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Ontario History

Susanna Moodie: Pioneer Author By Anne Cimon Mazo de la Roche: Rich and Famous Writer By Heather Kirk Margaret Steffler

Volume 99, Number 2, Fall 2007

URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1065747ar DOI: https://doi.org/10.7202/1065747ar

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Publisher(s) The Historical Society

ISSN 0030-2953 (print) 2371-4654 (digital)

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Cite this review Steffler, M. (2007). Review of [Susanna Moodie: Pioneer Author By Anne Cimon / Mazo de la Roche: Rich and Famous Writer By Heather Kirk]. Ontario History, 99(2), 261–263. https://doi.org/10.7202/1065747ar

Copyright © The Ontario Historical Society, 2007 This document is protected by copyright law. Use of the services of Érudit (including reproduction) is subject to its terms and conditions, which can be viewed online. https://apropos.erudit.org/en/users/policy-on-use/

This article is disseminated and preserved by Érudit. Érudit is a non-profit inter-university consortium of the Université de Montréal, Université Laval, and the Université du Québec à Montréal. Its mission is to promote and disseminate research. https://www.erudit.org/en/ book reviews 261 Susanna Moodie Pioneer Author By Anne Cimon. Montreal: XYZ Publishing, 2006. xi +156 pp. $17.95 softcover. ISBN 1- 894852-19-2. Mazo de la Roche Rich and Famous Writer By Heather Kirk. Montreal: XYZ Pub- lishing, 2006. xii + 196 pp. $17.95 soft- cover. ISBN 1-894852-20-6.

YZ ’s ‘Quest Library Series’ pub- controversy that have always surrounded lishes creative nonfiction biogra- this writer’s mysterious life. Cimon had phies for young adult readers. In too many facts; Kirk faced too many se- X2006, Ontario writers Susanna Moodie crets. Moodie’s two books, Roughing it in (1803-1885) and Mazo de la Roche the Bush and Life in the Clearings, and her (1879-1961) were the subjects of two of edited letters, along with biographies by these biographies. Photographs of elabo- Charlotte Gray and Michael Peterman, rate English country houses are featured in provided Cimon with the basis for her both texts: Reydon Hall in Suffolk, which study. Kirk’s access to sources was more Moodie left in order to become a Cana- difficult because Caroline Clement (de la dian writer, and Vale House near Windsor Roche’s cousin and lifelong companion) Castle, which de la Roche easily purchased apparently burned de la Roche’s diaries, de- with the proceeds of her Canadian books. stroying what could have been valuable pri- Both Moodie and de la Roche achieved mary documents. In addition, de la Roche’s fame as highly successful Canadian writ- tendency to lie about her life renders her ers; in the process, the poverty-stricken 1957 autobiography, Ringing the Changes, Moodie relinquished her status as an Eng- unreliable, and has resulted in challenges lish gentlewoman, whereas de la Roche ac- for Kirk and previous biographers. tually acquired and performed that role for In her study of Moodie, Cimon man- a short period of time. ages to include the major events in a judi- Anne Cimon worked with the exten- cious manner, including life both before sive autobiographical, epistolary, and criti- and after the sojourn in the bush. In par- cal works that document the life of Canadi- ticular, Cimon captures the close relation- an literary icon, Susanna Moodie, and part ships Susanna enjoyed with her husband, of Cimon’s challenge was deciding what John Dunbar Moodie, and her sister, Cath- could be excluded from the vast amount of erine Parr Traill, as well as the pain and be- material already available. Heather Kirk’s trayal suffered by Susanna when she was task of providing a simple and straightfor- rejected and scorned by her older sister, ward record of the life of Mazo de la Roche . The narrative, however, was complicated by the fascination and tends to be choppy, and the text is often 262 ONTARIO HISTORY

