| Main entry | Reynolds, Helen Dickson |
|---|
| Birth place | Regina, Saskatchewan |
|---|
| Birth date | 15 September 1884 |
|---|
| Death place | North Vancouver, British Columbia |
|---|
| Death date | 22 January 1969 |
|---|
| Identifier | 0334 |
|---|
| Birth name | Helen Mary Greenwood Campbell |
|---|
| Alternate names | Helen Dickson, Dickson Reynolds |
|---|
| Married name | Dickson, Reynolds |
|---|
| Marital status | married |
|---|
| Religious affiliation | Anglican |
|---|
| Paid work | occupational therapist |
|---|
| Biography | As the daughter of an Indian Agent in Assiniboia, Helen Mary Greenwood Campbell (1884-1969) witnessed the excitement and hardship of Canadian frontier life. Born in Regina, she spent her earliest years in Assiniboia, including eleven years on Moose Mountain Indian Reserve. In 1897, the Campbells moved to Nelson, British Columbia, where Helen first enrolled in formal school at the age of thirteen. Intending to become a portrait painter, she studied at a private art school in Nelson, but before launching that career she married Godwin Dickson (1872-1916) in 1911. Widowed only five years later with two daughters, Helen lived with her parents and helped on their farm. She wrote her first story as a fund-raiser when her community was trying to attract a good teacher. Shortly after teacher Herbert Reynolds (c1863-1937) arrived, Helen married him and followed his peripatetic life in the rural communities of B.C. Widowed again when she still had a teen-aged son at home, Helen supported her family by her work as a freelance newspaper and magazine writer. In all she published some twenty-two novels and a travelogue; THE MYSTERY OF THE LOGGING CAMP (1945) was a Book-of-the-Month Club choice and she was awarded a lifetime membership in the Canadian Forestry Association for FIRE PATROL (1949). She put her artistic skill to good use when she illustrated many of her own juvenile novels; those for boys appeared under the name "Dickson Reynolds," while those for girls were by "Helen Dickson." Friendship with fellow writers W.A. Deacon and Mary Elizabeth Colman* enriched her life as did the achievements of her son, Gerald Reynolds, who followed her into a writing career. |
|---|
| Residences | Regina, Saskatchewan (1884-1897); Nelson, British Columbia (1897-); Vancouver; North Vancouver |
|---|
| Geographic regions | British Columbia |
|---|
| Primary genres | fiction (juvenile); non-fiction |
|---|
| Books | THE PICKUPPIES (1931); YOSHIO: JAPANESE BOY IN CANADA (1937); THE FAMILY AT SUNSHINE RANCH (1939); RED BLANKET (1939); UP CANADA WAY (1942); CAPTAIN PEGGY OF THE MAMIE L. (1943); MYSTERY OF THE LOGGING CAMP (1945); GOLD IN MOSQUITO CREEK (1946); DORIS OF SUNSHINE RANCH (1948); BIG SHARK (1948); THE FIRE PATROL (1949); CHERRIES ARE RIPE (1950); ANGRY RIVER (1951); BROTHER SCOUTS (1952); THE FUR BRIGADE (1953); FORTUNE TRAIL (1954); "KAREN PRESENTS" (1955); PERILOUS PRAIRIE (1956); MCBAIN'S BRIER ROSE (1957); WE CHASED A RAINBOW (1957); MUSIC FOR MELANIE (1958); CAROL OF LONG CHANCE MINE (1959); HE WILL RETURN (1959); SUMMER OF SURPRISE (1960) |
|---|
| Periodicals | ANIMAL LIFE; CANADIAN BOY; CANADIAN GIRL; CANADIAN FORUM; CANADIAN MAGAZINE; CHILD LIFE; DUMB ANIMALS; HOME DEPTARTMENT QUARTERLY; JEWELS; NEW OUTLOOK; ONWARD; PATHFINDER; PLAYMATE; SATURDAY NIGHT, STORY PARADE; SUNDAY DIGEST; TEACHERS' MONTHLY; VANCOUVER DAILY PROVINCE; WINNIPEG FREE PRESS; YOUNG SOLDIER AND CRUSADER |
|---|
| Organizations | Canadian Authors Association |
|---|
| Other arts | art (painting, watercolours, pen-and-ink illustrations) |
|---|
| Father's name | John Joseph Campbell |
|---|
| Life dates of father | 9 August 1859, Baddeck, Nova Scotia - 1 August 1952, North Vancouver, British Columbia; m. 1883 |
|---|
| Father's note | Indian Agent; smelter manager |
|---|
| Mother's name | Eva DeLisle Greenwood |
|---|
| Life dates of mother | 13 June 1864, Halifax, Nova Scotia - 22 October 1934, Nelson, British Columbia; m. 1883 |
|---|
| Spouse 1 | Godwin Gill Dickson |
|---|
| Life dates of spouse 1 | 25 July 1872, Malew, Isle of Man - 24 January 1916, Willow Point, British Columbia |
|---|
| Spouse 1 note | marine engineer |
|---|
| Marriage 1 date | 15 August 1911 |
|---|
| Marriage 1 place | Nelson, British Columbia |
|---|
| Spouse 2 | Herbert Fitzgerald Reynolds |
|---|
| Life dates of spouse 2 | c1863 - 19 December 1937, North Vancouver |
|---|
| Spouse 2 note | schoolmaster; teacher (school); lived in South Africa prior to Canada |
|---|
| Marriage 2 date | 24 August 1922 |
|---|
| Marriage 2 place | Willow Point, British Columbia |
|---|
| Children number | 3 |
|---|
| Children's names and dates | Mary Olivia Dickson (- after 1985), m. to Seal;
Ruth Quayle Dickson ( - after 1985), m. to Grant;
Gerald Blackett Reynolds ( - after 1985) |
|---|
| Biographical references | CONTEMPORARY AUTHORS 1963, 1969; CANADIAN CRIME FICTION; 1891 Census of Canada; 1901 Census of Canada; 1911 Census of Canada; British Columbia, Canada, Death Index, 1872-1990; British Columbia, Canada, Marriage Index, 1872-1935 |
|---|
| Bibliographic references | Watters, CHECKLIST OF CANADIAN LITERATURE...1620-1960 (1970), pp. 372-373, 980 |
|---|
| Research references | complete |
|---|
| Archival references | several letters to Charles Clay, Clay papers, National Archives of Canada; several letters to R.E. Watters, Watters papers, University of British Columbia; two letters to W.A. Deacon, Deacon Papers, Fisher Library, University of Toronto. |
|---|
| Image credits | Line drawing by Una Vernelli (Vancouver, British Columbia). |
|---|
| 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. |
|---|