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Harrison, Susan Frances

Main entryHarrison, Susan Frances
Birth placeToronto, Ontario
Birth date24 February 1859
Death placeToronto, Ontario
Death date5 May 1935
Identifier0434
Birth nameSusan Frances Riley
Alternate namesSeranus; Medusa; Gilbert King; the Rambler
Married nameHarrison
Marital statusmarried
Religious affiliationAnglican
Paid workjournalist; music critic; principal, Rosedale Branch of the Toronto Conservatory of Music
BiographySusan Frances Harrison (1859-1935) was born in Toronto, where she studied music under Frederic Boscowitz at a private school before further studies in Montreal, where she acquired a fascination with French Canada that would inform much of her writing. At the age of sixteen, she was published for the first time in CANADIAN ILLUSTRATED NEWS under her pseudonym, "Medusa." She is also reported to have published several songs as "Gilbert King" and some journalistic pieces as the "Rambler." Her primary pen name, however, came to be "Seranus," which resulted from a misreading of her signature, "S. Frances." She married John W.F. Harrison (1847-1935) in 1879, and they lived together in Ottawa for seven years while she wrote as a correspondent for the DETROIT FREE PRESS and he worked as an organist and choirmaster. The couple then moved to Toronto where they raised their two children and spent the remainder of their lives. Susan worked as a music critic for the WEEK for six months, and also showed her editorial abilities when she became its acting editor and literary editor for a time. Her musical and literary abilities were also appreciated at the Rosedale Branch of the Toronto Conservatory of Music, where she served as principal for twenty years as well as editor of their monthly publication. Her first book, entitled CROWDED OUT! AND OTHER SKETCHES (1886) reflects her growing frustration with not being able to publish or arrange for the performance of her opera, "Pipandor," on which she worked for two years with F.A. Dixon. However, her literary work appeared in many English and American periodicals, she offered literature classes in her home in 1893, and composed a number of musical pieces. In 1896 and 1897 she conducted a well-received lecture tour on the music of French Canada and further reinforced her continuing interest in this area. She was an admirer of the work of Isabella Valancy Crawford*, and encouraging toward emerging writers. Susan died of a stroke in 1935; John died exactly three weeks later. Both were buried at Mount Pleasant Cemetery.
Other notesSusan's death record lists her as "single," and in 1881, three years after her marriage, Susan is listed as a resident of her parents' home. It's possible that Susan and John were first cousins through their mothers: on his death record, John is listed as son of "Susie Maria Drought," although other records list his mother's first name is "Alice D." Siblings: no known siblings.
ResidencesToronto, Ontario (1859-); Montreal, Quebec (c1875-c1877); Ottawa, Ontario (1879-1886); Toronto (1886-1935)
Geographic regionsOntario
Primary genrespoetry; drama; fiction; non-fiction
Booksas Seranus, CROWDED OUT! AND OTHER SKETCHES (1886); THE CANADIAN BIRTHDAY BOOK (1887); PINE, ROSE AND FLEUR DE LIS (1891); THE FOREST OF BOURG-MARIE (1898); IN NORTHERN SKIES AND OTHER POEMS (1912) as Seranus; RINGFIELD (1914); SONGS OF LOVE AND LABOR (1925) as Seranus; LATER POEMS AND NEW VILLANELLES (1928); FOUR BALLADS AND A PLAY (1933) as Seranus; PENELOPE, AND OTHER POEMS (1934) as Seranus
PeriodicalsAMERICAN MAGAZINE; ATLANTIC MONTHLY; BELFORD'S MAGAZINE; CANADIAN BOOKMAN; CANADIAN COURIER; CANADIAN ILLUSTRATED NEWS; CANADIAN MONTHLY; CHICAGO CURRENT; CONSERVATORY MONTHLY; COSMOPOLITAN; DETROIT FREE PRESS; LIVING AGE; MASSEY'S MAGAZINE; NEW ENGLAND MAGAZINE; PALL MALL MAGAZINE; ROSE-BELFORD'S CANADIAN MONTHLY; SATURDAY NIGHT; THE STRAND; TEMPLE BAR; TORONTO GLOBE; TORONTO MAIL; THE WEEK
Other publicationsAnthologized in: Burpee, CENTURY OF CANADIAN SONNETS (1910); Carman and Pierce, OUR CANADIAN LITERATURE (1934); Caswell, CANADIAN SINGERS AND THEIR SONGS (1902, 1919, 1925); Garvin, CANADIAN POEMS OF THE GREAT WAR (1918); Garvin, CANADIAN POETS (1916; 1926); Garvin, CAP AND BELLS (1936); Harrison, CANADIAN BIRTHDAY BOOK (1887); Lighthall, CANADIAN POEMS AND LAYS (c1892); Lighthall, SONGS OF THE GREAT DOMINION (1889); Ross, PATRIOTIC RECITATIONS AND ARBOR DAY EXERCISES (1893); Stedman, A VICTORIAN ANTHOLOGY, 1837-1895 (1895); Toronto Women's Press Club, VERSE AND REVERSE (1921, 1922); Wetherall, LATER CANADIAN POEMS (1893)
OrganizationsWomen's Canadian Historical Society
Other artsmusic
Father's nameJohn Byron Riley
Life dates of fatherc1823, Quebec - 1884-1913
Father's notehotel clerk at Weekes' Hotel (c1847); took over "Swords' Hotel" (previously Knox College, located on Front between York and Bays streets) and ran it as "Riley's Hotel" between 1859-1862, when sold to Captain Thomas Dick, under whom hotel became "The Queen's"; Riley then proprietor of "Revere House" (c1862-1884), a cosy, "first-class," family hotel situated at south-west corner of York and King streets; shared proprietorship responsibilities under Riley & May firm, billiard manufacturers; note that name occasionally listed as "J.P. Riley" and "B.J.B. Riley," and that several accounts confuse Riley's two establishments, both as "Revere House"; one account even suggests he dies in 1862, despite that several contemporary documents list him as living at least until 1884; see ROBERTSON'S LANDMARKS OF TORONTO (1898) for more detail
Mother's nameMaria Anne Drought
Life dates of motherOctober 1820, Dublin, Ireland - 25 January 1913, Toronto, Ontario
Spouse 1John William Frederick Harrison
Life dates of spouse 13 June 1847, Clifton, Bristol, England - 29 May 1935, Toronto, Ontario
Spouse 1 notechoirmaster; organist
Marriage 1 date25 July 1877
Marriage 1 placeToronto, Ontario
Children number2
Children's names and datesFrederick John Lewis (29 August 1879 - ); Frances Maria (13 December 1881 - ), m. to Harry Guy Ord
Biographical referencesDictionary of Literary Biography 99; Leigh, Sylvia Mary. ""Susan Frances Harrison: An Approach to Her Life and Work."" MA Thesis, University of Western Ontario, 1980; 1871 Census of Canada; 1881 Census of Canada; 1891 Census of Canada; 1901 Census of Canada; 1911 Census of Canada; Ontario, Canada Marriages, 1801-1928; Ontario, Canada, Deaths, 1869-1938 and Deaths Overseas, 1939-1947
Bibliographic referencesWatters, CHECKLIST OF CANADIAN LITERATURE...1620-1960 (1970), pp. 86, 308, 437
Research referencescomplete; 02
Archival referencescorrespondence, Louise Miller Papers, York University; correspondence, Mary Bourchier Sandford Papers, Archives of Ontario; correspondence, Fisher Library, University of Toronto; correspondence, the National Archives of Canada; correspondence, W.D. Lighthall Papers, Rare Book Department, McGill University Library; correspondence, 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.