Author Archives: rdavies

(starting out–the young Pratt; from Canadian Poets, ed. John W. Garvin, McClelland & Stewart, 1926) (rare signed; Ryerson, 1923 hardback decorated by Fred Varley, Group of 7 artist) (Macmillan, 1925 hardback, illustrated by John Austen) (rare dj of this signed 1926 … Continue reading →

  (Stead began his career with poetry; 1912 calf & suede cover of Songs of the Prairie published by New York’s Platt & Peck; cover illustration by Elizabeth Colbourne) (a rare dj of the 1917 Musson title) (Stead’s work turned his … Continue reading →

(photo of T.B.R. and the extremely rare dust jacket of the book to win the first Governor General’s Award in 1936 for non-fiction; this dj was so rare I found it on a fluke in a Victoria bookshop a few … Continue reading →

(1927–on the left is a dj 1928 Grosset & Dunlap version; on the right, 1st printing, March 1945, of the first Canadian paperback book to be issued by Pocket Books, Montreal–has the caption: “Share this book with someone in uniform”) (1st … Continue reading →

  (1972 booklet issued by the Women’s Institute, Springfield, P.E.I.; 2008 coin from Royal Canadian Mint, 100th Anniversary of Anne of Green Gables) (1982 Oxford University Press book–recommended pictorial with Montgomery’s writing and illustrative photographs) Born in P.E.I., Lucy Maude … Continue reading →

(J.E.H. MacDonald on the far right; from a 75-year commemorative 1995 Canada Post issue on the Group of 7) (issued by MacDonald’s son Thoreau–who did the cover illustration. This rare chapbook was issued on their Woodchuck Press, Thornhill, 1933–in a run of 200 … Continue reading →

(the 1922 hardback cover of Grove’s first book in Canada by McClelland & Stewart) (the evocative illustrations in the above book and the ones in The Turn of the Year were done by C.M. Manly) (Grove’s most controversial book, 1925’s … Continue reading →

(2000 Brown Bear Press pb; pretty much the only way to read this Brooker novel anymore ; cover–(Piano! Piano!), 1934 oil on canvas owned by Brooker family & Art Gallery of ON) (1979 National Gallery of Canada–an intro to his … Continue reading →

(published posthumously in 1946, Oxford University Press–significantly dedicated to Lawren Harris) (about her stay in an English sanitarium 1902-3; Clarke, Irwin & Co., 1953) (1944, Oxford University Press book about her boarding-housekeeper experiences) (her first book–1941 GG winner; Oxford University Press; … Continue reading →

(left: Canada postage stamp; right: 1st ed. John Lane, 1919, rare signed of his most famous book) (rare signed letter to Frank S. Myers who was in a landmark legal case–1923-26–vs. United States; Leacock also wrote him the following note … Continue reading →