Patricia Demers – författare

This rich survey of children's literature from the middle ages to the mid-nineteenth century features a remarkable variety of literary forms, including fairy tales, fables, letters, and poems. Drawing on an ever-growing body of scholarship, this anthology places each selection in the context of its era and helps students develop an appreciation of early children's literature.

History has not been kind to Hannah More. This once lionized writer and activist -- the most influential female philanthropist of her day -- is now considered by many to be the embodiment of pious morality and reactionary anti-feminism. Largely because of her belief in separate spheres for men and women, More has been vilified by modern-day feminists. The first biography to examine the complete range of her life and work, The World of Hannah More depicts the author as a forceful voice in her own day and one who, from the point of view of plain justice, today deserves a more nuanced treatment. Without denying the problems More presents for modern readers, Patricia Demers has produced a balanced revisionist study of a woman enormously influential in late-eighteenth-and early-nineteenth-century England. By examining the career of this cultural warrior, situating her major texts in relation to contemporaries, and addressing her published writing, philanthropic activities, and voluminous correspondence, Demers anchors The World of Hannah More in the work itself -- an appropriate and just response to a woman who took pride in living to some purpose. Trying to deal justly with More and her female moral imperialism requires admitting both the expansiveness and the limitations of her charity, methodology and vision. Without venerating or trivializing, Demers pursues the doubleness and contradictions of More's largely neglected or superficially mined works, from the determined experiments of the earliest plays to the poignantly revealing essays on practical piety, Christian morals, and Saint Paul.

Demers revives the memory of journalist Miriam Green Ellis, an all-but-forgotten feminist, suffragist, and agricultural reporter who documented the modernist sphere for over four decades and who refused to be confined to the "women's pages." With written material from the University of Alberta's Miriam Green Ellis Collection, accompanied by an excellent selection of photographs, Ellis's inimitable voice and views on Albertans, westerners, and Canadians in the early decades of the twentieth century emerge clearly. Readers interested in Canadian women studies, journalism, or feminism will find Ellis's highly coloured perspective both entertaining and informative.

This catalogue introduces the work of Miriam Green Ellis (1879-1964), pioneer woman journalist of Western Canada. Never one to follow a typical path, she steered clear of the "women's page" and society columns; her livelihood was the agricultural beat. Ellis's daring journey by river steamer from Edmonton to Aklavik in 1922-documented with a diary, travelogue, photographs and slides-launched and illustrated her subsequent "Land of the Midnight Sun" lectures, and secured her position as Western Editor for the Family Herald and Weekly Star. The materials she bequeathed to the University of Alberta include published newspaper articles, photographs, coloured glass slides, manuscripts, diaries, and letters; the Collection's cultural and ethnographic value to researchers is unparalleled. Miriam Green Ellis: Champion of the West samples the rich diversity of the Collection, while inviting you to see the way we were as Westerners almost a century ago and demonstrating why the West remained Ellis's emotional home. This Miriam Green Ellis exhibition catalogue won an award of excellence from the University and College Designers Association (UCDA). Once again, Lara Minja's beautiful entry was favourably recognized by a panel of judges for excellence in concept, typography, illustrations, printing, and overall design. Well done!