CanLitBooks

(1929 1st  edition djs  of Knister’s first novel; left: U.S. Harcourt, Brace; right: U.K.–Jonathan Cape–illustrated by Drake Brookshaw; also used for Canadian ed.: Macmillan)

(the book which nearly was not published after Knister’s death–small printing 1934 Ryerson, available in U.K. and Canada; illustration–Abbey)

(edited by Knister’s young poet-friend Dorothy Livesay; Ryerson, 1949 dj; includes memoir by Livesay & this photo of Knister and his daughter Imogen, 1932)

(John) Raymond Knister (1899-1932) was born in Ruscom Station, Ontario and was variously a farm worker, taxi driver, poet, and novelist. He spent 8 months researching John Keats’ life which culminated in the factually-based My Star Predominant, which won the Graphic Publishers Canadian Novel contest, and then lay dormant when the sponsor folded, until Ryerson brought it out later. Tragically, Knister died young in a swimming accident; young poet-friend Dorothy Livesay speculated his death was a suicide. White Narcissus is his best-known work.

(a G-G winner for poetry; Ryerson, 1938)

(rare signed copy of above book)

(the title poem)

(1971, Ladysmith Press dj–photos of author, blurb on back cover; photo by Eva Andai)

A child prodigy, Kenneth Leslie (1892-1974) was born on Halloween in Pictou, N.S. His rich, busy life was very dramatic and full of change and disruption as evidenced by his four marriages and many jobs which included songwriter, radio host, editor, political and religious activist, substitute teacher, and lay preacher.

He was called “God’s Red Poet” for being a Christian socialist and edited The Protestant Digest which had a huge circulation.  Leslie also wrote a Broadway musical which collapsed in rehearsals, composed songs which were turned down by Tin Pan Alley, and played violin, and sang Gaelic songs on radio in Newark, New Jersey. Interestingly, Charles G.D. Roberts considered Leslie a better poet than E.J. Pratt.

(dj 1946, Ryerson; cover illustration by de Garthe)

Will R. Bird–Will Richard Bird (1891-1984) was born in East Mapleton. He wrote 15 novels, 2 memoirs, 6 historical books, and 3 travel books. Well-thought of, he was also a President for the Canadian Authors’ Association. I have enjoyed Bird’s quaint, ironic stories and used “Paid-Up Member” and “The Movies Come to Gull Point” in two of my multi-genre literature anthologies.

(earliest available signature of Salverson in 1907; she would have been about 17 at the time; signature on a book plate pasted into the following title)

(The Last Robin: Lyrics and Sonnets by Ethelwyn Wetherald, a popular poet of the day; these romantic poems, no doubt, influenced Salverson’s sensibility as a writer)

(title page of the incredibly rare, small-run printing of the second G-G winner for fiction; it is hard to find this book which was printed in Guernsey, Channel Islands; and impossible to find the rare dj)

(spine of the above; I have a good hardback copy and have seen no other copies for sale ever)

(the rare dj of this 1947 McClelland & Stewart ed.)

(same book: the interesting bio blurb on back cover)

Laura Goodman Salverson (1890-1970) was born in Winnipeg, MB. and didn’t learn English till she was 10. Her first G-G winner for fiction, 1937’s The Dark Weaver reflects her pacifist views. Her second (1939) G-G Award was for autobiographical non-fiction Confessions of an Immigrant’s Daughter. Salverson’s books are usually a celebration of Scandinavian immigrants or Norse-styled sagas. Her best work is generally considered to be The Viking Heart, first published in 1923.

(1st ed. dj, Lovat Dickson & Thompson, 1935, bought in U.K.–where he was very popular)

(his signature, same book)

(the back cover, same book; note info about his tour)

(same book: laid in U.K. newspaper article of the day)

(same book: laid in newspaper article of the day; his wife on right)

(1970 Macmillan reprint; Grey Owl did original dj and inside sketches)

(from the above book)

Grey Owl–aka George Stensfield Belaney, Wa-sha-quon-asin (1888-1938) was born in Hastings, England, and ‘became an Indian’ as an adult in Canada. There, he started life as a trapper, but converted to a conservationist, employed to look after animals in Riding Mountain National Park, MB in 1931. He became an alcoholic which led to his public decline and falling out of favor with his government-employer. When he died, a North Bay newspaper revealed his true identity and that led to a further decline in his reputation and a temporary withdrawal of his books. Angele, the first of four significant others, inherited much of his estate which increased when public interest in his strange story was revived.

Richard Attenborough, like his brother David, had been fascinated by Grey Owl’s story in their U.K. youth, and he eventually made a film in 1999 with Pierce Brosnan as the famous imposter. (There are some rare extras on the DVD of this movie showing the real Grey Owl, by the way.) Information on Grey Owl’s Cabin near Prince Albert, run by Parks Canada, can be found online. This is one of the more famous visitable literary tourist sites in Canada.

Highly recommended reading: Jane Billinghurst’s  The Many Faces of Archie Belaney: Grey Owl, Greystone Books, 1999.

