Isabella Valancy Crawford: We Scarcely Knew Her

by Elizabeth McNeill Galvin

Considered one of the finest of Canada's early poets, the raw intellect and emotional appeal of Isabella Valancy Crawford's poetry drew author Elizabeth McNeill Galvin on a personal journey that traced Isabella's life which began in Dublin, Ireland, and ended in Toronto, Canada.

Isabella emigrated to Canada with her family around the year of 1858. After settling first in Paisley, Ontario, the family later lived in Lakefield and Peterborough. As a young woman, Isabella became fascinated by backwoods life and Indian legends. Following her father's death, she and her mother moved to Toronto where Isabella took on another pioneering role, that of a "modern working woman," by earning meager wages from light verse and "formula fiction" that appeared in Canadian and American newspapers.

Not afraid to approach social criticism often deemed the domain of male poets, her poetic sensitivity quivers with imagery and is admired for its evocative portrayal of life in its entirety. Isabella's work symbolizes the emerging of Canadian maturity as its population was shifting from life in the wilderness, to the creation of urban centres such as Toronto.

"A good sense of the social background of Crawford's life."

- Gordon Johnston, Master of Otonabee College at Trent University and Professor of Canadian Literature.

160 pages, Paperback

First published June 30, 1994

Reviews

[Kristine Morris]

Isabella Valancy Crawford is an unknown historical figure in Toronto and Canada and yet she is considered Canada's first female poet. In this volume, the biographer, pulls together what little facts we know about this young women who was prolific and yet very private. While her poetry was published in several papers and magazines (for which she was paid), and applauded by several well known critics, she was ignored by the literary journals. Born into a large family, in the end it was just her and her mother who remained together living in poverty in Toronto at King & John. It is here that she died of heart failure at the young age of 37. A small park at the foot of John Street is named after her and an abstract sculpture by Bernie Miller in David Pecaut Square (near King & John) alludes to her in it's title - The Poet, The Fever Hospital (1992).