Clara Thomas (née McCandless; May 22, 1919 – September 26, 2013) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

academic. A longtime professor of English at

York University York University (french: Université York), also known as YorkU or simply YU, is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's fourth-largest university, and it has approximately 55,700 students, 7,0 ...

, she was one of the first academics to devote her work specifically to the study of

Canadian literature Canadian literature is the literature of a multicultural country, written in languages including Canadian English, Canadian French, Indigenous languages, and many others such as Canadian Gaelic. Influences on Canadian writers are broad both ge ...

, and was especially known for her studies of Canadian women writers such as

Anna Brownell Jameson Anna Brownell Jameson (17 May 179417 March 1860) was an Anglo-Irish art historian. Born in Ireland, she migrated to England at the age of four, becoming a well-known British writer and contributor to nineteenth-century thought on a range of sub ...

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 Isabella Valancy Crawford (25 December 1846 – 12 February 1887) was an Irish-born Canadian writer and poet. She was one of the first Canadians to make a living as a freelance writer. "Crawford is increasingly being viewed as Canada's first maj ...

and

Margaret Laurence Jean Margaret Laurence (née Wemyss; July 18, 1926 – January 5, 1987) was a Canadian novelist and short story writer, and is one of the major figures in Canadian literature. She was also a founder of the Writers' Trust of Canada, a non-pr ...

Background

Born in Strathroy,

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, she studied English literature at the

University of Western Ontario The University of Western Ontario (UWO), also known as Western University or Western, is a Public university, public research university in London, Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land, surrounded by resident ...

. After graduating in 1941 she married Morley Thomas, a

meteorologist A meteorologist is a scientist who studies and works in the field of meteorology aiming to understand or predict Earth's atmospheric phenomena including the weather. Those who study meteorological phenomena are meteorologists in research, while t ...

. The couple spent some time living in

Manitoba Manitoba ( ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population o ...

, where Clara taught university courses to military servicemen in Dauphin, before returning to Ontario where she worked at Western's library 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, 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 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 ...

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 Herman Northrop Frye (July 14, 1912 – January 23, 1991) was a Canadian literary critic and literary theorist, considered one of the most influential of the 20th century. Frye gained international fame with his first book, '' Fearful Symmet ...

, 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 Eli Mandel (December 3, 1922 – September 3, 1992) was a Canadian poet, editor of many Canadian anthologies, and literary academic. Biography Eli Mandel died in relative obscurity. A series of strokes had left him unable to write and, as a r ...

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 Manawaka is a fictional town in the Canadian province of Manitoba, frequently used as a setting in novels and short stories by Margaret Laurence. The town was based on Laurence's real-life hometown of Neepawa, and should not be confused with the rea ...

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 The Toronto Book Awards are Canadian literary awards, presented annually by the City of Toronto government The municipal government of Toronto ( incorporated as the City of Toronto) is the local government responsible for administering the city ...

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 Canadian studies is an interdisciplinary field of undergraduate- and postgraduate-level study of Canadian culture and society, the languages of Canada, Canadian literature, media and communications, Quebec, Acadians, agriculture in Canada, natura ...

. 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 Trent University is a public liberal arts university in Peterborough, Ontario, with a satellite campus in Oshawa, which serves the Regional Municipality of Durham. Trent is known for its Oxbridge college system and small class sizes.

and

Brock University Brock University is a public research university in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. It is the only university in Canada in a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, at the centre of Canada's Niagara Peninsula on the Niagara Escarpment. The university bear ...

, 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 The New Canadian Library is a publishing imprint of the Canadian company McClelland and Stewart. The series aims to present classic works of Canadian literature in paperback. Each work published in the series includes a short essay by another nota ...

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 In archival science, a fonds is a group of documents that share the same origin and that have occurred naturally as an outgrowth of the daily workings of an agency, individual, or organization. An example of a fonds could be the writings of a poe ...

) held at the

York University Libraries York University Libraries (YUL) is the library system of York University in Toronto, Ontario. The four main libraries and one archives contain more than 2,500,000 volumes. History The first York library opened in 1961 at Glendon College and ...

Toronto, Ontario 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 ...

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