A Gentlewoman in Upper Canada

A Gentlewoman in Upper Canada, a posthumous edition of Anne Langton’s letters and journals, edited by Hugh Hornby Langton, one of her nephews, became a Canadian literary classic almost immediately after publication in 1950. The letters from a woman of the upper class adjusting to life in the backwoods, where few of the usual luxuries were available, and where social expectations differed markedly, Langton’s experiences have captured the imaginations of generations of readers. Over half a century after it was originally published, the University of Toronto Press has released a new, expanded edition of the letters and journals of Anne Langton (with critical introduction), edited by Barbara Williams, a scholar who has dedicated her life to the study of Anne Langton and distinguished herself as the authority on Anne’s life. The original title will be retained.

Barbara Williams has been researching Anne Langton’s life and work for more than thirty years in public and private collections in Canada and England. Her biographical article on Anne Langton appears in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography, Vol XII (1990). Ms Williams is currently working on a comprehensive, retrospective exhibition of Anne Langton’s work, as well as a biography. She has also written a sequence of poems in the voice of Anne Langton; some of the poems from that work have been published in literary magazines and journals in Canada, the U.S. & Australia. She gives talks on Anne Langton and her work, illustrated with slides of Langton’s sketches.