Ethel Wilson

Ethel Davis Wilson, OC (January 20, 1888 – December 22, 1980) was a Canadian writer of short stories and novels.

Born in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, she moved to England in 1890 following the death of her mother. In 1898, after the death of her father, she was taken to live with her maternal grandmother in Vancouver, British Columbia. She received her teacher's certificate in 1907, and for thirteen years taught in Vancouver elementary schools. In 1921 she married Wallace Wilson, President of the Canadian Medical Association and professor of medical ethics at the University of British Columbia.

In the 1930s Wilson published a few short stories and began a series of fictionalized family reminiscences which were later published as The Innocent Traveller (1949). Her first published novel, Hetty Dorval, appeared in 1947, and was followed, seven years later by Swamp Angel (1954), generally thought of as her most accomplished work. Her final book was Mrs Golightly and Other Stories (1961).

In 1980 she was hospitalized and suffering from a series of small strokes. The day before she died, she was in physical distress from passing a kidney stone. A doctor injected her with medication to ease the pain.

Wilson is the subject of one work of criticism, Ethel Wilson by Desmond Pacey, and two biographies, The Other Side of Silence: A Life of Ethel Wilson by Mary McAlpine and Ethel Wilson: A Critical Biography by David Stouck.

The Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize is named in her honour.

Ethel Wilson was born on January 20, 1888, with only her parents, Robert and Lila Bryant, to welcome her into the world. The Bryants were Methodist missionaries, and were living in Port Elizabeth, South Africa at the time. Lila was unwell at the time of childbirth, and her health continued to deteriorate. She became pregnant again nine months after the birth of Ethel, but this time could not survive the ordeal. She died on July 28, 1889, after giving birth to a baby boy. Ethel's little brother, Robert Norman, died ten days later, and both he and his mother were buried in Port Elizabeth's Russell Road Cemetery. In July 1890, Robert Bryant decided it was best to bring his daughter Ethel to England, and there they stayed until he died of pneumonia on June 19, 1897, at the age of 40. Ethel Bryant was nine at the time.

...
Wikipedia