Catharine Parr Traill (1802-1899) and Susanna Moodie (1803-1885) were sisters who immigrated to Canada from England in 1832.\u00a0 Both newly married, they were part of a movement of settlers from Britain seeking to escape poverty by moving to Upper Canada (now the province of Ontario), where they hoped to establish a prosperous new home.<\/p>\n
The reality was quite different.\u00a0 Although they settled within 50 miles of each other, the harshness of travel and limited communications prevented them from visiting each other for two years.\u00a0 \u201cSisters in the Wilderness\u201d is a biography by Charlotte Gray about the two sisters who both eventually thrived as authors in their new home, despite a bleak beginning.<\/p>\n
The sisters had a relatively good start in life.\u00a0 Gray described their household of six sisters and two brothers \u2013 all who lived long lives \u2013 as rich in books and creativity.\u00a0 The family was related to Sir Isaac Newton and inherited much of his library.\u00a0 But the father died young, and the family was left with limited resources.\u00a0 Out of this experience, six of the siblings became published authors, a very unusual success rate spurred by necessity.<\/p>\n
The two Canadian sisters were especially prolific.\u00a0 Susanna Moodie is best known for \u201cRoughing it in the Bush,\u201d her 1852 book about her early years in North America.\u00a0 Her work was the inspiration for modern Canadian writer, Margaret Atwood, in her 1970 book of poetry, \u201cThe Journals of Susanna Moodie.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, the focus of this review is on Catharine Parr Traill.\u00a0 Named after the surviving, last wife of King Henry VIII of England (and a distant relation), she was a survivor herself, living to 97 and achieving a great deal of fame in her later life, primarily for her books about the wildflowers of Canada.\u00a0 She was an avid field botanist and \u201ctook a serious interest in every aspect of a plant: its appearance, its life cycle, its medicinal and food value, its relation to other plants.\u201d\u00a0 She also recognized that the wild country in which she struggled to survive was beginning to disappear, and along with it many of the native plants.<\/p>\n
To help with her research, she acquired a small library of books intended for professional botanists.\u00a0 However, her goal was to publish a book for a more general audience.\u00a0 She began by writing articles for both Canadian and American popular magazines.<\/p>\n
Traill was an excellent observer and writing, but she lacked the artistic skills to illustrate the book she hoped to publish.\u00a0 By the 1860s, her sister\u2019s children had grown up and one of them, Agnes Moodie Fitzgibbon (1833-1913), was an accomplished painter.\u00a0 Fitzgibbon also became a tireless promoter of her aunt\u2019s book, signing up many buyers before the book was printed.\u00a0 A young widow, she drew ten illustrations for the book and printed 500 copies of each.\u00a0 She then engaged her three daughters, ages 16, 13, and 10, at their dining room table to hand color every one \u2013 a total of 5,000 illustrations!<\/p>\n
\u201cCanadian Wild Flowers\u201d was published in 1868.\u00a0 The timing was excellent, as it was just a year after Canadian independence.\u00a0 Traill writes in the Preface: \u201cWith a patriotic pride in her native land, Mrs. F. [Agnes Moodie Fitzgibbon] was desirous that the book should be entirely of Canadian production, without any foreign aid, and thus far her design has been carried out; whether successfully or not, remains for the public to decide.\u201d\u00a0 This gamble was very successful as the book was indeed a popular expression of national pride.\u00a0 The Miller Library has a facsimile of this book.<\/p>\n
Traill\u2019s contribution to this first book was in the form of narrative descriptions of the plants in the illustrations.\u00a0 As this only totaled 30 species, the botanical information is limited, but the sumptuous illustrations ensured the book\u2019s popularity.<\/p>\n