Material relating to Audrey Alexandra Brown

Title: Material relating to Audrey Alexandra Brown
Dates of Material:
19121948
Extent:
8 cm of textual records
3 photographs: b&w
Biographical sketch

Audrey Alexandra Brown (1904–1998) was a poet. She was born in Nanaimo, British Columbia, the daughter of Joseph Miller Brown and Rosa Elizabeth Rumming.

Brown was educated at St. Ann’s Convent, Nanaimo (1912–13) and at Nanaimo Public School (1915–17). She was a keen reader and largely educated herself. She wrote her first verse at the age of 6. In May 1927 she was attacked by rheumatic fever and rendered unable to walk. In 1934 she was admitted to Queen Alexandra Solarium (Mill Bay), operated on and discharged able to walk in 1935.

In 1928, Brown was “discovered’ by Professor Pelham Edgar of Victoria College, Toronto, who promoted her career from 1928 to 1939. She received many awards: the Members Memorial Medal of the Canadian Women’s Press Club (1936), the Lorne Pierce Gold Medal and the Royal Society of Canada (1944); the Order of Canada (Officer) 1968, and the Centennial Silver Medal (1967). She had honourary memberships in a number of women’s clubs, was a member of the Canadian Authors Association (1948) and visited England (June–December 1950) as guest of P.E.N.

Brown’s publications include A Dryad in Nanaimo (1931), A Dryad in Nanaimo with 11 New Poems (1934), The Tree of Resurrection and other poems (1937), Challenge to Time and Death (1943), V-E Day (1946), All Fool’s Day (1948), and an autobiography entitled The Log of a Lame Duck (1937). She also published some of her poetry in newspapers and journals. As a free-lance journalist she published the columns “Remember With Me” and “What Do You Think?” under the pseudonym “the Khoji” in the Nanaimo Free Press (1969–1974).

Scope and content

Series consists of correspondence with Oscar Pelham Edgar (1929-1947), other correspondence, holographs of poems and photographs.

NOTE(S)
Source of supplied title

Title based on contents of series.

Extent

The series is stored in 1 box.

Finding aids

File list available (see below).

BOX FILE TITLE YEAR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Box 7
Correspondence
754Edgar, Pelham: 19 out (originals), 1929–331929-1933

Subjects: Hugh Eayrs; Duncan Campbell Scott.

755Edgar, Pelham: 28 out (originals), 1933–381933-1938

Subject: [Lady] Tweedsmuir.

756Edgar, Pelham: 9 out (originals), 1939–471939-1947

Includes draft of Three men, ts., cc., annotated.

Literary manuscripts -- Poetry
752Holograph; tss., annotated; ts., cc.; offprint, inscribed to Pelham Edgar; n.d., 1936–391936-1939
753Holograph; tss., annotated; tss., cc., annotated; n.d., 1912–411912-1941
Other material
758.15 letters to Pelham Edgar about Audrey Alexandra Brown1928, 1931, 1934

Includes: 2 from George B. Brown, 1928, 1931; 3 from Martin Burrell, 1934

758.21 letter from Lorne Pierce to Margaret V. Ray, 19481948

Relating to provenance of The Paladins.

Other material -- Photographs
757 3 portraits (black-and-white)n.d.