Canadian Authors from New Brunswick

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New Brunswick

Julia Catherine Beckwith was born on March 10, 1796 in Fredericton, New Brunswick. Her mother, Julie-Louise Le Brun, was from a wealthy French family that had immigrated to Canada in the 17^th and 18^th centuries. Her father, Nehemiah Beckwith, moved from New England in 1780 and owned a successful ship building business. Julie-Louise had given up her Roman Catholic faith when she married, but Julia spent a lot of her early life visiting her French cousins in Nova Scotia and Quebec. One of her cousins became a nun of the Hotel-Dieu in Montreal.

Her mother’s previous religious background was the source of the idea for her first novel St. Ursula’s convent, or the nun of Canada. She wrote it in Fredericton when she was seventeen and it had complicated plots, romance, suspense, and heroic adventures. It was not to be published for almost ten years.

     In 1820, in order to lessen the burden on her mother after her father’s death by drowning, Julia moved in with her aunt in Kingston, Upper Canada (now Ontario). She married George Henry Hart on January 3, 1822. George was a bookbinder and Julia operated a boarding house for girls. Her novel was published in 1824 by Hugh C. Thomson as St. Ursula’s Convent or, The Nun of Canada; Containing Scenes from Real Life. According to Beckwith’s wishes, the author was listed as anonymous. It was the first work of fiction written by any man or woman who had been born in Canada and the first to be published in what is now Canada. Julia Beckwith is considered Canada’s first novelist.

     Julia and her husband moved to Rochester, NY, in 1824 where her second novel, Tonnewonte; or, the adopted son of America, was published and portrayed as having been written by an American. It, too, had suspense and depth of feeling, but as some critics said it had the same stilted expression and moral overtones as her first novel. Besides entertainment value, Julia wrote to express attitudes toward society.

     By 1831 Julia and George had six children and they moved back to Fredericton. There she contributed to the weekly paper, the New Brunswick Reporter. She also wrote her third book Edith (or The Doom), which was never published.

     Julia Catherine Beckwith died in Fredericton, New Brunswick on November 28, 1867, the age of 71.

Raymond Fraser was born on May 8, 1941 in Chatham (now Miramichi), New Brunswick, the youngest of three children. His older sisters left home and his mother died when he as a teenager. He spent a lot of his alone time reading. He attended St. Thomas University in Fredericton. There he played sports in his freshman year and was co-editor of the student literary magazine Tom-Tom in his junior year.

     He worked as a teacher for a year then moved to Montreal in 1965 where he and poet Leroy Johnson created the literary magazine Intercourse: Contemporary Canadian Writing (1966-1971). He was also one of the founders of the Montreal Story Tellers Fiction Performance Group, which put on readings in local high schools. To earn money while writing he worked as an editor, chief staff writer, and a freelance writer for the tabloid newspapers. Fraser’s first book of short stories, The Black Horse Tavern, was published in 1973.

     Raymond Fraser and his wife, Sharon, travelled through Europe during the 1970s. The Struggle Outside came out in 1975 and The Bonnonbridge Musicians in 1978. The Bonnonbridge Musicians was a finalist for the 1978 Governor General Literary Award for Fiction. He finally settled in Fredericton and began writing full time. He also was the Writer-In-Residence at the Fredericton High School.

     Raymond Fraser wrote a total of eight books of poetry and fourteen novels and short story collections, five of which were listed in Atlantic Canada’s 100 Greatest Books (2009). He also received the first Lieutenant-Governor’s Award for High Achievement in the Arts that year. He became a member of the Order of New Brunswick in 2012 and received an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from St. Thomas University in 2016.

     Fraser died in Fredericton on October 22, 2018, at the age of 77 from cancer.

Famous Canadian Authors from the Northwest Territories and Nunavut

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Northwest Territories and Nunavut

Rene Fumoleau was born in Vendée, France, on August 6, 1926. He studied to be a priest and came to Canada in 1953. He made his way to the Northwest Territories (Denendeh) and settled in Fort Good Hope (Radeli Koe) after a long boat journey down the Mackenzie River (Dehcho).  

Father Fumoleau quickly became attached to the Dene peoples of the area, loving how generous they were and how they interacted with each other. He supported them in their struggle over land claims. He published As Long as This Land Shall Last about the history of Treaties 8 and 11 that were signed between the Dene peoples and the Government of Canada in the early 1900s.

