| Main entry | Bernhardt, Clara |
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| Birth place | Preston, Cambridge, Ontario |
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| Birth date | 18 June 1911 |
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| Death place | Kitchener, Ontario |
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| Death date | 1 May 1993 |
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| Identifier | 0009 |
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| Birth name | Clara May Theurer Bernhardt |
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| Alternate names | Cee-Bee |
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| Marital status | single |
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| Religious affiliation | Lutheran |
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| Paid work | journalist |
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| Biography | As an adult, Clara May Theurer Bernhardt (1911-1993) would recall her earliest years as being full of fine accomplishments and activities: she could skate, play tennis, practise piano, and care for her younger siblings. Each of these activities would eventually be stripped from her by a debilitating disease. Born in Preston, Ontario, Clara was the eldest of five children. On an autumn evening during her eleventh year, she collapsed at the foot of the stairs on her way to bed. She was diagnosed with polio, a disease that dragged her through months of doubt and hope and confusion, not to mention numerous treatments and visits to the Toronto Hospital for Sick Children. By the time the doctors had given up, Clara was in a wheelchair with a curved spine and all but entirely immobilized limbs. Determined to see his daughter succeed, father Arthur Bernhardt drove Clara to school and carried her into class, but this was only possible until Clara reached the eighth grade. As Preston lacked a high school, and because as streetcars could not accommodate wheelchairs, Clara became increasingly alienated from her peers. Nonetheless she studied hard, thanks to private tutors and extensive reading at home. Determined to write professionally, and to not fall behind her friends, Clara filled her spare time with writing practice. At only seventeen, with pieces already published in places like the GLOBE’s “Circle of Young Canada” and with book reviews in the local paper, she received her first pay-cheque for "Eve's Opportunity," a short story in the American magazine GIRLHOOD DAYS. From the death of her mother, to enduring a bout of colitis, to losing out on a promised position writing a social events and women’s organizations column, Clara continued to experience setbacks well into her early adult years. Supported by her work on staff with the KITCHENER DAILY RECORD and encouraged by her friendship with newspaperman Gregory Clark, she made it through the Depression. From her growing output of poems she continued to contribute prolifically to Canadian newspapers and magazines and to American religious magazines for children, publications including the CANADIAN HOME JOURNAL and STAR WEEKLY. Her first books were SILENT RHYTHM (1938), with a foreword by Ethelwyn Wetherald*, and NIN NAUNANIM, A SONNET SEQUENCE (1939) in a collaborative volume with four other poets, privately printed in Belleville. Although she never married, Clara carried on a close and fulfilling correspondence before the war with an American she referred to as “John.” The two never met because she feared disappointing him with her disabilities. During the war, Clara volunteered as a book critic for the local newspaper, the PRESTONIAN and wrote a Red Cross column called “Red Cross Reminders.” As a sign of her compassionate nature, she also conducted a personal mission of mercy which won her some renown: to every relative of an unaccounted-for soldier, she sent a copy of her poem "Missing." Ever frustrated by her physical constraints, Clara fell into a depressive state, but after she began to regain feeling in her legs and when her back and fingers began to straighten, her faith in God was renewed and a visit to Lyndhurst rehabilitation centre was finally possible. After six weeks at Lyndhurst, and hours of painful and exhausting exercise, Clara was able to spend her first weekend alone in Toronto. With a lighter and more mobile wheelchair, she took a road-trip with a friend through Ontario, with stops at Manitoulin Island and Providence Bay in Sudbury. Her autobiography, LADY IN ARMS, for which she was seeking a publisher in 1951, remains in manuscript in her papers at Wilfrid Laurier University. She also published a book of songs entitled TIP TOE TUNES, intended for very young children. She composed the 1967 Centennial Year Hymn for Canadian churches and wrote "Constant Flame," a play for the 50th Anniversary of Waterloo Lutheran Seminary. In 1991, two years before her death, Clara was presented with the Order of Ontario. Ms. Bernhardt died on 1 May 1993 at the Freeport Health Center in Kitchener and her ashes were buried at Preston Cemetery. |
