You are here

Home / Our Collections / ...

MacKay, Isabel Ecclestone

Main entryMacKay, Isabel Ecclestone
Birth placeWoodstock, Oxford, Ontario
Birth date25 November 1875
Death placeVancouver, British Columbia
Death date15 August 1928
Identifier0400
Birth nameIsabella Ecclestone Macpherson
Alternate names"Heather"
Married nameMacKay
Marital statusmarried
Religious affiliationPresbyterian; Congregational
Paid workjournalist
BiographyIsabella Ecclestone Macpherson (1875-1928) was born into a Scots-English home in Woodstock, Ontario. When not attending her classes at the local school and Woodstock Collegiate Institute, she participated in and won several Highland dancing competitions. Her literary career took off when, at fifteen, she began to publish work in Canadian newspapers and magazines. Under the pseudonym "Heather," she wrote for the WOODSTOCK DAILY EXPRESS, an occupation only temporarily interrupted in 1895 by her marriage to Peter John Mackay (1870-1953). In 1898 she produced her first booklet of verse, which was distributed among her friends. In 1909, the MacKays moved to Vancouver where Peter became a reporter for the Supreme Court, and though the family would grow to include three daughters, Isabel continued to write. A busy author of journalism, verse, sketches and short stories, she was also very active in the Vancouver Little Theatre, the Canadian Women's Press Club, and the Canadian Authors Association, serving terms as a western or British Columbian representative on the executives of both associations. Her large network of literary friends included Nellie McClung,* Isabel M. Paterson,* Pauline Johnson,* and Marjorie Pickthall.* Demonstrating her hospitality, Isabel often invited friends to visit the MacKays' summer home on Boundary Bay, and when Johnson and Pickthall were ill, it was Isabel who tended to their various needs. Isabel's poems and plays brought her many prizes, including twice winning the TORONTO GLOBE prize of $100 for the best poem of 100 lines on a Canadian historical subject (1907, 1909) and the 1929 Governor-General's Award for drama. Known for her warmth, humour, and occasional absentmindedness, Isabel died of cancer in Vancouver in 1928.
Other notesBirth Registry lists date as 24 November 1875. Given name varies between "Isabell," "Isabella," and "Isabel." Surname frequently spelled "McPherson."
Honours and awards1st place for "Marguerite de Roberval," Best Poem of 100 Lines on a Canadian Historical Subject ($100) (Toronto Globe, 1907); 1st place for "The Passing of Cadieux," Best Poem of 100 Lines on a Canadian Historical Subject ($100) (Toronto Globe, 1909); 1st place for "Treasure," One-Act Play Competition ($100) (Blanche Macintosh, 1926); 3rd place for "Two Too Many," Poetry Award ($250) (Penn Publishing Company, 1927); 1st place for "Goblin Gold," Drama Award (Canadian Governor-General's Literary Competition, 1929)
ResidencesWoodstock, Ontario (1875-1909); Vancouver (1909-1928)
Geographic regionsSouthern Ontario; British Columbia
Primary genresfiction; drama; poetry; journalism
BooksMISS WITTERLY'S CHINA (n.d.); PANSIES FOR THOUGHTS (1898); BETWEEN THE LIGHTS (1904); THE HOUSE OF WINDOWS (1912); UP THE HILL AND OVER (1917); THE SHINING SHIP AND OTHER VERSE FOR CHILDREN (1918 [1929]); MIST OF MORNING (1919); THE WINDOW GAZER (1921); FIRES OF DRIFTWOOD (1922); BLENCARROW (1926); THE LAST CACHE (1927); A SECOND LIE: A PLAY IN ONE ACT (1926); TREASURE (1927); TWO TOO MANY: A COMEDY IN THREE ACTS (1927); INDIAN NIGHTS (1930); COMPLETE POEMS (1930); GOBLIN GOLD: A COMEDY DRAMA IN THREE ACTS (1933)
PeriodicalsAINSLEE'S; AMERICAN MAGAZINE; BOHEMIAN; BRITISH COLUMBIA MONTHLY; CANADIAN BOOKMAN; CANADIAN COURIER; CANADIAN HOME JOURNAL; CANADIAN MAGAZINE; CASSEL'S; CURRENT LITERATURE; DELINEATOR; DESIGNER; ECHOES; ENDEAVOUR HERALD; GLOBE; HARPER'S; INDEPENDENT; LADIES' WORLD; LIFE; MCCLURE'S; METROPOLITAN; PEOPLE'S MAGAZINE; READER; RED BOOK; ST. NICHOLAS; SCRIBNER'S; SHORT STORIES; SMART SET; WOODSTOCK DAILY EXPRESS; YOUTH'S COMPANION
