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Bowman, Louise Morey

Main entryBowman, Louise Morey
Birth placeSherbrooke, Quebec
Birth date17 January 1882
Death placeMontreal, Quebec
Death date28 September 1944
Identifier0014
Birth nameLily Louise Dyer Morey
Married nameBowman
Marital statusmarried
Religious affiliationCongregationalist
BiographyThe imagist school of poetry current in the United States during the 1920s found its first Canadian expression in the poetry of Lily Louise Dyer Morey Bowman (1882-1944). Louise was raised in a cultured, comfortable environment in her birthplace of Sherbrooke, where her father was a successful banker and art connoisseur. Private tutors conducted her early schooling, followed by Dana Hall in Wellesley, Massachusetts, where she majored in literature and violin, and travels in Europe. When she was 27 she married Archibald Abercromby Bowman (1875-1934), an electrical engineer from Scotland, and moved to Toronto. Bowman was ready to launch her literary career in 1913 when she published her poem "North Room" in OUTLOOK, but ill health delayed the completion of her first book of poetry, MOONLIGHT AND COMMON DAY, until 1922. Bowman dedicated the book to her mother, also Lily Louise, who had died when Louise was only fifteen. Her second, DREAM TAPESTRIES (1924), graced by flattering quotations from poets Amy Lowell and Harriet Monroe, signalled her arrival as a promising newcomer to the Canadian literary scene and earned her the Prix David of $250 from the Quebec government. Bowman's verse appeared in a number of anthologies and her short fiction was included on the honour roll of E.J. O'Brien's BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES in 1929. After caring for her dying father, Bowman returned to Montreal in 1926 where she continued her association with various literary and cultural organizations such as the Canadian Authors Association, the International Pen Club (PEN), and the Montreal Women's Art Society. Bowman was an inventive and experimental poet who adopted a variety of forms, including Haiku, to express her thoughts about such themes as the spiritual power of women. A close friend of Frank Oliver Call and poet, journalist, and translator Florence Randal Livesay*, Bowman was widowed in 1934 while living in Montreal. She remained there until her own death, caused by complications following an operation. Her remains were buried at Elmwood Cemetery in Sherbrooke.
Honours and awardsAward for "Dream Tapestries," Blindman Prize (Quebec Government, 1922); Award for "Dream Tapestries," Prix David (Quebec Government, 1925)
ResidencesSherbrooke, Quebec (1882, 1901); Toronto, Ontario (1909); Montreal, Quebec (1911); Toronto, Ontario (-1925); Montreal, Quebec (1925-1944)
Geographic regionsQuebec; Ontario
Primary genrespoetry; short stories
BooksMOONLIGHT AND COMMON DAY (1922); DREAM TAPESTRIES (1924); CHARACTERS IN CADENCE (1938)
PeriodicalsCANADIAN BOOKMAN; CANADIAN FORUM; CANADIAN HOME JOURNAL; CANADIAN MAGAZINE; CANADIAN MERCURY; CANADIAN PASSING SHOW; CHATELAINE; DALHOUSIE REVIEW; THE DIAL; EDMONTON JOURNAL; HOLLAND'S MAGAZINE; INDEPENDENT; OUTLOOK; MONTREAL POETRY YEAR BOOK (1929, 1931, 1934, 1937); POETRY (Chicago); QUEEN'S QUARTERLY; SATURDAY NIGHT; ST. NICHOLAS; UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE; WESTERN HOME MONTHLY
Other publicationsAnthologized in: Bennett, NEW HARVESTING (1938); Brooker, YEARBOOK OF THE ARTS IN CANADA, 1928-1929 (1929); Carman and Pierce, OUR CANADIAN LITERATURE (1934); Garvin, CANADIAN POEMS OF THE GREAT WAR (1918); Garvin, CANADIAN POETS (1926); Garvin, CANADIAN VERSE FOR BOYS AND GIRLS (1930); Garvin, CAP AND BELLS (1936); Gustafson, ANTHOLOGY OF CANADIAN POETRY (1942); Stephen, GOLDEN TREASURY OF CANADIAN VERSE (1928)
OrganizationsCanadian Authors Association, PEN, Heliconian (Toronto)
Father's nameSamuel Foote Morey
Life dates of father15 November 1845, Quebec - 4 October 1926, Montreal, Quebec
Father's notechief inspector, Eastern Townships Bank (40 years)
Mother's nameLily Louise Dyer
Life dates of motherc1852, New York - 29 August 1897, Sherbrooke, Quebec
Spouse 1Archibald Abercromby Bowman
Life dates of spouse 18 March 1875, Scotland - 26 June 1934, Montreal, Quebec
Spouse 1 noteelectrical and mechanical engineer
Marriage 1 date23 June 1909
Marriage 1 placeMontreal, Quebec
Biographical referencesMalus, Allard & van Sundert, "Frank Oliver Call, Eastern Townships Poetry, and the Modernist Movement," CANADIAN LITERATURE, (Winter 1985), pp. 60-69; Trehearne, "Louise Morey Bowman," CANADIAN POETRY 1920 to 1960 (2010), pp. 4-8; Irvine, THE CANADIAN MODERNISTS MEET (2005); Lawrence, WHO'S WHO AMONG NORTH AMERICAN AUTHORS, Vol. IV, 1929-1930 (1930), p. 121; Garvin, CANADIAN POEMS OF THE GREAT WAR (1918), pp. 31-33; Dictionary of Literary Biography 68; Canadian Encyclopedia; 1901 Census of Canada; 1911 Census of Canada
Bibliographic referencesWatters, CHECKLIST OF CANADIAN LITERATURE...1620-1960 (1970), p. 22
Research referencescomplete
Archival referencescorrespondence in the Macmillan papers, McMaster University; scattered correspondence in W.A. Deacon Papers, Fisher Library, University of Toronto; John Willison Papers, National Archives of Canada; W.D. Lighthall Papers, McGill University; unpublished poems and copies of Bowman's books in possession of nephew of Frank Oliver Call; letter to Amelia Beers Warnock Garvin and a poem in the Lorne and Edith Pierce collection, Queen's University Archives
Image creditsImage from John. W. Garvin, ed., CANADIAN POETS (2nd ed., Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1926).
CopyrightThis 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.