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| Honours and awards | Honourable mention for "Creed of a Canadian," The Sonnet Award (ALBERTA POETRY YEAR BOOK, 1942-43); Honorable mention for "We Shall Remember This," The Sonnet Award (ALBERTA POETRY YEAR BOOK, 1945-46) |
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| Residences | Preston, Ontario |
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| Primary genres | poetry; fiction; life-writing |
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| Books | SILENT RHYTHM (1939); NIN NAUNANIMIN: A SONNET SEQUENCE (1939); FAR HORIZON (1941 AND 1942); SONG OF ZION (1944); OPEN WINDOWS (1947); HIDDEN MUSIC (1948); BERMUDA INTERLUDE (1965); I NEED YOU (1983); PRESTON SCOUT HOUSE: A BRIEF HISTORY (1987); MAGIC ON THE MARCH: THE 50 YEAR HISTORY OF CANADA'S FAMOUS PRESTON SCOUT HOUSE BUGLE BAND (1989) |
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| Periodicals | ALBERTA POETRY YEAR BOOK; BOY LIFE; THE CALIPER; CANADIAN BOOKMAN; CANADIAN HOME JOURNAL; THE CANADIAN LUTHERAN; CANADIAN POETRY MAGAZINE; CHATELAINE; CHRISTIAN SCIENCE SENTINEL; CINCINNATTI GIRLHOOD DAYS; THE CRUCIBLE; FAMILY HERALD AND WEEKLY STAR; FAITH AT WORK; FARMER'S MAGAZINE; THE FORUM; GIRLHOOD DAYS; HOME AUGSBURG BIBLE STUDIES; HOME AUGSBURG BIBLE STUDIES EDITORIAL; HOME AUGSBURG BIBLE STUDIES QUARTERLY; JOURNAL OF CHURCH MUSIC; KITCHENER DAILY RECORD; LUTHERAN AUGSBURG HOME BIBLE STUDIES; LUTHERAN YOUNG FOLKS; MONTREAL STANDARD; THE NARRATOR; ONWARD; PHILADELPHIA LUTHERAN YOUNG FOLKS; SATURDAY NIGHT; TORONTO GLOBE; TORONTO STAR WEEKLY; SUNDAY DIGEST; WATERLOO HISTORICAL SOCIETY ANNUAL VOLUME (1969); YOUNG PEOPLE; YOUNG PEOPLE'S WEEKLY |
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| Other publications | Anthologized in: Creighton and Ridley, NEW CANADIAN ANTHOLOGY (1938); Marty, CREATIVE YOUNG CANADA (1928) |
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| Organizations | Canadian Authors Association |
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| Other arts | music (singing) |
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| Father's name | Arthur Robert Bernhardt |
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| Life dates of father | hardware merchant |
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| Father's note | 17 April 1881, Waterloo, Ontario - after 1933; m. 1908 |
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| Mother's name | Ida May Theurer |
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| Life dates of mother | 13 September 1885, Bridgeport, Ontario - 30 November 1933, Waterloo, Ontario; m. 1908 |
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| Biographical references | WHO WAS WHO AMONG NORTH AMERICAN AUTHORS 1921-39; "Clara Bernhardt," on HALL OF FAME MEMBERS, City of Cambridge (Web); Bernhardt, unpublished biographical notes, held at Wilfrid Laurier University; Rivers, Cassie, unpublished interview with Clara Bernhardt (1984), held at Wilfrid Laurier University; Ontario, Canada Births, 1869-1911; autobiographical chapter from Wilfred Laurier University archives; 1984 Bernhardt interview by Cassie Rivers, from Wilfred Laurier University archives |
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| Bibliographic references | Watters, CHECKLIST OF CANADIAN LITERATURE...1620-1960 (1970) pp. 17, 247; National Union Catalogue |
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| Research references | complete |
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| Archival references | Correspondence, W.A. Deacon papers, Fisher Library, University of Toronto; Clara Bernhardt fonds, Wilfrid Laurier University Library Special Collections, 1.38 m of textual records |
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| Image credits | Image from Alan Creighton and Hilda M. Ridley, eds., A NEW CANADIAN ANTHOLOGY (Toronto: Crucible, 1938). |
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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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