| Main entry | Fairbanks, Cassie |
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| Birth place | Dartmouth, Nova Scotia |
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| Birth date | 7 June 1820 |
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| Death place | Halifax, Nova Scotia |
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| Death date | 6 February 1903 |
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| Identifier | 0471 |
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| Birth name | Catherine Fairbanks |
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| Marital status | single |
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| Religious affiliation | Presbyterian; Free Church |
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| Biography | Catherine "Cassie" Fairbanks (1820-1903), a Nova Scotian poet often confused with her niece Constance Fairbanks Piers*, was born in Dartmouth and spent her entire life in Nova Scotia. Coming from a wealthy and prominent family, she had no need to support herself by writing, but often contributed to periodicals and newspapers in the Maritimes. Her first long poem, THE LONE HOUSE: A POEM PARTLY FOUNDED ON FACT (1859) was self-published in pamphlet form and depicted the events of Rebecca Langley's murder in 1854. She may have written THE LOG OF THE SAIL OF THE SAILOR'S REST (188-), although the evidence is circumstantial. Both works were issued as pamphlets by James Bowes of Halifax in similar formats. Cassie was an active member of the Women's Foreign Missionary Society of the Presbyterian Church, serving a term as their honorary president. She died of influenza in 1903 and was buried at Dartmouth Cemetery in Halifax. |
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| Residences | Dartmouth, Nova Scotia (1820, 1871); Halifax, Nova Scotia (1891, 1901, 1903) |
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| Geographic regions | Nova Scotia |
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| Primary genres | poetry (long poem) |
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| Books | THE LONE HOUSE: A POEM PARTLY FOUNDED ON FACT (1859); THE LOG OF THE SAIL OF THE SAILOR'S REST (188-) |
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| Other publications | Anthologized in: Whyte-Edgar, WREATH OF CANADIAN SONG (1910) |
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| Father's name | Charles Rufus Fairbanks |
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| Life dates of father | 25 March 1790, Halifax - 15 April 1841, Halifax; m. 1815 |
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| Father's note | barrister; 1st Solicitor General of Nova Scotia (1832); member of Legislature; Judge of the Court of Vice Admiralty |
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| Mother's name | Sarah Elizabeth Lawson |
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| Life dates of mother | 29 August 1797, Nova Scotia - 23 August 1880, Halifax; m. 1815 |
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| Mother's note | From a prominent Nova Scotia family |
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| Biographical references | Kaminski, "Challenging a Literary Myth: Long Poems by Early Canadian Women," M.A. Thesis, Simon Fraser University, 1998; 1871 Census of Canada; 1891 Census of Canada; 1901 Census of Canada |
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| Bibliographic references | Watters, CHECKLIST OF CANADIAN LITERATURE...1620-1960 (1972), p. 67; Amicus (National Library of Canada) |
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| Research references | complete |
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| Archival references | one letter to Sir William Young, Public Archives of Nova Scotia; letter to Ann and Jane Fairbanks, Prescott Family Collection, Public Archives of Nova Scotia |
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| Image credits | Line drawing by Una Vernelli (Vancouver, British Columbia). |
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| Copyright | This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/. Please cite Canada's Early Women Writers. SFU Library Digital Collections. Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada. 1980-2014. |
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