| Main entry | Barry, Lily E. F. |
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| Birth place | Montreal, Quebec |
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| Birth date | 3 August 1864 |
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| Death place | Ottawa, Ontario |
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| Death date | 7 April 1955 |
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| Identifier | 0159 |
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| Birth name | Lily Emily Frances Barry |
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| Alternate names | The Hostess, Mrs. Merry Body, Primrose |
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| Marital status | single |
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| Religious affiliation | Catholic |
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| Degree and date | BA, McGill (1892) |
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| Paid work | journalist; editor; lecturer, Social work and Statistics, Loyola |
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| Biography | The seventh of ten children of a prominent Ottawa civil servant, Lily Emily Frances Barry (1864-1955) was an outstanding student, graduating from the Convent of Notre Dame de Sacre Coeur with many honours, then going on to matriculate from McGill. She also took a three-year course at the Ottawa Art School and travelled extensively in Europe before following her sister, Kate Barry Bottomley*, into a writing career. Primarily a journalist, Lily also published short stories and verses in various newspapers and periodicals. After working at ONCE A WEEK (COLLIER'S WEEKLY) in New York, she returned to Canada in 1896 to edit the women's and children's pages of the MONTREAL STAR, where she also attended to the Correspondence column as "The Hostess." The STAR sent her to the Paris Exposition of 1900 as their special correspondent. After assisting with the anti-tuberculosis campaign for the Royal Edward Institute in 1909, she turned increasingly to public service. She mounted publicity campaigns for the Montreal Red Cross during World War I, and then the Catholic Social Service Guild. In 1916 she entered the University of Montreal to study Sociology and graduated from the two year course with honours. She then lectured at the Loyola School of Sociology in Statistics and Social Case Work. Active in the Canadian Author's Association, the Women's Canadian Club, the Canadian Women's Press Club and the IODE, Lily Barry played a large role in the cultural life of Montreal. She also exhibited her sculptures and paintings with the Art Association of Canada. Though her only published book was a prose collection, she wrote many poems; in 1940, at the age of seventy-six, she won a Quebec Music Festival Prize for the best sonnet. |
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| Travel | France, 1900 |
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| Other notes | Birth Registry only lists name as "Emily Barry." |
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| Honours and awards | Lorne’s Silver Medal for best English essay; Archbishop Duhamel’s Medal for essay on Christian Doctrine; Silver Medal for General Proficiency, Governor General’s Award (upon graduating from Convent); Honourable Mention for "Victory Poem," Toronto contest (1918); Award for unknown poem, Woodhouse Premium Poetry Review (1926); Award for “You,” Portrait Premium (1927); Honourable Mention for "Compassion," Best Poem Award, Montreal Poetry Contest (Canadian Authors Association, 1929); Honourable Mention for "Jobless," Best Poem from Montreal Award, Montreal Poetry Contest (Canadian Authors Association, 1930); Award for “Eyes,” (THE POETRY REVIEW, 1930); J. Murray Gibbon Prize for unknown poem, Words to Music Award, Montreal Poetry Contest (Canadian Authors Association, 1933); Award for "A Song for Beauty," Montreal Poetry Contest (Canadian Authors Association, 1933); Award for "Consolation," Words to Music Award, Montreal Poetry Contest (Canadian Authors Association, 1934); Honourable Mention for unknown poem, Literary America poetry contest (1935); Bradford Award for “Poor Man’s Park,” Montreal Poetry Contest (Canadian Authors Association, 1937) ; 1st place for unknown poem, Quebec Music Festival Sonnet Competition (1940); Award for "Serenade," Word to Music Award, Montreal Poetry Contest (Canadian Authors Association, 1946); Silver Medal, modelling in clay, Government Art School, Montreal; one additional award for her art |
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| Residences | Montreal (1864, 1871, 1881, 1891, 1901, 1911) |
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| Geographic regions | Quebec |
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| Primary genres | non-fiction; poetry; fiction |
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| Books | IN PATHS OF PEACE (1901) |
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| Periodicals | CANADIAN BOOKMAN; COLLIER'S WEEKLY; MONTREAL GAZETTE; MONTREAL POETRY YEAR BOOK (1929, 1930, 1931, 1934, 1946); MONTREAL STAR |
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| Other publications | Anthologized in: Canadian Authors Association, MONTREAL IN VERSE (1942) |
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| Organizations | Canadian Authors Association; Canadian Women's Press Club; Women's Club of Canada |
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| Other arts | painting (landscapes, interiors); drawing; sculpting |
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| Father's name | James Barry |
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| Life dates of father | c1833, Fermoy, Ireland - before 1923 |
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| Father's note | chief clerk, statistics, Customs Department in Ottawa |
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| Mother's name | Catherine Moore (?) |
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| Life dates of mother | c1835, Fermoy, Ireland - before 1923 |
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| Biographical references | Morgan, CANADIAN MEN AND WOMEN OF THE TIME (1912); WOMAN'S WHO'S WHO (1914-15); PROMINENT PEOPLE OF THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC (1923-24); 1871 Census of Canada; 1881 Census of Canada; 1901 Census of Canada; 1911 Census of Canada; Quebec Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967 |
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| Bibliographic references | Watters, CHECKLIST OF CANADIAN LITERATURE...1620-1960 (1970), p. 242 |
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| Research references | complete |
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| Archival references | several letters to W.D. Lighthall (1925-36), Lighthall papers, McGill; letter to Sir Andrew MacPhail (1925), National Archives of Canada; letter to Henry Morgan (1899), National Archives of Canada; letter to Archibald MacMechan (1930), Dalhousie University. |
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| Image credits | Image from H. Harrison, ed., National Reference Book on Canadian Men and Women, 5th ed. (Montreal, QC: Canadian Newspaper Service, 1936). |
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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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