turcon

Personal Information

Full Name

Sheila Turcon

Bio

Sheila Turcon works as an Archivist in McMaster’s Archives and Research Collections. Her background is in English literature and Canadian and British history. After completing her M.A. she began work in 1980 at the Bertrand Russell Centre where she has worked on and off (depending on funding) for many years. She has recently been editing the letters between Russell and Lady Constance Malleson. Articles and reviews by her appear in the journal Russell – she also edited a newsletter for the Centre for five years. She joined the Archives in 1985, finally getting a continuing part-time position a few years ago. Her research interests away from work include a study of the small fishing settlement of Roussainville on the north shore of Lake Superior – established around 1840 and where her grandmother was born.

Affiliation

McMaster University

Country

Canada

Personal Statement About Topic

Bringing CanLit into the Classroom—Brita Mickleburgh’s Canadian Literature: Two Centuries in Prose

Part of my work at McMaster’s archives has involved the description of the McClelland & Stewart (M&S) fonds. In January 2009 the obituary of Brita Mickleburgh, published in the Globe and Mail, caught my eye – it mentioned her pioneering involvement with Canadian literature and her book published by M&S. Having an interest in Canadian literature and its popularization, I decided to see if there was enough information in the M&S fonds at McMaster to do a case study. I uncovered a fascinating tale. Thanks to Mickleburgh’s daughter, Pauline Mickleburgh, the case study is illustrated with a photograph of her mother.

Case studies by Sheila Turcon

Case study :

Hugh Kane: "The Compleat Bookman"

Hugh Kane (1911-84) is regarded as one of Canada’s foremost publishers, having held senior positions at both McClelland & Stewart and Macmillan of Canada, two of the country’s most important firms. During a career that spanned some 50 years, he helped lead the companies through difficult financial times, and won the respect of colleagues and authors with business acumen, an even temper, and good humour.

Case study :

The Censorship of Margaret Laurence’s The Diviners, 1976-1985

Margaret Laurence (1926-87) was a well-known and critically praised Canadian novelist in 1976 when her novel The Diviners (1974) first came under fire. The book had won a Governor General’s Literary Award as had her earlier novel, A Jest of God, in 1966. Challenges by religious, conservative groups to The Diviners continue to the present day, but these disputes in turn galvanized groups and associations of authors, librarians, teachers, publishers, and booksellers to champion Laurence, and also led to the formation of Freedom to Read Week. In the annals of censorship in Canada, the attack on The Diviners is one of the most significant events of the twentieth century.*

Case study :

Bringing CanLit into the Classroom—Brita Mickleburgh’s Canadian Literature: Two Centuries in Prose

Brita Mickleburgh (d. 2008) was a trailblazer in teaching Canadian literature in Canadian high schools. Odd as it may seem now, before 1970 she and most of her colleagues “had been teaching English not as a second language, but for all practical purposes as a foreign language”, using texts from Great Britain, Ireland and the United States.