Clara Thomas (née McCandless; May 22, 1919 – September 26, 2013) was a Canadian academic. A longtime professor of English at York University, she was one of the first academics to devote her work specifically to the study of Canadian literature, and was especially known for her studies of Canadian women writers such as Anna Brownell Jameson,

Susanna Moodie Susanna Moodie (born Strickland; 6 December 1803 – 8 April 1885) was an English-born Canadian author who wrote about her experiences as a settler in Canada, which was a British colony at the time. Biography Susanna Moodie was born in Bungay, ...

Catharine Parr Traill Catharine Parr Traill (born Strickland; 9 January 1802 – 29 August 1899) was an English-Canadian author and naturalist who wrote about life in Canada, particularly what is now Ontario (then the colony of Upper Canada). In the 1830s, Canada ...

, Isabella Valancy Crawford and Margaret Laurence.

Background

Born in Strathroy, Ontario, she studied English literature at the University of Western Ontario. After graduating in 1941 she married Morley Thomas, a meteorologist. The couple spent some time living in Manitoba, where Clara taught university courses to military servicemen in Dauphin, before returning to Ontario where she worked at

Western's library Western Libraries is the library system of the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario. In 1898, the university Senate appointed James Waddell Tupper as the University of Western Ontario's first University Librarian. In 1918, John Davis ...

while completing her master's degree. She decided to study Canadian authors for her thesis, an idea so radical at the time that

William Arthur Deacon William Arthur Deacon (6 Apr 1890 - 5 August 1977) was a Canadian literary critic and editor. Born in Pembroke, Ontario in 1890, he studied in Winnipeg, Manitoba to be a lawyer, but eventually became a book review editor, and "aimed to become the ...

, the books editor for ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

'', contacted her to offer his personal support. After completing her master's she published ''Canadian Novelists'', a biographical dictionary of 150 Canadian writers, in 1946. She then applied to the University of Toronto to pursue her doctorate, but her application was declined because she was married; although she accepted the decision at the time, she reapplied a number of years later and was accepted. Her academic supervisor, Northrop Frye, supported her interest in Canadian literature and encouraged her to publish her thesis on Jameson. She completed her doctorate in 1962.

Career

She joined the department of English at York University in 1961, the first woman ever hired as a faculty member by that department and only the second female academic hired by the entire university. When she and Eli Mandel introduced the university's first dedicated Canadian literature course in 1969, interest was so high that within a week of the announcement and several weeks before registration for the course was even formally open, they had already received double the total number of registration requests that they had expected. Her published work during her career at York included an essay on Moodie and Traill for the anthology ''The Clear Spirit''; ''Ryerson of Upper Canada'', a biography of

Egerton Ryerson Adolphus Egerton Ryerson (24 March 1803 – 19 February 1882) was a Canadian educator, author, editor, and Methodist minister who was a prominent contributor to the design of the Canadian public school system. A renowned advocate against Christ ...

; ''The Manawaka World of Margaret Laurence'', a critical study of Laurence's Manawaka sequence of novels; contributions to the omnibus ''Literary History of Canada''; ''Love and Work Enough: The Life of Anna Jameson''; and ''William Arthur Deacon: A Canadian Literary Life'', a biography of Deacon, coauthored with colleague John Lennox, which was a shortlisted finalist for the Toronto Book Awards in 1983. Thomas retired from full-time teaching in 1984, but remained with York as a professor emeritus and a research fellow in Canadian studies. She was also named a fellow of the

Royal Society of Canada The Royal Society of Canada (RSC; french: Société royale du Canada, SRC), also known as the Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada (French: ''Académies des arts, des lettres et des sciences du Canada''), is the senior national, bil ...

, received honorary degrees from York, Trent University and Brock University, and served on literary award juries. She continued to write literary criticism and biographical work for academic journals, as well as the afterwords for the New Canadian Library editions of works by Jameson, Laurence, Traill and Philippe-Joseph Aubert de Gaspé, and published the memoir ''Chapters in a Lucky Life'' in 1999.

Personal

Following Morley's RCAF service in World War II, Thomas relocated to Toronto with a stint in Ottawa from 1951 to 1953. They lived in Sunnybrook area until they moved to Strathroy.

Death and legacy

In 2005, York University's library system renamed its archival division the Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections in her honour. Thomas died on September 26, 2013 in Strathroy.

References

External links

Clara Thomas archives
( fonds) held at the York University Libraries, Toronto, Ontario
Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections
at York University Libraries {{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas, Clara 1919 births 2013 deaths 20th-century Canadian women writers 20th-century Canadian non-fiction writers Canadian women academics Canadian biographers Canadian memoirists Canadian literary critics Women literary critics Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada University of Western Ontario alumni University of Toronto alumni York University faculty Writers from Ontario People from Strathroy-Caradoc Canadian women memoirists