Norah M. Holland (after marriage, Claxton; January 10, 1876 – April 27, 1925) was a Canadian poet, playwright, journalist, and editor. She was a contributor to the ''Canadian Courier'', ''

The Canadian Magazine The ''Canadian Magazine of Politics, Science, Art and Literature'' was the premiere monthly literary journal of Anglophone Canada for three decades. History and profile Edited first by James Gordon Mowat then by John Alexander Cooper, the first is ...

'', ''Toronto Daily News'', and the '' The Globe''. During Holland's travels in Ireland and England in 1904, she stayed with

John Butler Yeats John Butler Yeats (16 March 1839 – 3 February 1922) was an Irish artist and the father of W. B. Yeats, Lily Yeats, Elizabeth Corbett "Lolly" Yeats and Jack Butler Yeats. The National Gallery of Ireland holds a number of his portraits in oil a ...

, and he drew a sketch of her. Holland died in 1925.

Biography

Honorah Mary Holland was born in Collingwood, Ontario, January 10, 1876. Her parental ancestors were from

County Sligo County Sligo ( , gle, Contae Shligigh) is a county in Ireland. It is located in the Border Region and is part of the province of Connacht. Sligo is the administrative capital and largest town in the county. Sligo County Council is the local ...

, Ireland. Her father was John Hawkins Holland (1841-1923), and on his side, she was a grandniece of

Chief Justice of Ontario The Court of Appeal for Ontario (frequently referred to as the Ontario Court of Appeal or ONCA) is the appellate court for the province of Ontario, Canada. The seat of the court is Osgoode Hall in downtown Toronto, also the seat of the Law Societ ...

John Hawkins Hagarty Sir John Hawkins Hagarty (17 September 1816 – 27 April 1900) was a Canadian lawyer, teacher, and judge. Born in Dublin, Ireland, Hagarty was educated at Trinity College Dublin for a year before emigrating to Upper Canada in 1834. He was a st ...

; her mother, Elizabeth (Yeats) Holland, was a first cousin of

W. B. Yeats William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish liter ...

, the Irish poet. Holland was educated in the public schools of her native town and in the

Port Dover Port Dover is an unincorporated community and former town located in Norfolk County, Ontario, Canada, on the north shore of Lake Erie. It is the site of the recurring Friday the 13th motorcycle rally. Prior to the War of 1812, this community w ...

and Parkdale Collegiate Institutes. Since 1889, Holland was a resident of

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

. For eight years, she was on the staff of the Dominion Press Clipping Bureau, the ''Toronto Daily News'', assistant editor of the ''Canadian Courier'', and with the

Macmillan Company of Canada Macmillan of Canada was a Canadian publishing house. The company was founded in 1905 as the Canadian arm of the English publisher Macmillan. At that time it was known as the "Macmillan Company of Canada Ltd." In the course of its existence the n ...

. During 1904, she made an extended journey on foot through the south and west of Ireland and in England gathering at first hand a great accumulation of Irish folklore. In 1922, she married Lionel William Claxton, a writer of tales and poems. She died in Toronto of

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...

on April 27, 1925, and is buried at St. John's Cemetery, Toronto. The ''Toronto Globe'' in announcing her death paid the following tribute to her personality and work:—"To readers of poetry the one who is gone will be always Norah Holland, the weaver of exquisite verse. A lover of children, a friend of dumb animals, and a staunch, stimulating comrade to numerous wayfarers who crossed her path, she touched life at many points and wrote inspiringly of its different phases. Her two books of verse, ''Spunyarn and Spindrift'' and ''When Half Gods Go'', remain as monuments to her genius, and fascinating fairy stories proclaim her the friend of little children and a firm believer in that charming world of fancy unknown to the materialist.”.

Selected works

Poetry collections

* ''Spun-yarn and Spindrift'', 1918 * ''When Half-gods Go, and Other Poems'', 1924

Drama

* ''When Half Gods Go'' (allegorical poetic drama, 1928)

Poems

* "Captains Adventurous" * "April in England" * "Home Thoughts from Abroad" * "Sea Song"

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Holland, Norah M. 1876 births 1925 deaths People from Collingwood, Ontario 20th-century Canadian poets 20th-century Canadian journalists Canadian newspaper editors Canadian women newspaper editors Canadian women journalists Canadian women poets 20th-century deaths from tuberculosis Tuberculosis deaths in Ontario Canadian people of Irish descent Writers from Simcoe County