Case 1 - Canadian Literature Beginnings
Bliss Carman and E. Pauline Johnson. The James Elgin Wetherell Papers held here at the library are not large – they consist of only two boxes – but they contain important correspondence detailing the editing work he did for the book Later Canadian Poets (Toronto: Copp, Clark Co., 1893) which featured, according to the preface, "selections from the productions of the best known of our younger Canadian poets." For Bliss Carman, seen here in an undated photo, the book offered exposure to the then mostly unknown poet. In a letter dated 26 May 1893 to Wetherell shortly after its publication, he expresses his gratitude: "I have just received a copy of ‘Later Canadian Poets,’ for which I presume I am indebted to you. I thank you heartily. It is a welcome work, and you deserve well of all of us, for this work you have given. It seems to me the volume ought to attract attention … I am sure I am delighted with the attention you have given my own verses; and your choice there seems to me as good as could be."
Significantly, Later Canadian Poets also included a supplement on publishing "the notable work produced in recent years by some of our women writers." The most notable author represented is E. Pauline Johnson. In an undated letter to Wetherell, seen here, she expresses her gratitude for being published in the anthology: “What an admirable work you have turned out! It is most creditable and I am more than pleased with it. You have given me, I see, the post of honor amongst the fair ones – for which my Indian heart thanks you.” Johnson, of course, was one of the important writers who helped to define a distinct Canadian voice, drawing on her indigenous roots for inspiration.
Susanna Moodie (1803-1885) While British born, most of Susanna Moodie’s work for which she would achieve acclaim – albeit for little pay – was done in Canada. Roughing it in the Bush, originally published in 1852, is by far her best-known work, and draws upon her early experiences in Canada, where she and her husband emigrated in 1832. In this 1871 Moodie letter, we can already see the financial struggles of writing. Moodie writes to the agent and publisher Richard Bentley, detailing her husband’s death and her poverty, and making a request to secure the copyright to two of her works, including Roughing it in the Bush, in order to publish a Canadian edition. “Could you grant me the privilege of using these, strictly confining the sale of the book to the Dominion – I should be greatly indebted to you for this great favor, though I feel that it is much to ask of you – Yet, the proceeds which we expect from the intended publication would place me beyond the chilling grasp of poverty.” The first Canadian edition, seen here, was published later that year, by Maclear and Co. of Toronto.
Lucy Maud Montgomery (1874-1942) Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables (first edition, published in Boston by L.C. Page in 1908, can be seen here) is an enduring Canadian classic. However, this September 1909 letter from the Edwin Austin Hardy Papers – Hardy was an Ontario teacher and school administrator, and secretary of the Canadian Authors’ Association – shows Montgomery’s own ambivalence toward her much-beloved hero Anne. In what appears to be a response to a letter Hardy wrote to Montgomery – most likely after the publication of Anne of Avonlea (1909 – she writes that a novel of “Anne the College girl” will most likely never materialize. For one, Montgomery claims she does not have the “sufficient experience of college life” to write about it. More to the point, she also writes that “after thinking and writing Anne for over three years I’m actually sick of her.” Of course, Montgomery would return to Anne in a number of sequels, but Anne of the Island, the first after Anne of Avonlea, only appeared several years later, in 1915 – and she does indeed attend college.