Jump to content

Mary Josephine Benson

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mary Josephine Benson
Benson as she appeared in the anthology Canadian Singers and Their Songs (1919)
Benson as she appeared in the anthology Canadian Singers and Their Songs (1919)
Born(1887-03-20)March 20, 1887
DiedAugust 31, 1965(1965-08-31) (aged 78)
OccupationPoet, journalist
NationalityCanadian
Notable worksMy Pocket Beryl (1921)
Signature

Mary Josephine Benson (born Trotter; March 20, 1887 – August 31, 1965) was a Canadian poet and journalist.

Life

[edit]

Benson was originally from Port Hope, Ontario.[1][2] She worked in journalism and advertising in Toronto in the 1910s, and returned to Port Hope following her marriage in 1915.[3]

A report on a reading she gave in 1931 described her voice as "charmingly musical".[4]

Writing

[edit]

A 1922 review described her only published collection My Pocket Beryl as "real, personal and authentic poetry, of the present era".[5] Among the works collected in My Pocket Beryl is a prose poem about Christmas.[6]

In 1931, she received a $25 (equivalent to $479 in 2023) prize for her poem "The Bitter Lover", awarded "for the best short poem on any subject by a British subject residing in Canada". Andrew Macphail selected her poem as the winner.[7]

In addition to My Pocket Beryl, Benson published individual poems in newspapers and magazines including Maclean's and The Globe (now The Globe and Mail).[8][9]

Works

[edit]
  • Benson, Mary Josephine (1921). My Pocket Beryl. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart.
  • Benson, Mary Josephine (1997). For the Love of Words: The Collected Poems of Mary Josephine Benson. Abbeyfield Publishers. ISBN 0-9680045-3-9. OCLC 36693060.

Further reading

[edit]

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ Lloyd, Karen (January 22, 2002). "Public invited to library dedication". Evening Guide. p. 2. ISSN 1184-5511. ProQuest 351632801.
  2. ^ "Prominent Women at Heliconian Tea". The Globe. June 24, 1931. p. 14. ISSN 0839-3680. ProQuest 1355128979.
  3. ^ "Benson, Mary Josephine Trotter". Canada's Early Women Writers. Simon Fraser University. May 18, 2018.
  4. ^ "Women's Organizations". The Globe. December 8, 1931. p. 14. ISSN 0839-3680. ProQuest 1355026496.
  5. ^ "A New Canadian Poetic Voice". The Canadian Bookman: 92. March 1922.
  6. ^ "Mary Josephine Benson of Toronto …". The Vancouver Daily Province. December 24, 1921. p. 17. ISSN 0839-329X. ProQuest 2368368111.
  7. ^ "Awards Made in Poetry Contest of Authors' Body". Montreal Gazette. Vol. 160, no. 108. May 6, 1931. p. 13. ISSN 0384-1294. ProQuest 2158704041.
  8. ^ Benson, Mary Josephine (August 13, 1929). "The Comforters". The Globe. p. 17. ISSN 0839-3680. ProQuest 1352175522.
  9. ^ Benson, Mary Josephine (March 1, 1919). "The City of Lost Laughter". Maclean's. 32 (3): 24. ISSN 0024-9262. ProQuest 1475346365.
[edit]