     In 1988, René began writing about his experiences in the north, putting them in two books of poetry and short stories, Here I Sit, and The Secret. After they were published he did readings and book signing at events and festivals across the land. He was also a prolific photographer taking thousands of pictures over his sixty-six years in the Northwest Territories. His table top books – Denendeh: A Dene Celebration (1984) and Way Down North: Dene Life, Dene Land (2010) – share highlights from his photos showing the people and land of Denendeh. Over 15,000 of his photographs are archived at the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre in Yellowknife.

     To add to his accomplishments, Rene Fumoleau was also a filmmaker. His first short film, I Was Born Here came out in 1977 and he partnered with Herb Norwegian, a former Dehcho First Nations Grand Chief, to direct and produce the short film Dene Nation in 1979.

     Father Fumoleau lived in Fort Good Hope from 1953 to 1959, Fort Franklin, 1960 to 1968 then returned to Fort Good Hope for a year. He moved to Yellowknife in 1970 and lived there for the next twenty-four years. In 1994, he moved to Lutsel K’e a small settlement on the beautiful East Arm of Great Slave Lake.

     In his later years Father Rumoleau developed dementia and moved into a dementia facility in Yellowknife. He died on his ninety-third birthday August 6, 2019.

Famous Canadian Author from Manitoba

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Manitoba

Margaret Laurence was born Jean Margaret Wemyss in the small town of Neepawa, Manitoba, on July 18, 1926. He mother died when she was four and her father remarried a year later. Her father and step mother adopted a boy. Unfortunately Margaret’s father died of pneumonia in 1935 so the three of them moved in with her grandfather.

     When Margaret was eighteen she moved to Winnipeg to attend United College, an arts and theology college associated with the University of Manitoba. She quickly had some poems published in the university’s student newspaper, The Manitoban, under the name Steve Lancaster. She said she got the name from the Lancaster bomber, an airplane used during WWII.

     During her first year she joined the English Club, a student organization for writers. She also met with other students who were as enthusiastic about writing as she was at a place called Tony’s in the basement of the United College. She was also the associate editor of Vox, the college’s literary journal. She had more of her works featured in local publications as well. While pursuing her undergraduate studies she had one critical essay, three short stories and eighteen poems published.

     After her graduation Jean Margaret Wemyss married Jack Fergus Laurence, an engineer. Because of Jack’s job they moved to England for a year, then British Somaliland for two and onto the Gold Coast for five years. During this time Margaret grew to love Africa, its peoples, and its land and began recording and translating their folk tales and poetry. A tree for Poverty: Somali Poetry and Prose was published in 1954.

     Margaret and Jack had a daughter in 1952 and a son in 1955. The family moved to Vancouver, B.C. in 1957 where they lived for five years. During this time Margaret’s first novel, This Side Jordan, was published in 1960. This book plus, The Prophet’s Camel Bell (1963) and The Tomorrow Tamer (1963), were all based on her time in Africa. After her return to Canada she wrote The Stone Angel (1964), her best known novel. It is set in Manawaka, a fictional small town in Manitoba. The novel is about a ninety-year-old woman whose story alternates between her memories of the past and her present activities. For years the novel was required reading in many North American schools and colleges.

     Margaret filed for divorce from her husband in 1962 and moved to London, England for a year and then to Penn, Buckinghamshire. During this time she wrote A Jest of God (1966) for which she won a Governor General Award. The couple’s divorce was finalized in 1969 and Margaret returned to Canada to be writer-in-residence at the University of Toronto. After a few years she moved to Lakefield, ON and bought a cabin on the Otonabee River, near Peterborough, ON.

     In 1972 she was invested as a Companion of the Order of Canada. While at the cabin she wrote The Diviners which was published in 1974 and which won her, her second Governor General’s Award. On March 3, 1976, Margaret, along with five fellow Canadian writers, founded the Writer’s Trust, a charitable organization which provides financial support to Canadian writers. After completing Heart of a Stranger, a collection of essays, (1977), Margaret began writing children’s stories.

     The National Film Board of Canada filmed a documentary titled Margaret Laurence: First Lady of Manawaka. It aired 1978. She served as Chancellor of Trent University in Peterborough from 1981 to 1983.

     In 1986, Margaret Laurence, one of Canada's most esteemed and beloved authors, was diagnosed with lung cancer. The disease had spread to other organs and there was no treatment offered except palliative care. All her novels were about strong women and rather than put herself and her family through needless suffering, Margaret Laurence took a drug overdose on January 5, 1987. She documented her decision in writing. She was buried in the Neepawa Cemetery, in Neepawa, Manitoba.

     Her novel, The Stone Angel, was made into a feature-length film staring Ellen Burstyn. It premiered in the fall of 2007

     In 2016, Jean Margaret Wemyss Laurence was named a National Historic Person.