Though forgotten for several years, Margaret Duley was eventually honoured. Some of her papers and letters are held in the Queen Elizabeth II Library in St. John’s.
Author Margaret Duley Born in St. John’s, Newfoundland
Born September 25, 1894 in St. John’s Newfoundland, Margaret Duley was the fourth of five children. Her mother, Tryphena Chaucery Soper, was born at a Newfoundland outport. Her father, James Thomas Duley, was a well-to-do jeweller from Birmingham, England.
Following her high school graduation, Margaret Duley studied in England until 1913. The impending war caused her to leave the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, and return home.
World War I and “A Pair of Grey Socks”
By the end of 1914, with World War I raging in Europe, Newfoundland’s Women’s Patriotic Society (WPA) comprised 218 branches, with members from all walks of life. They contributed loads of hand-knitted grey socks and other apparel to be shipped overseas.
In 1916 a booklet was produced to honour the Newfoundland women’s work. A Pair of Grey Socks, Facts and Fancies was “Lovingly dedicated to the boys of the Newfoundland Regiment. And to every woman who has knitted a pair of grey socks.”
The booklet with prose by Tryphena Duley and verse by Margaret, described grey socks as “a bond of unity between rich and poor, high and low, between all mothers who have sons in the war, between all women who knit. The grey sock has become the tie that binds.” In all, the WPA raised $500,000 towards the war effort.
Suffragette Margaret Duley of Women’s Franchise League
Outspoken and charismatic, Margaret strongly advocated equal pay for women. She was an active suffragette in her home country which, at that time, was not a province of Canada.
Women in Canada were granted the right to vote in federal elections in 1918 after the Great War. Despite their great contributions to the war effort, the women of Newfoundland Labrador were not allowed to vote in federal elections. Through extensive efforts of several organizations including the Women’s Franchise League they were, in 1925.
Novelist Margaret Duley of Newfoundland
Margaret Duley’s novels were the first written by a Newfoundland author to be acclaimed internationally.
- The Eyes of the Gull, 1936
- Cold Pastoral, 1939
- Highway to Valour, 1941
- Novelty on Earth, 1942.
Raised within St. John’s elite mercantile society, Margaret Duley turned to the Newfoundland outports for her writing. Her novels present women facing the harsh responsibilities and realities of the island’s rugged landscape.
Her earlier novels demonstrate ambivalence to the people and the small isolated fishing communities. Duley presents characters whose lives are bleak and, in many instances, loveless. She provides vivid descriptions of the protagonists’ dwellings, the roaring, unforgiving sea, and the daily labours of her characters.
It is evident in the novels of Margaret Duley that she eventually understood the basic values of life in the outports of Newfoundland.
“The Caribou Hut: The Story of a Newfoundland Hostel”
When her publisher rejected her fifth novel, Octaves of Dawn, Margaret destroyed the manuscript. In 1949, she wrote The Caribou Hut: The Story of a Newfoundland Hostel. The small non-fiction book told of the servicemen’s hostel where she served as a Red Cross volunteer during World War II. Duley wrote some short stories and did some freelance work, but did not write another novel.
Diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in the mid 1950s, Duley later moved in with her sister-in-law and niece. The Newfoundland author died March 22, 1948 in St. John’s.
Honours for Newfoundland Author Margaret Duley
In the Newfoundland Memorial University English Department in 1976, acknowledgement was given to the fact that Margaret Duley was mostly forgotten. She was then officially recognized as a national historic person, “a Canadian author of high quality who made a significant contribution to Canadian literature”.
In 1981 a National Historic Plaque was unveiled in the University’s Queen Elizabeth II Library. Margaret Iris Duley is cited as a native of St. John’s “whose work is noted for its vivid portrayal of Newfoundland and its people”.
Sources:
A Talent(ed) Digger: Creations, Cameos, and Essays in Honour of Anna Rutherford Edited by Hena Maes-Jelinek, Rodopi B.V.Editions 1996
Margaret Duley: Newfoundland Novelist — A Biographical and Critical Study by Alison Feder, H. Cuff Publications 1983
Kathleen Airdrie - Kathleen has thirty years' freelance writing experience covering history, biographical profiles, environmental and social issues
