Recollections: Mother's Own (Part 1)

Here's a Family Treasure if I Ever saw One

Edith Jane Eileen Catton, Tidey Street, Norwich

Introduction:

Kim has sent me a file, twenty-pages in length, containing our Mother's recollections. The document is significant. It covers a lot of ground and reveals a great, great number of facts, details and experiences I have never read in the past. It is golden, a true treasure.

More pages will follow.

For more information please link to The Writer: A Few Words in Praise of Her Work

Photos GH

The Writer: A Few Words in Praise of Her Work

The Typewriter was Always Tap-Tapping Away

Whether it was an Underwood or Remington, it weighed a ton

Photo found on ebay

Introduction: 

I don't know what kind of typewriter my mother owned for many years but it was one of the two major brands, it weighed about 30 - 40 pounds, ribbons were used and re-used because they were dear, and when I ran through the front door at noon hour in the late-1950s for lunch (from the elementary school across the street from our front porch), Mom would look up from her typing (the tap-tapping or clacking would stop for just a few seconds) and nod toward 'lunch served' on the nearby dining room table. It was often a bologna or chicken loaf sandwich on white bread and a glass of cold, white milk.

My younger brother Kim offers the following about Mother's early days of writing and some of the appraisals of others found while tidying up his possessions before a move: 

There’s another envelope that contains her longest written piece, a novella. There’s a story about Palaiyak, the Eskimo boy, in one of the ‘Rubaboo’ books that came out during the 1960’s, but Mother had researched a great deal and had more to say. I can remember her sitting in the living room with a large blue book by a Scandinavian man who had lived in the Arctic with the people there. The novella is called “Song of the Northern Hunter”, and though it is dated now, and these people are called the Inuits and so much has changed, it’s a wonderful piece. Some of Mother’s stories give me a tingle up my spine - I’m not sure if it’s not because they’re hers and I hear her voice, but she could strike a note at times that vibrates with truth of feeling.

 

Photo Credit - Amazon (link)

Kim continues:

I had a friend who taught Children’s Literature at Western, and when I mentioned growing up with the tap-tap of the typewriter, she said the ’60’s were a golden age of children’s literature, and it’s so nice that Mother was part of that time when Gage and other publishing companies were encouraging, even seeking out, writing of good quality. In the same envelope are notes she received from the publishers, the letters constructed as we still learned at school, even to the executive’s initials in capitals at the bottom, then a slash, and the typist’s initials in small case letters.

Here are a few excerpts from those days she was getting her stories received into the ‘Rubaboo’ and ’Nunny Bag’ collections:

“You have left the committee quite breathless! We want to purchase three of your manuscripts and to congratulate you for writing such fine children’s literature….”

“We should like to congratulate you on the excellent story that you have written. We hope that we shall hear from you any time in the future when you have a manuscript in which you think we would be interested.”

“This year, we have been asking school librarians to let us know how the children react to the anthologies. The poetry in “Nunny Bag” seems to be a real hit. “The Cat’s Blue Sunday Hat” repeatedly is listed as a favourite. Apparently, “Mr. Gregory’s Red Galoshes” is one of the stories that the younger readers like because "it’s easy to read and something happens."  So… you seem to have communicated with this age group very well. We hope that you are considering writing for them again!"

Perhaps you remember Jean Wyatt, a friend from London who used to visit in Norwich, and Mother would visit when she could. There was a group called the Scribes here that gathered to discuss their writing, and on rare occasions Mother could come to their meetings. There’s a note from Jean that starts out: “You are an inspired writer!….. If I were a child I’d read Edith Jane Harrison the day long.”

As I recall the story, another publishing company, Little, Brown, & Co., sponsored an annual contest and published the winning book. Mother’s novella tied with another. The committee simply couldn’t decide and so that year they didn’t publish the winning book. “Song of the Northern Hunter”, Mother’s longest piece, was never published. She had an old typewriter, and the copy I have, though it’s marked "Last typing," has corrections. The year 1969 is crossed out and 1971 written above...

More will follow related to Edith's writing history.

For more details, please link to Video: I Called Her 'Ma'

Photos GH

Video: I Called Her 'Ma'

Our Family Photograph Albums are Pretty Thick

Edith, Verne (back), Arthur (front), and Fred Catton

Introduction:

The digital files we now possess (not designed to ever replace the 20-pound photo album) are pretty thick or deep as well.

Though I have been told I have a good face for radio, I am trying my hand at short videos. Here are eight photos of Edith Jane Catton in modern-day video-style, with music - at no extra charge.

The video can also be seen on YouTube. Please click here.

More photos, videos, stories, anecdotes to follow.

For a 1970s photograph, please link to Photographs: A Nehru Jacket 

Video GH

Photographs: A Nehru Jacket

She Looked Better in It Than I Did!

L - R: Isabel Roberts, Verne, Edith. Photo is likely from the 1970s

When I started going to university in 1968 I lived with Dale for a few months in the Dunlish Apartments on the corner of Dundas and English, Old East London. There was a unique clothing store about a block west of the apartment and I visited it often with 'tobacco money $$' in my wallet.

I bought two Nehru jackets - yellow and green brocade - and they both returned to Norwich at the end of my first year at UWO. I never wore them again but Mom made good use of them. 

Gord