Alice Cameron Brown: : Archives & Special Collections : Libraries : University of Manitoba

Alice Cameron Brown was born in Rolling River, Manitoba on 3 March 1898. The daughter of Sarah and Duncan Cameron, she grew up near Minnedosa, Manitoba and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Manitoba in 1921. In 1922, she graduated from the Vancouver Normal School and subsequently taught in a number of prairie schools. While working as a teacher in Tisdale, Saskatchewan, Alice Cameron met and married James Edward Brown (1926). The couple and their daughter Elizabeth Allison continued to reside in Tisdale for twenty-six years except for a few years during the Second World War when Alice and Allison lived in Quebec and Ontario, while James Brown was serving overseas. In 1952, the Browns moved from Tisdale and retired in Beamsville, Ontario. James Brown died in 1965. Alice Cameron Brown lived in Ontario until her death on 18 January 1993.

The writings of Alice Cameron Brown span a number of literary genres, including children’s verse, poetry, short stories, plays and novels. In 1934, Brown won first prize in the Canadian Author’s Association (Saskatchewan Branch) poetry contest for her poem “Burning Straw Stacks”. The poem was subsequently published in both the Saskatchewan Poetry Year Book (1934-35) and the Canadian Poetry Magazine (Vol. 1, No. 2, April 1936). Following this, primarily during the late 1930s and the 1940s, a number of Brown’s poems and short stories were published in such magazines as Saturday Night , Canadian Poetry Magazine , Fiction and Canadian Poetry Calendar . In 1962, a number of her children’s verses were published in the W. J. Gage children’s reader, Nunny Bag . Other works, such as her novels, were never published.

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Scope and Contents of the Papers

The Alice Cameron Brown Collection incorporates documentation of Brown’s literary activities as well as her personal life. The “personal” files include twenty-one hand-written journals. These journals represent the later years of Brown’s life and cover the years 1964-1990, though not inclusively. In addition, Brown’s personal correspondence spans a considerable portion of her adult life, from 1926 to 1992. While there are some letters written by Alice, most were written to her by family and friends. The largest bulk of letters were from Alice’s husband, James Brown and many of these (177) were written while James was serving overseas in the Second World War. Together, the journals and the personal correspondence provide considerable insight into the various states of Brown’s life: courtship and marriage, mothering and grandmothering, aging and dying.

Contained within the “professional” files are original draft manuscripts for many of Brown’s poems, children’s verses, plays, short stories, some autobiographical material and novels. Some published copies of Brown’s work are also included, as well as photocopies of published works. Of particular note are the first edition of Fiction , a publication of the Canadian Writer’s Club in 1936, and some early volumes of the Canadian Poetry Magazine and The Canadian Author and Bookman . In addition to the manuscripts, the collection contains correspondence from publishers, literary agents and colleagues, including such persons as Earle Birney, William A. Deacon, Sybil Hutchinson and John Newlove.

Also included is a published collection of some of Brown’s writings, entitled Burning Straw Stacks (1993), compiled by Brown’s daughter, Allison Mitcham. Mitcham’s original manuscript and responses to the book are enclosed.

2000 Accral: Box 9 contains material added in August 2000. It is comprised mostly of correspondence and additional drafts of manuscripts, as well as James Brown’s scrolls of the Grand Lodge of Scotland Masons.

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Organization of the Papers

This collection is organized into 6 series

Personal 1964-1990
Correspondence: 1923-1993
Professional 1919-1951, [19-?]
Novels 1968-[19-?]
Correspondence – Professional 1933-1994
Miscellaneous 1926-1972
Photograph Collection (PC 105)
2000 Accession

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Restrictions on Use

There are no restrictions on access to the fonds; however, copyright provisions to unpublished materials may apply. Researchers must confer with the Head Archivist before publishing anything other than fair use excerpts. Users must abide by the laws of copyright as amended by Parliament from time to time.

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