Thursday, October 14, 2010

Susanna Moodie

Canadian literary character, real life woman, pioneer, writer and guiding voice to those women back home on Canadian frontier life. Her husband was a drifting dreamer with little ambition and even less physical ability to survive in the wilderness.  Suffered starvation and sickness alone with her children, learned to hunt for herself, learned to appreciate what her native neighbors taught her and brought her, and burnt letter after desperate angry letter to her husband when she had no one to talk to. To her sisters, to the women of England, and to her publisher she sent words of jolly stiff-upper-lip practicality, friendly tips on how to preserve wild strawberries, and documented the botanical wonders of the "new" world.

2 comments:

  1. She sounds like an amazing woman!

    I've enjoyed browsing your blog, your artwork is wonderful! I first came across your work in the front cover of Kelly Shepherd's poetry chapbook the bony world.

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  2. Thank you for coming to have a look! I'll be doing another post soon about Kelly's book. I feel so fortunate to have been able to contribute a little to such a great piece of work. The Bony World is an amazing example of contemporary Canadian poetry. It's beautiful and magical stuff.

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