Other publicationsAnthologized in: Blewett, HEARTS OF GOLD (1915); Campbell, OXFORD BOOK OF CANADIAN VERSE (1913); Carman and Pierce, OUR CANADIAN LITERATURE (1934); Caswell, CANADIAN SINGERS AND THEIR SONGS (1925); Clark, SELECTIONS FROM SCOTTISH CANADIAN POETS (1900); French, STANDARD CANADIAN RECITER (1918); Garvin, CANADIAN POEMS OF THE GREAT WAR (1918); Garvin, CANADIAN POETS (1916; 1926); Garvin, CANADIAN VERSE FOR BOYS AND GIRLS (1930); Garvin, CAP AND BELLS (1936); Gustafson, ANTHOLOGY OF CANADIAN POETRY (1942); Massey, CANADIAN PLAYS FROM HART HOUSE THEATRE (1926); Stephen, GOLDEN TREASURY OF CANADIAN VERSE (1928); Stephen, VOICES OF CANADA (1926) Serialized: THIN ICE; in CANADIAN COURIER (1910)
OrganizationsCanadian Authors Association, Canadian Women's Press Club, Canadian Society of Authors
Other artsproduced plays for Vancouver Little Theatre
Father's nameDonald MacLeod Macpherson
Life dates of fatherc1835, Scotland - 5 April 1922, Vancouver, British Columbia; m. 1859
Father's notemarble cutter; market clerk; confectioner
Mother's namePriscilla Eliza Ecclestone
Life dates of motherc1842, England - 24 September 1891, Woodstock, Ontario; m. 1859
Spouse 1Peter John MacKay
Life dates of spouse 120 November 1870, East Zorra, Ontario - 24 December 1953, Vancouver, British Columbia
Spouse 1 notecourt stenographer and reporter: Woodstock, 1895; Supreme Court of British Columbia (1916-45)
Marriage 1 date22 April 1895
Marriage 1 placeWoodstock, Oxford, Ontario
Children number3
Children's names and datesPhyllis Isabel (13 June 1902 - 29 July 1972); Margaret Ecclestone (7 March 1905 - ), m. to D.W. Benedict; Janet Priscilla (11 September 1914 - 24 October 2001), m. to Howard Turton
Biographical referencesGodard, "MacPherson, Isabel Ecclestone (Mackay)" on DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY XV, University of Toronto/Université Laval (Web, 2000); FEMINIST COMPANION TO LITERATURE IN ENGLISH (1990); Dictionary of Literary Biography 92; Garvin, CANADIAN POETS (1916), pp. 237-246); 1881 Census of Canada; 1891 Census of Canada; 1901 Census of Canada; 1911 Census of Canada; British Columbia, Canada, Death Index, 1872-1990; Ontario, Canada Births, 1869-1913; Ontario, Canada Marriages, 1801-1928
Bibliographic referencesWatters, CHECKLIST OF CANADIAN LITERATURE...1620-1960 (1970), pp. 127, 338, 441, 628; Susan Bellingham, ISABEL ECCLESTONE MACKAY BIBLIOGRAPHY (Waterloo: University of Waterloo Library, 1987).
Research referencescomplete
Archival referencesIsabel Ecclestone MacKay Papers, University of Waterloo; Isabel Ecclestone MacKay Papers, Provincial Archives of British Columbia (PABC); correspondence with Nellie McClung, McClung papers, PABC; letter to Martha E. Perry, Perry Papers, PABC; letters re: publication of stories and poems, PABC; scrapbook and file, University of British Columbia; miscellaneous letters and typescript, A.M. Pound papers, University of British Columbia; miscellaneous letters and typescript, Howay papers, University of British Columbia; 8 letters to W.A. Deacon, Fisher Library, University of Toronto; miscellaneous letters, National Archives of Canada; miscellaneous letters and typescript, Logan papers, Acadia University; correspondence with Pelham Edgar, Edgar Papers, Victoria University Library, Toronto; correspondence with M.O. Hammond, Hammond Papers, Archives of Ontario; letter to Kate Simpson Hayes, Hayes papers, Saskatchewan Archives; letters, clipping, photos, Newton McTavish papers, North York Public Library; correspondence, Grace Fairburn papers, Baldwin Room, Metropolitan Toronto Library; poem, manuscript of FIRES OF DRIFTWOOD, Acadia University Archives; manuscripts, reviews, scrapbooks, correspondence, Rare Books and Archives, University of Waterloo; correspondence, Lorne and Edith Pierce collection, Queen's University Archives; letters and copy of TREASURE (1927), Margaret Cowie fonds, Rare Books and Special Collections, University of British Columbia
Image creditsImage from John. W. Garvin, ed., CANADIAN POETS (2nd ed., Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1926).
Unverified titlesYESTERDAY'S SERVANT (c1916)
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.