| Main entry | Piers, Constance Fairbanks |
|---|
| Birth place | Dartmouth, Halifax, Nova Scotia |
|---|
| Birth date | 10 May 1866 |
|---|
| Death place | Halifax, Nova Scotia |
|---|
| Death date | 17 January 1939 |
|---|
| Identifier | 0329 |
|---|
| Birth name | Constance Fairbanks |
|---|
| Married name | Piers |
|---|
| Marital status | married |
|---|
| Religious affiliation | Anglican |
|---|
| Paid work | secretary; journalist |
|---|
| Other work | lecturer |
|---|
| Biography | As a girl in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Constance Fairbanks (1866-1939) was too delicate to attend school regularly, but she read extensively at home. Her family's rich historical roots being better established than its finances, Constance had to support herself and thus became secretary to newspaperman C.F. Fraser, and later managing editor of his paper, the HALIFAX CRITIC. After five years with the CRITIC she became associate editor of the ST. JOHNSBURY (Vermont) CALEDONIAN from 1893 to 1894. She also wrote weekly book reviews for the DARTMOUTH PATRIOT and music and drama criticism for the ACADIAN RECORDER. She contributed poetry to a wide variety of periodicals in Canada and England and was active in the Canadian Authors Association and the British Poetry Society. After collaborating with Harry Piers (1870-1940), curator of the Halifax Museum and Librarian of the Provincial Science Library in an edition of the poetry of Mary Jane Katzman Lawson*, Constance married him in 1901 and had one son. In the early 1930s she took literature courses from Sister Maura,* and eventually produced a volume of her own verse. Constance died of heart disease in 1939 and was buried in Halifax at Camp Hill Cemetery, likely alongside other members of the Fairbanks clan. |
|---|
| Travel | New York (1928); Guyana (1937) |
|---|
| Other notes | While the Piers connection between Constance and Harry is not clear, the family name is among several others that appear frequently in prominent 18th-20th century Halifax families with literary connections, including DeWolf, Fairbanks, and Lawson. Harry Piers was a grandson of Haligonian army officer and businessman Temple Foster Piers (1783-1860), who was son of Temple Stanyan Piers and grandson of one of Halifax's first settlers. |
|---|
| Residences | Halifax, Nova Scotia (1866-1939) |
|---|
| Geographic regions | Nova Scotia |
|---|
| Primary genres | poetry |
|---|
| Books | CHRISTMAS PIE: SELECTIONS FROM VERSES WRITTEN FOR PRIVATE GREETING CARDS AND CALENDARS (1938) |
|---|
| Periodicals | CANADIAN HOMES AND GARDENS; CANADIAN MAGAZINE; CANADIAN METHODIST MAGAZINE; CANADIAN POETRY MAGAZINE; CONNOISSEUR; CRITIC; CRUCIBLE; DALHOUSIE REVIEW; MONTREAL POETRY YEAR BOOK (1931); POETRY OF TODAY; POETRY REVIEW; POETRY YEAR BOOK; SATURDAY NIGHT; SHEAF; WEEK |
|---|
| Other publications | Anthologized in: Creighton and Ridley, NEW CANADIAN ANTHOLOGY (1938); Rand, TREASURY OF CANADIAN VERSE (1900); Edited and Selected: with Harry Piers FRANKINCENSE AND MYRHH (1893); HISTORY OF THE TOWNSHIPS OF DARTMOUTH, PRESTON AND LAWRENCETOWN, HALIFAX COUNTY, N.S. (1893) by Mary Jane Katzman Lawson |
|---|
| Organizations | Canadian Authors Association, Poetry Society (London) |
|---|
| Father's name | Lewis Piers Fairbanks |
|---|
| Life dates of father | 28 May 1831, Halifax, Nova Scotia - after 1901; m. 1862 |
|---|
| Father's note | merchant; trader; son of Hon. Charles Rufus Fairbanks (1790-1841), master of the Rolls and judge of Court of Vice Admiralty of N.S.; brother of poet, Cassie Fairbanks* (1820-1903); grandson of William Lawson (1772-1848), Justice of the Peace, MLA |
|---|
| Mother's name | Ella Augusta De Wolfe |
|---|
| Life dates of mother | 13 August 1837, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia - 1901, Halifax, Nova Scotia; m. 1862 |
|---|
| Spouse 1 | Harry Lawrence Piers |
|---|
| Life dates of spouse 1 | 12 February 1870, Halifax, Nova Scotia - |
|---|
| Spouse 1 note | assistant librarian (later librarian), Legislative Library, Nova Scotia; curator, Provincial Museum; Archivist of Province; librarian, Provincial Science Library (1870-1940) |
|---|
| Marriage 1 date | 7 January 1901 |
|---|
| Marriage 1 place | Halifax, Nova Scotia |
|---|
| Children number | 1 |
|---|
| Children's names and dates | Edward Stanyan Fairbanks (17 October 1903 - 1971), m. to Olive Alma Frances Handy |
|---|
| Biographical references | WHO WAS WHO AMONG NORTH AMERICAN AUTHORS 1921-39; WOMAN'S WHO'S WHO OF AMERICA (1914-15); Rhodenizer, AT THE SIGN OF THE HAND AND PEN: NOVA-SCOTIAN AUTHORS (1948); Eaton, THE HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY, NOVA SCOTIA, HEART OF THE ACADIAN LAND (1910); Fairbanks, FAIRBANKS FAMILY RECORD (1886); 1871 Census of Canada; 1881 Census of Canada; 1891 Census of Canada; 1901 Census of Canada; Canadian Passenger Lists, 1865-1935; New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957; Nova Scotia, Canada, Births, 1836-1910; Nova Scotia, Canada, Deaths, 1864-1877, 1890-1960; Nova Scotia, Canada, Marriages, 1763-1935 |
|---|
| Bibliographic references | Watters, CHECKLIST OF CANADIAN LITERATURE...1620-1960 (1970), pp. 111, 159; CIHM |
|---|
| Research references | complete |
|---|
| Archival references | two letters, Logan papers, Acadia University; several letters, Canadian Authors Association papers, National Archives of Canada; several letters (1930s) to Martha Eugenie Perry, Perry Papers, Provincial Archives of British Columbia. |
|---|
| Image credits | Image from Alan Creighton and Hilda M. Ridley, eds., A NEW CANADIAN ANTHOLOGY (Toronto: Crucible, 1938). |
|---|
| 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. |
|---|