Submitted by the staff of the Orillia Museum of Art & History (OMAH)
Marian Keith was the pen name for Esther MacGregor, who was born in 1874 In the village of Rugby, Oro Township (now Oro-Medonte), to parents who instilled in her the value of education, a keen interest in learning, and a love of good literature. These strong values guided her on to a path as an accomplished author.
Marian attended school at Rugby and Edgar and her secondary education was completed at the Orillia Collegiate Institute. She was educated at the Normal School in Toronto in 1896, where she obtained her teaching certificate.
Her teaching career was not long lasting. She resigned from her teaching position in 1906 to pursue her passion, a full-time career in writing.
Initially, Marian wrote under her own name, Esther Miller, but when she discovered another author with the same name, she adopted the pen name Marian Keith after her niece, Marian Keith Harvie.
Over the course of her writing career, Marian wrote a total of 17 novels and one motion picture screenplay. Her writings were popular because she wrote from her own experiences in rural Ontario, which her readers could identify with.
Many of Marian’s novels, such as Duncan Polite and In Orchard Glen, were set in the Rugby and Edgar areas of Oro Township. Most of her writings also contained strong religious themes, encouraging in her readers a faith in divine mercy and a social consciousness seeking to improve the lives of the poor and uneducated.
Her book Silver Maple, (1906) portrayed social issues at the time, rivalries between clans of English, Scotch and Irish immigrants.
She showed the breakdown of these tensions with the children who played with each other at school, who did not recognize these differences. Marian wrote her novels and short stories painstakingly, revising her own drafts as many as 20 times.
Marian Keith also co-wrote a book with authors Lucy Maud Montgomery and Mabel Burns McKinley. Courageous Women was published by McClelland and Stewart in 1934. The description on the book cover jacket reads, “inspiring biographies of girls who grew to be women of courage and achievement.”
Marian was a friend of Lucy Maud (L.M.) Montgomery. Although L.M. Montgomery’s name came first in the credits for the book, Montgomery commented in her journals that she wrote only three of the 21 essays. The rest were written by Marian and Mabel Burns.
The book focuses on women who made major contributions in nursing, the arts, missionary work, the war effort etc. Some of these women include Joan of Arc, Florence Nightingale, Laura Secord, Catharine Parr Traill and Queen Victoria.
Marian Keith was inducted into Orillia’s Hall of Fame in 1980.
Next week we will feature another object from the OMAH collection that showcases our local history.
