Mary Alice Downie (born February 12, 1934) is a US born Canadian writer. The daughter of Canadian parents, she was born Mary Alice Dawe Hunter in

Alton, Illinois Alton ( ) is a city on the Mississippi River in Madison County, Illinois, United States, about north of St. Louis, Missouri. The population was 25,676 at the 2020 census. It is a part of the River Bend area in the Metro-East region of the ...

and was educated at

Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...

at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

. She married John Downie in 1959. She was a reporter for ''

Marketing Marketing is the process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services; potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to emph ...

'' from 1955 to 1956; from 1956 to 1957, she was an editorial assistant for the ''

Canadian Medical Association Journal The ''Canadian Medical Association Journal'' (French ''Journal de l'Association Médicale Canadienne'') is a peer-reviewed general medical journal published by the Canadian Medical Association (CMA). It publishes original clinical research, anal ...

''. Downie was publicity manager for the

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

in Toronto from 1958 to 1959. She subsequently worked as a freelance writer. In 1959, Downie and her husband moved to

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

; they moved to

Kingston, Ontario Kingston is a city in Ontario, Canada. It is located on the north-eastern end of Lake Ontario, at the beginning of the St. Lawrence River and at the mouth of the Cataraqui River (south end of the Rideau Canal). The city is midway between Toro ...

in 1962. From 1973 to 1979, Downie was book review editor for the ''

Kingston Whig-Standard ''The Kingston Whig-Standard'' is a newspaper in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. It is published five days a week, from Tuesday to Saturday. It publishes a mix of community, national and international news and is currently owned by Postmedia. It has ...

''. She has also contributed to ''

The Horn Book Magazine ''The Horn Book Magazine'', founded in Boston in 1924, is the oldest bimonthly magazine dedicated to reviewing children's literature. It began as a "suggestive purchase list" prepared by Bertha Mahony Miller and Elinor Whitney Field, proprietres ...

'', ''

OWL Owls are birds from the order Strigiformes (), which includes over 200 species of mostly solitary and nocturnal birds of prey typified by an upright stance, a large, broad head, binocular vision, binaural hearing, sharp talons, and feathers a ...

'', ''

Chickadee The chickadees are a group of North American birds in the tit family included in the genus ''Poecile''. Species found in North America are referred to as chickadees, while other species in the genus are called tits. They are small-sized birds ...

'', ''

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 ...

'', the ''

Ottawa Citizen The ''Ottawa Citizen'' is an English-language daily newspaper owned by Postmedia Network in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. History Established as ''The Bytown Packet'' in 1845 by William Harris (journalist), William Harris, it was renamed the '' ...

'' and the ''

Montreal Gazette The ''Montreal Gazette'', formerly titled ''The Gazette'', is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Three other daily English-language newspapers shuttered at various times during the second half of th ...

''.

Selected works

* ''The Wind has Wings: Poems from Canada'', an anthology of poetry, with

Barbara Robertson Barbara Robertson is an American actress and singer. She plays the role of "Jan the Unnamed" for the American Theatre Company's Pre-Broadway Chicago production of "Yeast Nation". Recently she played the role of Mame at the Drury Lane Theatre. Sh ...

(1968) * ''Scared Sarah'' (1974) * ''Dragon on Parade'' (1974) * ''The King's Loon/Un huart pour le roi'' (1979) * ''And Some Brought Flowers: Plants in a New World'', with Mary Hamilton (1980) * ''A Proper Acadian'' (1980) * ''Seeds and Weeds: A Book of Country Crafts'', with Jillian Gilliland (1981) * ''The Window of Dreams: New Canadian Writing for Children'', with Elizabeth Greene and M.A. Thompson (1986) * ''Written in Stone: A Kingston Reader'', with M.A. Thompson (1993) * ''Snow Paws'', with Kathryn Naylor (1996) * ''Bright Paddles'' (1999) * *

References

1934 births Living people 20th-century Canadian women writers People from Alton, Illinois Writers from Illinois 20th-century Canadian non-fiction writers University of Toronto alumni Canadian women journalists Canadian women non-fiction writers {{Canada-writer-stub