interrupted by white space meant to signal and Traill, and celebrated twentieth-cen- a gap or a chronological jump. Instead of tury writers such as Margaret Laurence and explaining or justifying the leap, however, . the design of the page exacerbates the shift. Finally, Kirk complains that de la Ro- Eight of these distracting textual spaces oc- che has received inadequate recognition cur in the eleven pages that make up Chap- on the land. She notes that Lucy Maud ter 6, “Letter to the Governor.” Curiously, Montgomery and Stephen Leacock, con- the list of sources consulted by Cimon in- temporary writers who enjoyed compara- cludes only the first of two edited collec- ble popularity and success, are honoured tions of Moodie’s letters. Although there by national heritage sites in Prince Edward is already relevant material on Moodie ac- Island and Orillia. (She might have added cessible to the young adult reader, Cimon’s that Montgomery is also nationally ac- study is both entertaining and organized. knowledged through the Leaskdale manse Hopefully her biography will inspire young in Uxbridge Township, Ontario.) Kirk’s adults to read and quibble is that the de la Roche sites of Life in the Clearings in order to hear the Benares Historic House in Mississauga and original voice. Sovereign House in Bronte, administered Readers of Kirk’s biography learn less by local bodies, should be designated na- about the actual literary texts than do Ci- tionally. She has a point, but even national mon’s readers. Because Moodie’s writing is sites are often maintained and run by local her life, the literary and biographical mate- groups. Plaques placed by the Archaeologi- rial intersects and converses in an easy man- cal and Historic Sites Board of Ontario ner. In the case of de la Roche, readers can honour de la Roche in Newmarket, as well become preoccupied with the nature of the as Moodie in Lakefield and Belleville, but relationship between de la Roche and Clem- there is no question that we need more na- ent, and with the women’s strange refusal to tional recognition and celebration of Ca- answer questions about the background and nadian writers. circumstances of their two adopted children, Susanna Moodie’s work will continue René and Esmée. Kirk’s refusal to acknowl- to attract the serious treatment it has al- edge the controversy about the nature of de ready received in abundance. Historic la Roche’s and Clement’s potentially lesbian markers encourage and reflect this interest. partnership, which was broached by Joan The local plaque at the corner of Stenor Givner in her 1989 biography, omits what Road and Moodie Drive is a memorial to young adult readers will ask anyway when Moodie’s Lake Katchewanook log cabin faced with the intimacy of the personal and north of Lakefield. The actual log cabin to artistic relationship. The failure to pose the the east is not marked or accessible, but the question does not eliminate the question- spot is known and from the writing we can ing. In her epilogue, Kirk argues that the imagine Moodie’s life in that place. Op- popularity of de la Roche’s writing is reason portunities to remember and honour the enough to pay attention to her work, even if homes of our writers are now arising, and academics continue to disparage its literary perhaps current interest in popular culture value. As well, Kirk refers to Givner’s per- and literary celebrity will draw more atten- ceptive argument that de la Roche should tion to the life and home of Mazo de la Ro- be viewed as an important link between che. We must continue to make concerted nineteenth-century “foremothers,” Moodie and determined efforts to connect with book reviews 263

those domestic and natural spaces that have ------Letters of Love and Duty…. , influenced and inspired Canadian writers. University of Toronto Press, 1993. Givner, Joan. Mazo de la Roche: The Hid- Margaret Steffler den Life. Toronto: Oxford University Trent University Press, 1989. Gray, Charlotte. Sisters in the Wilder- Bibliography: ness: The Lives of Susanna Moodie and Ballstadt, Carl, Elizabeth Hopkins, and Catherine Parr Traill. Toronto: Vi- Michael A. Peterman, eds. Susanna king, 1999. Moodie: Letters of a Lifetime. Toronto, Peterman, Michael A. Susanna Moodie: University of Toronto Press, 1985. A Life. Toronto: ECW Press, 1999.

I’ve Got a Home in Glory Land A Lost Tale of the Underground Railroad By Karolyn Smardz Frost. Toronto: Thomas Allen Publishers, 2007. xxv + 450 pp. Hard- cover $36.95. ISBN 0-88762-250-X.

here are so many reasons to read this story-telling. Glory Land exudes optimism, very good book. Glory Land tells a as human spirit repeatedly trumps despera- simple, engaging, and profound hu- tion. Here is a model of careful primary manT story. Thornton and Lucie Blackburn research, including archeological, placed were idealistic young adult slaves – chattels squarely within the reach of the thought- – living in the United States about 1830. ful reading public who are easily put off by They craved personal freedom with a per- academics talking only to each other. Glory sistence that drove them to take risks that Land invites a universal readership. seem, to an outsider like me, unimagina- Black history is biographical, fascinat- bly foolhardy. Heart-stopping experiences ing because few black people left direct crossing the Ohio River and escaping cus- trace. The concept of person as commod- tody in Detroit brought them finally to ity places the Blackburns alongside horses, settle into relative anonymity in Toronto wagons, bales of cotton, and fashionable where Thornton established a cab service clothing in household inventories. But in in 1837. For decades Lucie and Thornton those lists repose the lives that Smardz Frost freely shared their time and talents assisting has teased out. Slave auction accounts, court fellow refugees. Childless, illiterate and (to proceedings to recover escaped slaves, the our knowledge) never photographed, this testimony of abolitionists, the fugitive press, accomplished couple died in the 1890s. transcribed memoirs: all contribute still They are buried in the Toronto Necropo- more. Thornton was a recognized member lis next to the distinguished anti-slavery of the Louisville mercantile community in crusader, George Brown, publisher of The 1830, and his personal network provided a Globe. persistent Smardz Frost with a long list of Karolyn Smardz Frost has given us a people with whom he intersected and who superbly-crafted blend of scholarship and left their own records. She covered historical