| Main entry | Jackson, Isa Grindlay |
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| Birth place | Slamannan, Stirlingshire, Scotland |
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| Birth date | 1884 |
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| Death place | Vancouver, British Columbia? (possibly Edmonton) |
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| Death date | 30 July 1981 |
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| Identifier | 0102 |
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| Birth name | Isabella M D Stevenson |
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| Married name | Grindlay, Jackson |
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| Marital status | married |
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| Religious affiliation | Presbyterian |
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| Biography | Eclectic readers of Canadian magazines may have come to recognize the name of Isa Grindlay Jackson (1884-1981), whose poetic contributions adorned a wide array of periodicals. Born as Isabella M. D. Stevenson in Slamannan, Stirlingshire, Scotland, Isa seems to have lodged with her family at the Limerigg School House where her father was School Master. By sixteen, she seems to have completed her studies there, and in 1910, the twenty-five year old arrived in Canada. At her boarding house in Calgary, where she lodged while working as a bookkeeper at a real estate company, Isa met and married a fellow tenant, carpenter Charles Grindlay (1887-1916). After Charles's death overseas during the First World War, Isa married again, this time to farmer Leon Lester Jackson (1890-1955). The Jacksons lived in Lonira, Alberta for several years, during which time Isa sent many of her verses to prairie publications like THE FARM AND RANCH REVIEW and the daily newspapers of Edmonton, Calgary, and Winnipeg. During the Second World War she moved to Vancouver where she remained until her death. Her only volume, BALLADES AND BITS (1937), is a collection of light-hearted, often witty verses on everyday life. Isa died in 1981, either in Vancouver or Edmonton. |
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| Travel | Glasgow, 1914 |
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| Other notes | Isa's obituary lists a daughter, thus explaining the title of her personal reminiscence titled "Grannie" (194-). The woman featured in the piece is Isa's "neighbour" and "mother," who died at 83 and was buried at Whitecourt Burial Ground in Alberta. Isa primarily describes the close writerly relationship between the two women during her Lonira years, as they often encouraged one another in their poetry endeavours. |
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| Residences | Calgary, Alberta (c1911-1916); Lonira, Alberta (c1920s-1939); Vancouver, British Columbia |
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| Geographic regions | Alberta; British Columbia |
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| Primary genres | poetry |
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| Books | BALLADES AND BITS (1937) |
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| Periodicals | ALBERTA POETRY YEAR BOOK; ARROW; BRIDLE AND GOLFER; CALGARY HERALD; CANADIAN BOOKMAN; CANADIAN POETRY MAGAZINE; CHATELAINE; EDMONTON JOURNAL; FARM AND RANCH REVIEW; MACLEAN'S; NATIONAL HOME MONTHLY; TORONTO DAILY STAR; WESTERN FARM LEAVER; WINNIPEG FREE PRESS |
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| Other publications | Anthologized in: Garvin, CAPS AND BELLS (1936) |
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| Father's name | John Stevenson |
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| Life dates of father | c1860, Mill End, Glasgow, Scotland - |
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| Father's note | schoolmaster of Limerigg School House |
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| Mother's name | Isabella C |
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| Life dates of mother | c1859, Calton, Glasgow, Scotland - |
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| Spouse 1 | Charles Grindlay |
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| Life dates of spouse 1 | 7 August 1887, Kilsyth, Stirlingshire, Scotland - 18 November 1916, northeast of Albert, France |
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| Spouse 1 note | carpenter; Lance Corporal for Canadian infantry, killed overseas and buried at Adanac Military Cemetery |
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| Marriage 1 date | c1912 |
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| Marriage 1 place | Scotland |
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| Spouse 2 | Leon Lester Jackson |
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| Life dates of spouse 2 | 27 February 1890, Olinville, New Brunswick - 2 December 1955, Vancouver, British Columbia |
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| Spouse 2 note | farmer |
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| Children's names and dates | One daughter, m. to L. C. Johnson |
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| Biographical references | Grindlay Jackson, "Grannie" (194-), on ALBERTA FOLKLORE AND LOCAL HISTORY COLLECTION, University of Alberta Libraries (Web); 1891 Scotland Census; 1901 Scotland Census; 1911 Census of Canada; 1916 Canada Census of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta; Canadian Passenger Lists, 1865-1935 |
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| Bibliographic references | Watters, CHECKLIST OF CANADIAN LITERATURE...1620-1960 (1970), p. 97 |
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| Research references | complete |
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| Archival references | 2 letters to R.A. Hood, Hood papers, University of British Columbia Library |
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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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