in the 1950s and 60s. Her first book, The Bells on Finland Street (1950) was based on her experiences as a young mother in Sudbury, Ontario, where the population included a mixture of various Scandinavian and other European cultures. The Bells on Finland Street was followed by 20 other books for children, as well as a Girl Guide Brownie handbook and a study guide for her most successful novel, Samantha’s Secret Room (1963).

Here is an announcement of Lyn’s 100th birthday, published yesterday (5 May 2018) in the Toronto Globe & Mail. A more complete biography is posted in the Canada’s Early Women Writers project at the Canadian Writing Research Collaboratory.