These media represent the beginning of a cumulating body of research on British Columbia poet Audrey Alexandra Brown, Brown's participation in the construction of national identity in the early half of the twentieth century, and how that participation changed as a result of shifts in Canadian media on local and national levels. The two images were taken from the Audrey Alexandra Brown fonds held in the University of Victoria Special Collections; the first is a collection of proofs taken at a studio in Nanaimo, B.C in 1935; the second is the scanned excerpt of a letter from Toronto critic Pelham Edgar to Brown. The 1939 letter reveals that Brown was asked to read poems on air but that the CBC found they "had not proper facilities in Victoria for a nation wide hook up." Edgar's letter also reveals that Brown's work had been recently published into German, suggesting that the print-based version of her poetry was beginning to receive international attention. The material provides contextual information on the period in which Brown's poetry began to receive attention from literary critics and the general public. Through further examination of Brown's archival material, I hope to assess the impact of shifts in media focus on the accessibility of Brown's poetry.

Struggling with the Fields
Lingering Questions

---

Comment on this page