Ethel Wilson

Peggy Martin (University of Saskatchewan)

Ed. by Wendy Roy, University of Saskatchewan
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.1.2: Canadian Writing and Culture (Anglophone): The Twentieth Century and beyond, 1900-present.
Vol. editors: Sarah Henzi (Simon Fraser University), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Glen Nichols (Mount Allison University), Wendy Roy (University of Saskatchewan), Denis Salter (McGill University), Karis Shearer (University of British Columbia)

Dates

Born 20 Jan 1888
Died 22 Dec 1980
Activity 1937-1964

Places

Born in South Africa
Active in Canada

Activities

Primary

Essayist
Novelist
Story-writer

Resources

Wilson's Works

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Ethel Wilson was celebrated in her lifetime and continues to be remembered as an accomplished literary stylist. Her work is often viewed in the context of Canadian modernist fiction. Between 1937 and 1964, she published six volumes of fiction, as well as a number of stories and essays in magazines and journals, but she is best known for her short novels

Hetty Dorval

and

Swamp Angel

, the two novellas published as

The Equations of Love

, and the frequently anthologized stories collected in

Mrs. Golightly and Other Stories.

Throughout her career, Wilson argued against the idea of a “Canadian novel”, preferring instead to write “about a particular place”, about relationships, and about nature in relation to people. Ironically, her evocative depictions of particular places she knew and…

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1834 words

Citation: Martin, Peggy. "Ethel Wilson". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 April 2000 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=4750, accessed 29 April 2024.]

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