Just a Larger Family: Letters of Marie Williamson from the Canadian Home Front,1940-1944

Williamson, Mary F.; Sharp, Tom

ISBN 10: 1554583233 / ISBN 13: 9781554583232

Published by Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2011

Pages are clean and are not marred by notes or folds of any kind. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less. Seller Inventory # G1554583233I2N00

Synopsis:

The Second World War had been under way for a year when Marie and John Williamson welcomed two English brothers to join them and their two children in their small house in north Toronto for the duration of the conflict. Marie wrote over 150 letters to the boys' mother, Margaret Sharp, imagining that she could make Margaret feel she was still with her children. She shepherded the boys through education decisions and illnesses, eased them into a strange new life, and rejoiced when they embraced unfamiliar winter sports. The letters brim with detail about family holidays, the financial implications of an extended family, their involvement in their church, and the games and activities that kept them occupied. Marie's letters reflect the lives and concerns of a particular family in Toronto, but they also reveal a portrait of what was then Canada's second-largest city during wartime.

The introduction is by Mary F. Williamson, Marie's daughter, and Tom Sharp, Margaret's youngest son. The book features a foreword by Jonathan Vance that puts the letters in historical context.

About the Author: Mary F. Williamson is a retired fine-arts bibliographer and adjunct faculty in graduate art history at York University. She co-authored Art and Architecture in Canada (1991), and her recent writings on nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century cookery have appeared in Covering Niagara: Studies in Local Popular Culture (WLU Press, 2010) and The Edible City (2009).

Tom Sharp is the younger of the two boys who came to live with the Williamsons in Canada. He had a civil service career in trade policy and was awarded the Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 1987. He was an elected local councillor in Guildford, Surrey, a governor of two local schools, and a citizens' advice bureau member.

Bibliographic Details

Title: Just a Larger Family: Letters of Marie ...
Publisher: Wilfrid Laurier University Press
Publication Date: 2011
Binding: Paperback
Condition: As New
Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket