CanLitBooks

(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 Macmillan, dedicated to “The Boys of the Stag Parties”; the book cost $1 when released)

(scarce signed 1927 Macmillan dj by Eric Arthur)

(one of the unique abstract illustrations for the above book by Thoreau MacDonald)

(1 0f 2 djs of this 1930 Macmillan title about a famous sea rescue; one signed by Pratt , the other by the captain of the Antinoe as well as a laid-in newspaper story of the day about the rescue)

(numbered reprint dj copy signed by Pratt, Macmillan, 1941)

(scarce 1943 dj Macmilllan)

(the 1st 1944 dj Collected Poems)

(the double-fold covered 1944 Macmillan chapbook)

(yet another naval adventure; the 1947 dj Macmillan. nicely illustrated by Grant MacDonald who also illustrated Leacock’s Sunshine Sketches)

(his last book–signed– which won his last GG Award, cost $2 to buy in 1952.)

(a rare signed Christmas card poem)

(1961 envelope and letter to a friend–Ned (his chosen name with close friends) was the first Canadian poet to be broadcast on t.v. and radio; note his humorous reference to his physical appearance on the envelope!)

(this is an incredibly rare 1967 2 LP release of Pratt’s major poem; TBC recording)

Born in Western Bay, N.L., E.J. Pratt–Edwin John (1887-1964) had a long run as the leading and distinguished poet of his day, winning many awards including three Governor General’s in 1937 (Fable of the Goats), 1940 (Brebeuf and His Brethren), and 1952 (Towards the Last Spike). His father was a famous sea captain, and Pratt himself grew up with a great familiarity of the sea, which is reflected in his first collection Newfoundland Verse, published in 1923.

He was a long-time professor at Victoria College and his star pupil was Northrop Frye. Pratt always chose large landscapes and topics to write narrative verse about as evidenced by the following list of topics: the sinking of the Titanic, the Roosevelt and Antinoe, Dunkirk, the building of the C.P.R., and the assassinations of Brebeuf and other priests. Pratt’s “Brebeuf and His Brethren” was a literary event broadcast on national radio in 1943; one year later it was set to music and sung in Toronto. (c.f. rare record album cited above)

(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 hand next to fiction; his low-print-run novels are scarce; dust jackets are very rare–this the 1922 Hodder & Stoughton ed.)

(rare 1924 McClelland & Stewart dj)

(rarest Stead–his best book with dj and rare signature; Doran 1926)

(only copy of this I’ve ever seen: 1943 pamphlet of speech he gave to Ottawa Rotary Club on language, Runge Press; someone has typed in an excerpt from one of his poems)

(photo of Stead from Canadian Singers and Their Songs, McClelland & Stewart, 1919)

Robert J.C. Stead–James Campbell (1880-1959). His family homesteaded in Manitoba and that’s where he began his poetic career. He eventually became a PR agent for CPR advertising the West and turned to writing several prairie novels. Stead was unable to publish his novel Dry Water during the Depression and this title was eventually published a half-century after his death, in 2008.

(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 years back–I don’t believe there were that many copies of this title printed in the first place)

Glasgow-born Thomas Beattie Robertson (1879-1936) arrived in Canada to work as a farmer, printer, and literary editor. He was a fixture at the Winnipeg Free Press for 18 years where he wrote many articles, some of which were collected here in this volume, which came out in the same year he died and won the Award.

(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 dj of the 1948 Macmillan ed.–de la Roche covers were usually this ‘romantically’-toned)

(Mazo de la Roche was based in Toronto as can be seen in the letterhead. This signed 1948  letter to ffrench predicts her fan would write a book one day–and he did, some three decades later.)

Mazo de la Roche (1879-1961) started writing in 1915, but it wasn’t till 1927, when she published the first book in the Jalna saga, which made her international reputation, and put her on a par with L.M. Montgomery in terms of literary fame. Jalna was one of the first Canadian novels to be turned into a movie.

(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 Montgomery (1874-1942) was and continues to be a major internationally-recognized children’s writer with her series of books about Anne of Green Gables, which originated in 1908. Hundreds of thousands of tourists annually still flock to Cavendish to visit ‘Anne’s home’–easily CanLit’s most famous landmark. A popular 1985 tv series has done much to immortalize both Anne and Montgomery.

(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 copies; this is the only copy of this rare book I’ve ever seen.)

(more common–500 copies–only 250 for sale–hard-to-find 1933 Ryerson with the dj)

(two uncommon illustrations by MacDonald in the 1927 Jasper National Park booklet issued by C.N.R in 1925)

James E.(dward) H.(ervey) MacDonald (1973-1932)–both MacDonald and Harris of The Group of 7 wrote poetry; MacDonald’s two poetry books (c.f. above images) were published posthumously in 1933 by his son Thoreau. MacDonald was better known, though, for his paintings as was Harris.

(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 Settlers of the Marsh, Grosset & Dunlap/Doran; especially hard-to-find with this dust jacket)

(most Grove books cannot be found signed; this title is also impossible to find in a dust jacket)

(the 1929 Macmillan dust jacket of this title)

(the 1928 Carrier dj, reissued in 1939 by Ryerson)

(the 1930 Smith dj known for its blue-ing tone of the original white on cover)

(the extremely rare, intact dust jacket of this 1933 Dent book)

(the ltd. ed 400 copy signed run of the 1944 Macmillan)

(by this point, Grove was no longer signing his full names)

(the unexpected 1947 Macmillan fantasy novel with ants on the cover)

Frederick Philip Grove (1871-1948) a.k.a. Felix Paul Greve, was born in Europe and travelled there widely before coming to settle and work in the harshness of rural Manitoba as a teacher. In 1915, he started writing which led to two unique books Over Prairie Trails and The Turn of the Year, based on his travel experiences as a teacher.

Grove moved to Ontario, then brought out a series of naturalistic prairie novels about immigrant experience, often pitting sons against fathers. His sexually frank Settlers of the Marsh offended many genteel readers of the day. And his last book, Consider Her Ways is a parable about a colony of ants! He won a G-G award for In Search of Myself (1946–Non-fiction)

(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 artwork; cover  “Sounds Assembling”, Winnipeg Art Gallery)

(the ultra-rare 1930 hardback Elijah–an Edwin Rudge book, written and illustrated by Brooker)

(sample dazzling illustration inside)

(incredibly rare signature of Brooker; about the only other way to get a signed is to buy one of his paintings)

(Richard) Bertram Brooker (1871-1948) was born in Croydon, England and came to Manitoba at an early age to work on railway construction. He found his truer callings as an author, a journalist, an illlustrator, and as a geometrically abstract painter. Under the pseudonym Huxley Herne, he penned a mystery The Tangled Miracle and then won the 1936 GG Award for fiction with his unusual book Think of the Earth. It is next-to-impossible to find either of these two titles, along with Elijah.

(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; painting by Carr on cover)

(highly recommended documentary about her paintings and connections with First Nations people; available for purchase from Cine Metu & White Pine Pictures)

(a bronze statue of her by Barbara Paterson, her monkey Woo on her shoulder, and her pet dog Billie on a street corner next to the Empress Hotel, Victoria)

(her childhood home in Victoria)

(inside the house–a popular tourist attraction)

Emily Carr (1871-1945) was an eccentric Victoria-born artist and writer who studied in San Francisco, England, and France. Lawren Harris encouraged her in her work; by 1927, she became recognized nationally. Her subjects are typically native life and the B.C. forest painted spiritually in brushstrokes reminiscent of van Gogh. In later life as she became too ill to continue sketching trips into the woods, she turned her hand to writing. Her first book, Klee Wyck–what the aboriginals called her ‘The Laughing One”–won a Governor General’s Award for non-fiction in 1941. I used her empathic memoir of “Sophie”, a native woman, in Connections 2: Relating, 1st ed. (Gage).

(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 and sent him a signed postcard and a complimentary book via Dodd Mead, his publisher, pictured below)

(rare dj of U.S. Ed., Dodd Mead, 1932 with 3 signed letters and postcard laid and tipped in)

(scarce dj, John Lane, 1919–1st ed.; Carlton Ellinger–artist))

(scarce dj, Gundy, 1920–1st ed.)

(rare dj, Dodd Mead, 1922)

(rare dj, Bodley Head, 1923; artist–Hassall)

(scarce dj, Gundy, 1924–1st ed.; artist–John Reld)

(rare dj, Dodd Mead, 1926–1st ed.; artist–John Reld)

(scarce dj, Dodd Mead, 1928–1st ed.)

(rare dj; Dodd Mead, 1931–1st ed.; artist–Arthur Hawkins)

(rare dj, Bodley Head, 1933)

(highly recommended Leacock A/V: left to right, top to bottom: sealed Stephen Leacock: Gertrude the Governess–read by Christopher Plummer, Caedmon–artist: Hirschfeld; An Evening with Stephen Leacock–by John Stark, narrator: Gordon Pinsent, Tapestry/CBC, 1981; John Drainie Reads Stephen Leacock, Melbourne/London, 1967; photos: Karsh & Thompson; Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town movie adaptation; CBC/eOne, 2012; early paperbacks– Literary Lapses–Collins, 1945; Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town–Collins, 1944; CD–Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town–CBC, 1946 radio production; not pictured here: Life & Times: Stephen Leacock–CBC)

(recommended reading with visuals: Leacock, Jackdaw No. C24, Clarke Irwin, 1970–includes rare Leacock on record; The Stephen Leacock Picture Book, Dundurn, 1998; Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town–McClelland & Stewart, 1996, illustrator: Wesley W. Bates)

Satirist Stephen (Butler) Leacock (1869-1944) was Canada’s first great humorist; he was also a notable political economist and professor at McGill (1908-1936, retiring at 65 against his will). The Leacock Medal for Humour was established in his honor. His first book Elements of Political Science (1906) was the best-selling book in his lifetime.  His first humor book was Literary Lapses (1910), published the year Mark Twain died; in fact, Leacock was often referred to as the Canadian Mark Twain. In all, he wrote 60+ books; his last were Last Leaves and The Boy I Left Behind Me, published posthumously. Leacock was a raconteur and platform speaker with a world-wide reputation. My Discovery of the West won a Governor-General’s Award for Non-fiction in 1937.