| Main entry | MacGregor, Mary Esther Miller |
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| Birth place | Rugby, Oro Township, Simcoe, Ontario |
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| Birth date | 27 August 1872 |
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| Death place | Owen Sound, Ontario |
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| Death date | 10 February 1961 |
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| Identifier | 0223 |
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| Birth name | Mary Esther Miller |
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| Alternate names | Marian Keith |
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| Married name | MacGregor |
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| Marital status | married |
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| Religious affiliation | Presbyterian; United Church of Canada |
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| Degree and date | teacher's certificate, Toronto Normal School (1896) |
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| Paid work | teacher (school); journalist |
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| Other work | clergyman's wife |
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| Biography | After attending public school in Edgar, Ontario, and the Orillia Collegiate Institute, Mary Esther Miller (1872-1961) received her teacher's certificate from the Toronto Normal school in 1896. Beginning in 1899, she taught for seven years in Orillia and contributed a column to TEACHER'S MONTHLY, then worked on the editorial staff of the Presbyterian Church's SUNDAY SCHOOL PUBLICATIONS. Upon learning that "Esther Miller" was already being used by an American author, she decided to publish her own work as "Marian Keith," while her friends and family continued calling her "Essie." Her first novel appeared in 1906, and in 1909 she married Reverend Donald MacGregor (1876-1946), one of the clerics involved in establishing the United Church of Canada. After honeymooning in Alberta, they travelled to the Holy Land and Eastern Mediterranean in 1925, and retired to his family home in Annan, Ontario, near Owen Sound. A few years after their return to Canada Donald was injured in a train accident from which he never recovered, leaving Essie a widow in 1946. Author of more than a dozen novels and several biographies, she also collaborated with Lucy Maud Montgomery* and Mabel Burns McKinley* on COURAGEOUS WOMEN (1934), a collection of biographies. Essie's last decades were spent moving between the Owen Sound area, where she lived for a time with her sister, and Toronto. She died in 1961. |
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| Travel | Holy Land and Eastern Mediterranean, 1925 |
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| Other notes | It seems that Mary Esther Miller MacGregor has mistakenly been listed as the author of several children's stories published from 1905-1914; there is no evidence, however, that the author "Mary MacGregor" is the same as the writer who called herself "Marian Keith." Other family records include Mary's original pen-name as being "Martha Graham" (rather than "Esther Miller"), possibly a great-grandmother's name, and suggest that Mary's better known pen-name came from her niece, Marian Keith Harvie, a close companion to Mary in her later years. |
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| Residences | Rugby, Oro, Ontario (1872, 1881); Orillia, Ontario (1899, 1901, 1911); Toronto (-1914); London, Ontario; Brantford (1914-1930s); Annan and Sydenham, Ontario (1940-1946); Owen Sound, Ontario (1946-1951); Toronto, Ontario (1951-1960); Owen Sound (1960-1961) |
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| Geographic regions | Southern Ontario |
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| Primary genres | fiction (juvenile); non-fiction (biography); journalism |
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| Books | DUNCAN POLITE, THE WATCHMAN OF GLENORO (1906); THE SILVER MAPLE (1906); TREASURE VALLEY (1908); 'LIZABETH OF THE DALE (1910); THE BLACK BEARDED BARBARIAN: THE LIFE OF GEORGE LESLIE MACKAY OF FORMOSA (1912); THE END OF THE RAINBOW (1913), also published as THE POT O' GOLD AT THE END OF THE RAINBOW (1914); IN ORCHARD GLEN (1918); LITTLE MISS MELODY (1921); THE BELLS OF ST. STEPHEN'S (1922); A GENTLEMAN ADVENTURER: A STORY OF THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY (1924); UNDER THE GREY OLIVES (1927); THE FOREST BARRIER: A NOVEL OF PIONEER DAYS (1930); COURAGEOUS WOMEN (1934) with L.M. Montgomery and Mable Burns McKinley; GLAD DAYS IN GALILEE: A STORY OF THE BOYHOOD OF JESUS (1935), also as revised BOY OF NAZARETH (1950); AS A WATERED GARDEN (1947); YONDER SHINING LIGHT (1948); LILACS IN THE DOORYARD (1952); THE GRAND LADY (1960) |
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| Periodicals | MACLEAN'S; TEACHER'S MONTHLY; WESTMINSTER MAGAZINE |
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| Other publications | Anthologized in: Bryan, MAPLE LEAF RECITER (1908); French, STANDARD CANADIAN RECITER (1918) |
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| Organizations | Canadian Authors Association, Canadian Women's Press Club |
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| Father's name | John Miller |
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| Life dates of father | 10 January 1834, Medonte, Ontario - 29 October 1889, Simcoe, Ontario; m. 1862 |
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| Father's note | teacher (school) |
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| Mother's name | Mary Brown Johnston |
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| Life dates of mother | 10 September 1838, Islay, Scotland or Argyllshire, Scotland - 2 February 1918, Orillia, Ontario; m. 1862 |
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| Mother's note | Previously recorded as Mary McIan, but marriage record does not include this name |
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| Spouse 1 | Reverend Donald Campbell MacGregor |
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| Life dates of spouse 1 | 29 November 1875, Sydenham, Ontario - 11 October 1946, Owen Sound, Ontario |
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| Spouse 1 note | clergyman, Presbyterian; one of first members of first general council, United Church (1876-1946) |
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| Marriage 1 date | 27 July 1909 |
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| Marriage 1 place | Orillia, Ontario |
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| Biographical references | Dictionary of Literary Biography 92; "Keith, Marion" on GREY COUNTY LUMINARIES, Grey Roots Museum & Archives (Web, 2012); Vick, FROM QUILL TO BALLPOINT (1988); 1881 Census of Canada; 1901 Census of Canada; 1911 Census of Canada; Ontario, Canada Marriages, 1801-1928 |
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| Bibliographic references | Watters, CHECKLIST OF CANADIAN LITERATURE...1620-1960 (1970), pp. 335, 539, 632, 810 |
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| Research references | complete |
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| Archival references | correspondence, Deacon Papers, Fisher Library, University of Toronto; various items, McClelland & Stewart Papers, McMaster University Archives; letter, Margaret Cowie fonds, Rare Books and Special Collections, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC |
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| Image credits | Line drawing by Una Vernelli (Vancouver, British Columbia). |
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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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