(Chatelaine, Mar., 1960 issue, short story)

(in my opinion, one of the weakest 1st ed. dust jackets ever issued on a significant Canadian book; Macmillan, 1947)

(the 1967 Alcuin Society ed. with effective lino-block engravings by Gus Rueter)

(the limitations page for same, signed by Wilson and others)

(1967 Laurentian Library paperback ed.–the way I first read this book on a train trip from the mountains to Edmonton in the early ’70s)

(scarce intact dj, 1949 1st ed. Macmillan)

(the nicely redone scarce dj by Macmillan, 1960)

(rare signed Wilson, inscribed to her cousins)

(scarce 1952 1st ed. Macmillan dj by C. Duckworth-King; contains 2 novellas–“Tuesday and Wednesday”, and “Lilly’s Story”)

(was released separately in U.S.  by Harper & Bros., 1952 dj)

(back cover blurb on/of above book; bio of Wilson)

(Avon, 1952, paperback; a ‘sensational’ cover for its time)

(1954 1st ed. Macmillan scarce clean dj)

(rare 1956 1st ed. Macmillan dj by C. Byfield)

(rare flatsigned copy of 1961 Macmillan, designed by Leslie Smart)

(rare bookplate of Wilson and her husband–they fished together; c.f. Swamp Angel; this is from a book of her husband Wallace signed by him in 1916– The Travels of Marco Polo the Venetian, J.M. Dent, 1914)

Ethel (Davis) Wilson (1888-1980) was born in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, emigrating to England in 1890, and B.C. in 1898. There she trained and taught as an elementary teacher in Vancouver schools. She and her husband Wallace lived for a long time in an apartment block overlooking English Bay. Margaret Laurence was quite fascinated by Wilson and spoke of her decency and kindness. Wilson’s last 8 years were spent in Arbutus Private Hospital. Highly recommended reading on this interesting lady and her unique work: David Stouck’s Ethel Wilson: A Critical Biography.

(scarce 1922  hardcover poetry book published by McClelland & Stewart, 1922; cover by Harris)

(decorated endpapers by Harris)

(right: example of one his theme-divider pages)

(rare, from the library of Lawren Harris, his handwriting in first three lines; Harris signatures are next-to-impossible to get except via his early paintings; the book was The Eagle and the Bear by a friend Pennington Haile,  Ives & Washburn, 1950)

Born in Brantford, Ontario, within the wealthy Massey-Harris family, Lawren (Stewart) Harris (1885-1970) became a key member of the Group of 7; A.Y. Jackson says he provided the stimulus and studio for their work. In later life, he settled in Vancouver and turned to abstractionism. He is buried at the MacMichael Art Gallery grounds. Harris is one of the top Group of 7 painter big sellers; his “The Old Stump” oil sketch sold for 3.51 million dollars!

(a beautiful overview of Phillips’ work, life, and style)

(a nice book he illustrated for Thomas Nelson, 1947)

(his rare signature in a/this book)

(Bow Falls, Banff, AB)

(Lake Louise: Dawn)

(Kicking Horse River, AB)

Walter J. Phillips–Joseph (1884-1963) was born in Lincolnshire, England and moved to Winnipeg in 1913 where he lived for 28 years after that. Phillips was a watercolourist, a woodcut artist, and a printer. His subject matter was MB lakes and rivers, the prairies, and the Rocky Mountains. His delightful work can be seen in galleries in Banff and Winnipeg (the latter in Assiniboine Park’s Pavillion).

To die for: the wonderful oversized coffee-table book pictured above, Roger Boulet’s impressive The Tranquility and the Turbulence: The Life and Works of Walter J. Phillips.

(rare autograph poem and photo from Canadian Singers and Their Songs ed. Edward S. Caswell, McClelland & Stewart, 1919)

(scarce clean hardback of Marjorie Pickthall: A Book of Remembrance by Lorne Pierce– one of her champions; Ryerson, 1925)

(title page of above book which includes photos, poems, and biography; F.H. Varley of the Group of 7 did the decorations)

(rare dust jacket of 1927 McClelland & Stewart collection of her work)

(photo of author and title page for the above book)

Marjorie (Lowry Christie) Pickthall 1883-1922 was born in Gunnersbury, U.K. and died young in Vancouver at 38 from an embolism 12 days after surgery. She was a novelist, poet, and librarian. Best known for her poem “Pere Lalament”, Pickthall had the distinction of being the most popular poet of her brief time. Her poems were still included in school textbooks as late as the 1960s, but disappeared after that. No other popular Canadian poet, except possibly Bliss Carman, has experienced such a similar huge decline in reader interest and reputation.

(Rare signed copy of Chez Nous decorated by A. Y. Jackson, McClelland & Stewart, 1924)

(signed page)

(Scarce copy of CNR’s Jasper National Park, illustrated by Group of 7 artists, 1927, 6 color plates by A.Y. Jackson)

(Mt. Robson plate)

(McClelland & Stewart, 1967; Jackson’s oil sketches from his own trips to the Arctic were posthumously used)

(Baffin Island)

(sculpture of Jackson by Leo Mol  in the Leo Mol Sculpture Garden, Assiniboine Park, Winnipeg)

A.Y. Jackson–Alexander Young (1882-1959) was born in Montreal, and like Lawren Harris, is buried at the MacMichael Art Gallery grounds. He was a founding member of the Group of 7 and had a long career including teaching at the Banff School of Fine Arts (1943-1949) and, after that, as artist-in-residence at the MacMichael in Kleinberg, ON. Jackson was wounded serving in WWI and was a war records artist (1917-1919). He also did art for the two national railways including paintings, illustrations, and murals.