Carrie MacMillan

Lorraine McMullen

Carrie MacMillan, Lorraine McMullen, and Elizabeth Waterston have uncovered information about the lives and works of six such writers. Rosanna Leprohon, May Agnes Fleming, Margaret Murray Robertson, Susan Frances Harrison, Margaret Marshall Saunders, and Joanna E. Wood were once-popular novelists who are now for the most part ignored, with virtually all of their works out of print. MacMillan, McMullen, and Waterston show that these six writers deserve modern recognition not only for their literary accomplishments but also for what they reveal, through their work and their lives, about the condition of the woman writer in nineteenth-century Canada. The writings of these six women from varied backgrounds reflect their different experiences of life in the late nineteenth century. In this study a biographical profile of each author, set in the contemporary social context, is provided, as well as an analysis of career development, emphasising publishing history and critical response. As each case history unfolds, the broader picture emerges of an era when many ideas of personal and public life were changing.

Six Nineteenth-Century Canadian Women Novelists

Silenced Sextet

The modern literary searchlight has flushed out Canada’s long neglected nineteenth century female writers. New critical approaches are advocated and others are encouraged to take on the difficulties – and rewards – of research into the lives of our foremothers.

Nineteenth-century Canadian Women Writers

Re(dis)covering Our Foremothers

Sandra Campbell

Pioneering Women is an anthology of short fiction written before 1880 by Canadian women, including Susanna Moodie, Catharine Parr Traill, and Rosanna Mullins Leprophon. From the Maritimes to Upper Canada, from the backwoods to the drawing room, Pioneering Women demonstrates the variety that exists in stories by women of early British North America. The backwoods setting of Moodie's Ontario stands in contrast to the sophisticated Montreal of Leprophon, as does the power and disease of Harriet Vaughan Cheney's urban immigrant community to the wealthy cultivated settings described by May Agnes Fleming for her New York readers and by Mrs. J.V. Noel for her Montreal audience. While women were largely confined to the domestic sphere during this period, several of the authors in this anthologoy were founders or editors of papers as well as successful writers. In much of their fiction, however, the restriction of possibilities for women finds expression as a subtext dealing with patriarchal power andd its effect on women. The importance of female bonds in a male world provides another underlying theme to many stories. As a document of Canada's early years and women's part in the settlement in and development of the new land, Pioneering Women is of interest to social historians as well as students, teachers, and general readers.

Short Stories by Canadian Women : Beginnings to 1880

Pioneering Women

Elizabeth Waterston

The Canadian publishing industry burgeoned during the late nineteenth century and Canadian poets and novelists began to gain international recognition. Twentieth-century literary scholars, however, have tended to focus on just a few of the writers of this vital expansive period. Many other writers with strong critical reputations and/or popular followings - a good proportion of whom were women - have been virtually lost to us. Carrie MacMillan, Lorraine McMullen, and Elizabeth Waterston have uncovered information about the lives and works of six such writers. Rosanna Leprohon, May Agnes Fleming, Margaret Murray Robertson, Susan Frances Harrison, Margaret Marshall Saunders, and Joanna E. Wood were once-popular novelists who are now for the most part ignored, with virtually all of their works out of print. These six writers deserve modern recognition not only for their literary accomplishments but also for what they reveal, through their work and their lives, about the condition of the woman writer in nineteenth-century Canada. The writings of these six women reflect their varied backgrounds and their different experiences of life in the late nineteenth century. A biographical profile of each author, set in the contemporary social context, is provided, as well as an analysis of career development, emphasizing publishing history and critical response. As each case history unfolds, the broader picture emerges of an era when many ideas of personal and public life were changing.

Lorraine McMullen

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