Agnes Maule Machar

Agnes Maule Machar
Photo of Agnes Maule Machar (a.k.a. Fidelis) taken from Canadian Singers and Their Songs, compiled by Edward S. Caswell (Toronto: McCleland & Stewart, 1919).
Born	(1837-01-23)January 23, 1837 Kingston, Ontario
Died	January 24, 1927(1927-01-24) (aged 90) Kingston, Ontario
Occupation	Writer
Language	English
Nationality	Canadian

Agnes Maule Machar (23 January 1837 – 24 January 1927) was a Canadian author and social reformer.

Machar's father, John Machar immigrated to Canada in 1827, and married Margaret Sim (a fellow Scottish immigrant) in Montreal in 1832. The couple established themselves in Kingston, Ontario (then part of Upper Canada), where her father was the pastor of St. Andrew's Church. The couple's first child died in infancy; Agnes was born in 1837; and her brother, John Maule, in 1841.

Apart from a brief stint at a boarding school in Montreal, Machar was educated by her father at home. By the age of ten Machar was studying Latin and Greek, instructed by her father and aided by his extensive library. Soon after she learned French, Greek and Italian.

Machar moved in influential social circles, mingling with future prime minister John A. Macdonald, politicians like Richard John Cartwright, and professors at Queen's University such as George Romanes. At her summer home in Gananoque she hosted an array of international luminaries such as Daniel James Macdonnell and Emily Pauline Johnson.

Machar was a prolific writer. Her first published book, Faithful Unto Death, was a memorial to a janitor at Queen's, published in 1859. Her 1870 novel, Katie Johnstone's Cross, won the Campbell's Prize (offered by Toronto publisher James Campbell and Son), and she won the same prize again the next year for Lucy Raymond. In 1874 she received another prize, this time for For King and Country, awarded by The Canadian Monthly and National Review; the novel is probably her best known work. Writing under her own name, and the pseudonym Fidelis, Machar published at least eight novels, a biography of her father, and many poems and essays. An anthology of her poetry, Lays of the "True North" and Other Canadian Poems was published in 1899, and she coauthored six historical works.

As an essayist, Machar frequently wrote about challenges faced by Christianity in the face of rapidly advancing scientific knowledge. Her friends included prominent Darwinists such as George Romanes and Grant Allen, and she wrote that Christians should accept evolutionary theory as part of an adapting and fuller understanding of God's word. Secularist William Dawson LeSueur, although he disagreed with her, praised her arguments.