Isabella Valancy Crawford (1850 - 1887)

Born 25 Dec 1850 in Dublin, Ireland

Died 12 Feb 1887 at age 36 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

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I love deep places builded high with woods,
Deep, dusk, fern-closed, and starred with nodding blooms,
Close watched by hills, green, garlanded and tall.
-- from “Said the West Wind”

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Biography

Isabella Crawford is Notable.

Isabella Crawford is/was a significant Ontarian .

Isabella Valancy Crawford was an Irish-born Canadian poet and writer.

Little appreciated during her lifetime, she is now acknowledged as a significant Canadian poet. "In her long poems, “Malcolm’s Katie,” an idyll recreating the backwoods life of farm and forest, and “Old Spookses’ Pass,” relating a stampede during a cattle drive through the Rockies, she displays a remarkable flair for narrative, and for combining plot, theme, and characterization with an exuberant and arresting use of imagery," writes her biographer Dorothy Livesay.^[1]

Born in Dublin in 1850, she was the eldest daughter of Dr. Stephen Crawford and Sydney Scott. The Crawford family emigrated first to Wisconsin, then to Paisley, Elderslie Township, Ontario, for four years.^[2] They then moved to Douro Township, Ontario, where they lived for eight years. In 1869 her father uprooted the family again, this time to Peterborough, Ontario. Isabella's first success as a writer took place there in 1873; she won first prize in a short story competition.

After her husband's death in 1875 and her son Stephen's departure for northern Ontario, Sydney Crawford depended upon a small quarterly allowance from her brother-in-law, Dr. John Irwin Crawford, to pay the bills. By 1876 both of her younger daughters had died and John Crawford, who had become blind, was no longer able to send money. She and Isabella moved to Toronto, where Isabella thought she would have a better chance of selling her poems and stories. They lived above a store at 57 John Street. Isabella sold her work to local newspapers and published her first book, Old Spookses’ Pass, Malcolm’s Katie, and Other Poems, in 1884.

Three years later, at the age of 36, Isabella died suddenly, possibly of heart failure. ^[3] She was originally buried at the Necropolis in Toronto^[4] but was later reinterred at Little Lake Cemetery, Peterborough.^[5]

An admirer of Isabella's poetry, John W. Garvin, visited the flat where Isabella died and discovered to his horror that her poems and manuscripts were being used to kindle fires in the building. He collected the papers, contacted Stephen Crawford, and with his help, published The Collected Poems of Isabella Valancy Crawford in 1905.^[6]

Selected Bibliography

• “Old Spookses’ Pass,” “Malcolm’s Katie,” and Other Poems (Toronto: Bain, 1884)
  
• The Collected Poems of Isabella Valancy Crawford. Ed. John Garvin (1905 rpt. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1972)
  
• Hugh and Ion. Ed. Glenn Clever (Ottawa: Borealis, 1977)
  
• Malcolm’s Katie: a Love Story. Ed. D.M.R. Bentley (London: Canadian Poetry Press, 1987)

To read some of Isabella's poetry, see RPO Representative Poetry Online.

Recognition

• Isabella Valancy Crawford was designated a Person of National Historic Significance in 1947.^[7]
• A small park at Front and John Streets, Toronto, has been named Isabella Valancy Crawford Park.

Sources

1. ↑ *Dorothy Livesay, “CRAWFORD, ISABELLA VALANCY,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 11, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed November 17, 2016, http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/crawford_isabella_valancy_11E.html.
2. ↑ Census of Canada West, 1861, Elderslie, Bruce, 871599
3. ↑ "Ontario Deaths, 1869-1937 and Overseas Deaths, 1939-1947," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JDRQ-MN1 : 26 March 2020), Isabella Valency Crawford, 12 Feb 1887; citing Toronto, York, Ontario, yr 1887 cn 19776, Registrar General. Archives of Ontario, Toronto; FHL microfilm 1,853,487.
4. ↑ "Ontario Deaths, 1869-1937 and Overseas Deaths, 1939-1947," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JDRQ-MN1 : 2 March 2021), Isabella Valency Crawford, 12 Feb 1887; citing Toronto, York, Ontario, yr 1887 cn 19776, Registrar General. Archives of Ontario, Toronto; FHL microfilm 1,853,487.
5. ↑ Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 19 April 2021), memorial page for Isabella Stewart Valancy Crawford (25 Dec 1850–12 Feb 1887), Find A Grave: Memorial #8043462, citing Little Lake Cemetery, Peterborough, Peterborough County, Ontario, Canada ; Maintained by Find A Grave .
6. ↑ Galvin, Elizabeth M. Isabella Valancy Crawford: We Scarcely Knew Her. Toronto: Dundurn, 1994, p. 120
7. ↑ Parks Canada Directory of Federal Heritage Designations

See also:

• The Canadian Encyclopedia
• Wikipedia contributors, "Isabella Valancy Crawford," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Isabella_Valancy_Crawford&oldid=738233408 (accessed September 7, 2016).
• Wikidata: Item Q537087, en:Wikipedia