Main entry | Brooks, Anne Sutherland |
Birth place | Guelph, Wellington, Ontario |
Birth date | 24 July 1900 |
Death date | Feburary 1996 |
Identifier | 0187 |
Birth name | Anne Sutherland |
Married name | Brooks |
Marital status | married |
Religious affiliation | Presbyterian |
Degree and date | teacher's certificate, Normal School, London, Ontario |
Biography | Anne Sutherland Brooks (1900-1996) was born and educated in Guelph, Ontario, where, although Presbyterian, she attended the Loretto Convent as well as the Collegiate Institute. At the London Normal School, she qualified to teach. By her mid-twenties Brooks was beginning to attract attention as a poet and reciter as well as for verses in periodicals ranging from the NEW YORK TIMES to WOMEN'S WORLD. Her associates in the Toronto branch of the Canadian Authors Association awarded her the members' division poetry prize in 1932 and 1933, just a couple of years before she married Canon Edward Arnold Brooks (1907-) in 1935. With her friend and fellow poet Charlotte McCoy, Anne wrote SING A SONG OF CANADA (1937) which was set to music. I MET SOME LITTLE PEOPLE (1941), the last of her seven volumes of poetry, shows some indebtedness to A.A. Milne. In addition to caring for her own children, John Edward Arnold and Anne Elizabeth, Anne enchanted young listeners with recitals of her poetry and radio broadcasts of children's stories. She died in 1996. |
Other notes | In a letter to the Ontario Heritage Foundation in January 1987, Anne Sutherland Brooks presented a "plea for a historic plaque to mark the last home of Isabel Valancy Crawford."* She wrote similarly to the Women's Canadian Historical Society of Toronto in April 1987 on "the matter of preserving [Crawford's] Toronto home from destruction." In the first letter, she draws on her friendships with "Charles G.D. Roberts, E.J. Pratt, Marshall Saunders,* etc." |
Honours and awards | 1st place for "To One Mistaking Little Christ," Members' Division (Canadian Authors Association - Toronto, 1932); 1st place for "Blue Dusk," Members' Division (Canadian Authors Association - Toronto, 1933) |
Residences | Guelph, Ontario (1900, 1901, 1911); Hamilton, Ontario |
Geographic regions | Southern Ontario |
Primary genres | poetry; non-fiction |
Books | WITHIN A WICKER GATE (1927); LITTLE SONGS FOR SALE (1928); A RIBBAND OF BLUE (1929); THE SUNNE-BEAM STAIRE (1930); THE ODD LITTLE SOUL (1933); BLUE DUSK AND OTHER POEMS (1934); SING A SONG OF CANADA (1937); I MET SOME LITTLE PEOPLE (1941) |
Periodicals | AMERICAN FORESTRY MAGAZINE; CANADIAN BOOKMAN; CANADIAN HOME JOURNAL; CANADIAN MAGAZINE; CHATELAINE; CHURCHMAN; GOOD HOUSEKEEPING; HOLLAND'S MAGAZINE; HOUSEHOLD MAGAZINE; NEW OUTLOOK; NEW YORK TIMES; RAINBOW; WOMAN'S WORLD; YOUR HOME |
Other publications | Anthologized in: Benson, MODERN CANADIAN POETS (1930); Garvin, CAP AND BELLS (1936) |
Organizations | Canadian Authors Association, Lyceum Club |
Father's name | John Sutherland |
Life dates of father | 14 October 1853, Glen Morris, Brant, Ontario - 19 March 1934, Guelph, Ontario; m. 1888 |
Father's note | insurance agent for John Sutherland & Sons Ltd. Insurance |
Mother's name | Annie Saunders |
Life dates of mother | 16 May 1867, Paisley, Ontario - 1946, Guelph, Ontario; m. 1888 |
Mother's note | From pioneering families in Beckwith Township and Paisley |
Spouse 1 | Reverend Arnold Edward Brooks |
Life dates of spouse 1 | 4 August 1907, Barrie, Simcoe, Ontario - |
Spouse 1 note | clergyman; went by Edward Arnold |
Marriage 1 date | 30 April 1935 |
Marriage 1 place | St. Thomas, Ontario |
Children number | 2 |
Children's names and dates | John Edward Arnold (16 May 1937 - 26 December 1992), m. to Mildred Noble; Anne Elizabeth (1942 - ), m. David Walker |
Biographical references | Letter to G.H.U. Bayley, 17 January 1987.; Letter to Frances R.S. McDowell, 30 April 1987; WHO WAS WHO AMONG NORTH AMERICAN AUTHORS (1921-39); Marriage Announcement, ST. THOMAS JOURNAL (1 May 1935); 1901 Census of Canada; 1911 Census of Canada; Ontario, Canada Births, 1869-1911 |
Bibliographic references | Watters, CHECKLIST OF CANADIAN LITERATURE...1620-1960 (1970), pp. 25, 26, 121, 605 |
Research references | complete |
Image credits | Line drawing by Una Vernelli (Vancouver, British Columbia). |
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. |