My ~New~ Book - Seeds of Pine
>> Thursday, October 1, 2009
On the way home from Peterborough today, Ross & I stopped at an antique shop. Lots of WAY cool stuff - including a $5000 desk that I am now coveting....and $600+ light fixtures that would be PERFECT in our Peterborough house.
Actually, also makes me wonder how much some of the light fixtures we DO have might be worth - there is one right inside the front door that looks like it has probably been there since the house was built in the early 1900s. It's missing a shade though - and not something you can just pick up at Home Depot.
Anyway, in addition to bunches of way cool antiques that would be PERFECT for the P. house, they also had a very nice selection of books. LOTS of Canadiana - and since I'm in Canadian Studies, now, I have a much better excuse to buy Canadiana, right? Right!
There were plenty I would have liked to buy - there was a Canadian military history that almost came home with me - but then we spotted a 1922 edition of Seeds of Pine by Janey Canuck.
Janey Canuck was the pen name of Emily Ferguson Murphy, who is one of the so-called Famous Five, "the women who carried the Persons Case to the Privy Council in England where, on October 18, 1929, the decision was handed down that women were persons qualified to become members of the Senate of Canada" (Library and Archives Canada). She was a social activist, the founder of the Federated Women's Institute for rural women, and in 1916, she became the first female police magistrate in the British Empire.
Most of what I have found out about her is focused on her activism rather than her literature - I'm looking forward to reading the book to find out why. And to assess whether this might be a potential editing project for an aspiring Canadian Studies PhD student! Will have to see what there is in the archives about her too... perhaps I shall have a look when I am in Ottawa next month. (Like I need more archive work! But seriously, I am interested)
Is it just me or have you brought of female Canadian authors more frequently than men. Do they dominate Canadian literature or do you just find their work easier to identify with? Or is it a false perception?
I MUCH prefer Canadian women's writing ...it interests me; men's typically does not - although there are some exceptions.
At least in contemporary lit there are exceptions - in the older stuff, I have not found any men's work that I particularly care for. Same goes for poets .... I am a tad perturbed that for this thing this weekend I got ~stuck~ with men ... on Saturday, there's a session with Molly Peacock!!! And I don't get to do that one! *POUT*
I will be going though - and am invited to lunch with them all, so will get to meet her.
Flit, this sounds so exciting. I wish I could be there with you. I do hope you tell about who Molly Peacock is and what she has done. Now to see if this will post. Lynn
It posted! Yay!
Emily Ferguson Murphy sounds very, very interesting, although knowing about her, and that she made such progress in the early 1900's makes me sad. I think she would have seen a better future for women at this point. She might be disheartened to know we have rocked back and forth between rights and no rights and few rights.
Glad to have you back posting, or at least me posting back either or...
i have not looked into Canadian authors but i just might have to take a look... thx keep it up.
I love this! Because all I've known about before this has been Emily Murphy's activism. I either didn't know, or had forgotten, that she'd also written the Janey Canuck books.
It's an interesting question, about female or male Canadian writers. I'm trying to think...I do love several Robertson Davies books, but then you have Margaret Atwood, Carol Shields, Miriam Toews -- and I do love the poetry of Molly Peacock! Now you've got me interested enough that I'm going to have to keep track.
I met Molly Peacock just yesterday; she signed her book for me.
Also Pier Giorgio de Cicco, Bill Bissett, John Steffler, and several others.