Former North Shore resident looks back at family history “Miss Lily Fitzmaurice arrived in the city this week for a visit with her sister Mrs. Percy Ward, East Fifth Se. Miss Fitemaurice bas come direct from Bloemfontaine (sic), South Africa, where the | family resided for some years.” (from “North Vancouver 20 Years Ago”, North Shore Press, June 27, 1930 referring to Lily Ellis arrival in Canada June 10, 1910. Si A Song of Lilia by Madeleine B. Ellis, Essence Publishing, 529 pages, $25. PORMER North _ Vancouver resident Madeleine B. Elis has written a fictionalized biography of epic pro- portions. A Song of Lilia looks back at the life and times of a woman modelled on her mother Lily Fitzmaurice. Through her story we also learn much about Ellis’ fami- ly and her own career as a scholar. Ellis was born in 1915 i in North Vancouver’s Harborview Sanitarium and lived on the North Shore unt! 1931. Her family lived in a large stucco house (built by her father, an engineer) at 236 (now 238) East 21st St. She went to kindergarten at Miss Phillips School on Lonsdale, Ridgeway and Lonsdale Schools and two years at North Vancouver High School before transfer- ring to King Edward High School in Vancouver. After studying at UBC she moved to Toronto to obtain her Ph.D. in French, Latin and Italian languages and literatures. Now retired, Ellis spent 35 years on the faculty of the University of Toronto, Université de Montréal and the Pacdagogical Institute in Montréal. During her academic career Ellis wrote a trilogy of books on J.J. Rousseau (the subject of her doctorate), and numerous studics on the French 18th century. She has lived abroad for periods of time in London, Geneva, Paris, Florence, ‘Athens, Istanbul and South Africa. All of these journeys find a place in A Song of Lilia. In her correspondence notifying the North Shore News of her latest publica- tion Ellis sent us newspaper clippings of her early life in B.C. The foundations of her scholarly career were laid in Vancouver and she wrote fondly of her time spent here. She remembered her teacher John Virgil MacLeod, principal of North Vancouver Hi h, and his untimely dea from appen- dicitis during the spring of 1 King Edward High’s great Latin scholar David Ogilvie Poet honoured for work WRITER Phyilis Webb is the fifth program organizer in Public Affairs for CBC and UBC French professor A.F.B. Ciark also played sig- nificant roles in her education. Ellis’ paternal grandmoth- er J. W. “Mother” Ellis moved to Vancouver from Ontario in 1885 and spent a lifetime in working for the community. Honoured for her efforts many times “Mother’s” medals are on view at the Vancouver Centennial Museum. She is one of the characters in A Song of Lilia. The new work is the first of two fictionalized biogra- phics. The second will follow soon promises Ellis. A Song Of Lilia is avail- able direct from Essence Publishing: call coll free 1- 800-238-6376. Signed copies are available through the author 1-514-937-4973. — John Goodman Friday, May 21, 1999 ~ North’Shore News — 23 FRENCH scholar Madeleine Ellis has just published A Song of Lilia. A second work is to follow. It's bigger. it’s better. It's colourful. it's got a contest. recipient of the annual $5,000 B.C. -.Gas Lifetime Achievement Award. S The presentation ceremony will occur on Saturday, May 22nd at 11 a.m. at the main branch of the Vancouver Public Library. At this time she will be invested in the “Walk of Fame”. The public is welcome to attend. ° Phyilis Webb was born in Victoria on April . 8, 1927. She graduated from UBC with a B.A. » in Engh and Philosophy in 1949. In the'same e ran as a-C.C.F. candidate in the provin- vo Gal election, becomng the youngest person in Seen bie, While cn naitns iret tt Webb moved to Montreal and completed a year of graduate studies at McGill. _. | Between 1951 and 1956 she remained in Montreal and associated with fellow writers ~ Louis Dudek, Eli Mandel, Irving Layton, . Miriam Waddin Bron and Leonard Cohen. Her first book of published poems appeared in- 1954. She lived and studied in England, Ireland - and France, then she began teaching at UBC in 1961. _ Inspired by a 1963 post ‘ conference at UBC, Webb was influenced by the West Coast : experimentalism of San Francisco and Black Mountain poets. In 1964 she accepted a job as Radio and she moved to Toronto. During this period she instigated the still-running program Ideas, the most distinguished series of programs of his kind in Canadian broadcasting. For five years she was the Executive Producer of the program During a leave-of-absence from the CBC, she discovered Salt Spring Island as a place for writing and revitalization. She also stayed for a brief tirne in Russia and became intrigued with the anarchist movement, beginning work on her “Kropotkin Poems”. Increasingly drawn to her writing, Webb resigned and moved to Vancouver, to “save her soul”, and published in Selected Poems 1954-1965 with Talonbooks in The suicides of her friends Lilo Berliner and. am od thes Wilson Puff intensified her writ- further her explorations of West Coast imagery and mythology. She taught creative writing at UBC and UVic and published Wilton’s Bowl in 1980. “My poeras are born out of great struggles of silence,” she wrote, “... wayward, natural and unnatural silences, my desire for privacy, my critical hesitations, my critital wounds, my dissatisfactions with myself and my work have all contributed to a strange gestation.” Although Webb taught briefly at the Banff School of Fine Arts and was writer-in residence at the University of Alberta, her creative life has See Inland Page 30 It's people, places and pastimes that make itour heme. | and it's coming May 30 with the north'shore. MORTGAGES Have Your Cake And Eat It Too! Reaching your financial goals shouldn't have to mean making 2 choice between paying down debt or saving for your future. At NSCU you can have your cake and eat it too with a unique mortgage that lets you save while you borrow! 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