Canada is not renowned for protecting and preserving its literary heritage. Recently, Joy Kogawa's childhood home was saved from the bulldozer in Vancouver, BC and turned into a museum. Also, a fight is currently underway to ensure that Al Purdy's A-frame in Roblin Lake is retained for future generations to enjoy as a writer's retreat.
Many other writers' homes have been lost due to re-development or re-sale, thereby preventing the writers and readers of the future the chance to enter where these writers lived and worked, to see their precious possessions, and perhaps even to create there themselves.
On the Prairies, two prominent writers' homes have been protected and transformed into vital museums that honour the life and work of Stephan G Stephansson and Margaret Laurence.
Stephan G Stephansson's Museum in Markerville, Alberta
Stephen G Stephansson was a poet from Iceland who died in 1927. He was an immensely prolific and popular poet, celebrated both in his homeland and his adopted land of Canada. Although he worked as a farmer, he nonetheless wrote over 2000 pages of poems in his lifetime, most of very high quality, and many more than all of the other Confederation poets combined. Both his reading and his work in nature inspired his poems, which were often written at the end of a long day in the fields. He felt that his poetry truly came to maturity in Alberta. His poems are studied in schools in Iceland and he has a memorial to his life there.
In Alberta, the government formally recognized Stephansson's contribution to pioneer and immigrant literature in this country by making his house a museum in 1976. The house can be found by driving many miles down a long road, though there are many signs to direct one to the old farmhouse. Stephansson moved to this homestead in 1889 and expanded it as his family grew. Eventually, he, his wife and seven children lived there. The house was lived in until the 1950s.
The house is painted a shocking pink and lime green, with gingerbread architectural features. After Stephansson's three year old son was killed by lightning, the poet had three lightning rods installed. If there's time to tour the house, enjoy the many pioneer artifacts within. There are also often poetry readings or teas at the homestead. Even if one is just passing through, stop at the front to read about the life and work of this Icelandic poet for free.
Margaret Laurence's Childhood Home in Neepawa, Manitoba
Margaret Laurence is one of Canada's best loved writers. Her books like The Stone Angel and The Diviners are both controversial and required reading for Canadians. Several titles have also been turned into television shows or movies. Laurence's books, the ones not set in Africa, revolve around the happenings in the fictional town of Manawaka. This town is based on the real one Margaret grew up in, Neepawa.
Margaret, born in 1926, went to live in this imposing brick house with her grandfather Simpson when she was nine years old. This time was very influential to her in relation to the development of the characters she would later write about, especially throughout the stories in A Bird in the House. The house, purchased and preserved in 1986, is full of treasures, from Margaret's typewriter to the books she enjoyed as a child, to old family photos and even a "life mask." Admission is very reasonable and the cost goes towards upkeep on this valuable manse.
When the tour of the house is complete, drive down the street to the cemetary. Amid all the graves, planted beautifully in the summer with peonies, one can find Margaret's interred ashes and the fabled Stone Angel of her story, overlooking the little town, transformed by imagination.
Catherine Owen - Catherine Owen, MA 2001, has published ten award winning books of poetry/prose. Her writing is lyrical, well-researched and fully ...
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