My Life as a Dame -- collection of writings of the late Christina McCall
Fri, 2008-07-11 05:27
#1
My Life as a Dame -- collection of writings of the late Christina McCall
Fri, 2008-07-11 05:27
#2
A look at Canadian politics from the mid-50s from magazine articles edited by her husband, Stephen Clarkson.
In a couple of short, autobiographical sketches written before her death, Christina McCall explains life at U of T , the "need to distance myself from my classmates, all
those good girls with shiny hair and diamond engagement rings...", and the mesmerizing lectures by Northrop Frye in her senior honours year.
And we get a quick look at her first months at Maclean's, with Pierre Berton as a likeable managing editor (not).
She then went out to do battle in the openly sexist world of journalism. In the process, she wrote circles around most of them.
A good look at Canadian political history of the last half of the 20th Century, the articles include a Saturday Night piece (June, 1977) about the guy who wanted to build that Mackenzie pipeline as head of Canadian Arctic Gas, William Wilder.
And from Chatelaine, November, 1970, a great intro to Jane Jacobs: "She greeted me at her front door, wearing the Churchillian boiler suit she'd been writing in all day, gave me a glass of sherry, and led the way out to her pocket-size back garden, where we sat under a crabapple tree while she treated me to one of the most stimulating discussions I've had in years."
That same year she wrote something titled :"In Ottawa, Women Are Either Babes or Blobs"(Chatelaine), and for Saturday Night, that same month, "How Mel Watkins Brought Socialism to the NDP".
All good, still topical stuff [img]wink.gif" border="0[/img]
Just discovered July 17) in reading the late Val Ross's Robertson Davies: A Portrait in Mosaic that Christina was not breaking ground for her sex at Maclean's, an impression left on reading her second autobiographical chapter - June Callwood did a piece, The Beard" about Davies that appeared March 15, 1952.
Christina said that at that time the "serious stuff" was left to the men. Perhaps she only meant the political commentary?
Now I'm wondering how Christina and June got along.
And even more important, how we'll get along without their perspectives?
[ 17 July 2008: Message edited by: George Victor ]
[ 17 July 2008: Message edited by: George Victor ]
Fri, 2008-07-11 09:41
#3
Thanks for posting this, George Victor. We're hopeing to review this shortly for the book lounge.
Wed, 2008-07-30 19:23
#4
How Mel Watkins Brought Socialism to the NDP will be the first chapter featured for discussion. (thanks to the chief interlocutor for the green light). [img]smile.gif" border="0[/img]
Thu, 2008-07-31 07:46
#5
Feel free to discuss the book GV. I'm still finishing up another review, so it may be awhile until I get to this one. Your opinions won't taint mine in the least, I promise. [img]smile.gif" border="0[/img]
Thu, 2009-01-22 15:03
#6
Well George, a promise is a promise, even if it's not a timely one. It may have taken me six months, BUT I finally wrote that review ...
http://www.rabble.ca/books/reviews/christina-mccall-feminist-arms
Fri, 2009-01-23 08:30
#7
As noted, Christina McCall wrote a piece "How Mel Watkins brought socialism to the NDP", sympathetically written in the age of nationalism, and obviously included by husband Stephen Clarkson, liberal, in a jibe at New Democrats - since Watkins was banned from the party as a Waffle leader.
Today, Mel Watkins appears again in The Globe and Mail's lead letter to the editor. "Not since the heady days of left natiionalism in the 1960s and 1970s has one read such compelling statements of the abject dependency of Canada on the U.S. as those of Jeffrey Simson...and Michael Kergin and Allan Gotlieb."
"Canada's elite," writes Watkins, continue to sell out "Canadian sovereignty and morality."
But Watkins is not anti-American: "It is vastly discouraging to see the election of an American president who is a breath of fresh air after decades of staleness being seen as simply a challenge for Canada," he concludes.
One wonders how McCall would respond to Canada's political situation today. Sure like to see an article on Stephen Clarkson's views on the Liberal Party of Canada - not a tome, just a little retrospective by a top-notch journalist like his late partner.
Fri, 2009-01-23 08:32
#8
I believe you got the book right, JR. Clarkson was husband and editor, however.
The distance she maintained from the "feminist movement", her distrust of a "movement", was real. She was not a joiner. For a brief time, though, feminism bridged what again became the Liberal/NDP chasm.
Sun, 2009-02-01 09:05
#9
In spite of distancing herself from the women's movement, McCall would have been quick to point out the U.S.legislation that has just been passed, overcoming a conservative Supreme Court decision in 2007 that denied equal pay to a woman challenging her treatment.
At least, this reader did not notice the now declining workplace situation for Canadian women relative to their U.S. counterparts boldly stated in any mainstream media here. It was placed prominently in the NY Times.
And I seem to have overlooked public reaction in Canadian media, apart from babble's intrepid reporter, M.Dufresne.