| Main entry | Black, Edith Ferguson |
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| Birth place | Halifax, Nova Scotia |
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| Birth date | 14 February 1857 |
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| Death place | Ontario, San Bernardino, California, USA |
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| Death date | 29 May 1936 |
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| Identifier | 0172 |
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| Birth name | Edith Ferguson Black |
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| Alternate names | Edith Douglas |
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| Marital status | single |
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| Religious affiliation | Presbyterian, Wesleyan Methodist |
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| Paid work | typist; housekeeper |
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| Other work | inventor; writer for the blind |
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| Biography | Edith Ferguson Black (1857-1936) was the great-granddaughter of Rev. William Black, who introduced Methodism to eastern Canada; granddaughter of John Ferguson, editor and publisher of THE CHRISTIAN MESSENGER in Halifax; and the youngest child of Mary Theresa Ferguson (1815-1901) and Dr. Rufus Smith Black (1812-1893), Surgeon-General for the Nova Scotia militia. She wrote moral tales for the popular religious press of England and the United States and claimed that her literary work had been encouraged by the well-known Canadian poet Charles G.D. Roberts. She used her pseudonym, "Edith Douglas," for her first novel and periodical publications, but issued subsequent novels under her own name. During an illness when weakened eyes hampered her literary work, she circumvented her doctor's prohibition against writing by inventing a writing machine for the blind which she then patented. In 1893, Edith moved with her family to Los Angeles but did not sever her ties with her literary community in Canada. In 1918, while living as a housekeeper in Pasadena, Edith applied for American citizenship. She died in 1936 and was buried at Bellevue Cemetery in Ontario, California. The youngest of four daughters, it would seem that none of the Black women ever married. |
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| Other notes | Edith shows up on 1900 and 1910 census visiting a family in Los Angeles (Charles, Henrietta, and Fannie Wiswall). Several members of the Black family were buried in the Camp Hill Cemetery in Halifax. Some family records list other members, including Edith, as having died in Ontario. Siblings: Fanny Theresa Black (1841-1935); Mary Elizabeth ("Bessie") Black (1843-1900); Jane Millar Black (1845-1923); Dr. John Ferguson Black (c1848-), took over father's practice; Louisa Pinkney Black (1850-); Rufus Black (1854-1855); Laura Matilda Black (1851-1931), was possibly an artist. |
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| Residences | Halifax, Nova Scotia (1857, 1871, 1881, 1891); Los Angeles, California (1893-1900); Pasadena, California (1918, 1920) |
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| Geographic regions | Nova Scotia; California |
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| Primary genres | fiction |
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| Books | WE, VON ARLDENS (1881); A PRINCESS IN CALICO (1903); A BEAUTIFUL POSSIBILITY (1904); ALLEN RUTHVAN, KNIGHT (1908) |
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| Periodicals | ADVANCE (CHICAGO); CHRISTIAN HERALD (NEW YORK); FRANK LESLIE'S POPULAR MONTHLY; THE INDEPENDENT (NEW YORK); LEISURE HOUR; SUNDAY AT HOME (LONDON) |
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| Father's name | Dr. Rufus Smith Black |
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| Life dates of father | 5 February 1812, Halifax, Nova Scotia - 5 May 1893, Ontario, California; m. 1839 |
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| Father's note | medical doctor; Surgeon-General, Nova Scotia militia; president, Halifax Medical College |
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| Mother's name | Mary Theresa Ferguson |
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| Life dates of mother | 24 August 1815, Halifax, Nova Scotia - 29 December 1901, Ontario, California; m. 1839 |
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| Biographical references | Morgan, CANADIAN MEN AND WOMEN OF THE TIME (1912); 1871 Census of Canada; 1881 Census of Canada; 1891 Census of Canada; 1900 United States Federal Census; 1910 United States Federal Census; 1920 United States Federal Census; Selected U.S. Naturalization Records - Original Documents, 1790-1974; U.S. Naturalization Record Indexes, 1791-1992 (Indexed in World Archives Project); U.S. Naturalization Records - Original Documents, 1795-1972 (World Archives Project) |
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| Bibliographic references | Watters, CHECKLIST OF CANADIAN LITERATURE...1620-1960 (1970), p. 249 |
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| Research references | complete |
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| Archival references | five letters, 1905-06, Henry Morgan Papers, MG 29 G 27, National Archives of Canada |
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| Image credits | A young Edith Ferguson Black, from a family album. Photo by W. Notman of Montreal, courtesy of Andy Graybeal, a relative of the author.
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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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