The Journals of Susanna Moodie: Poems

Published by Bloomsbury, 1997, with slipcase,  hardcover, illustrated, 22.2 cms x 27.2 cms, condition: as new.

Born in Suffolk in 1803, Susanna Moodie was already a successful creative writer when her family emigrated to Canada in 1832 and adjusting to life in the backwoods was hard. Susannas book Roughing It in the Bush (1852) was Margaret Atwoods inspiration for this illustrated book, a collaboration between poet and artist. The book was originally published in a limited edition in 1980; this facsimile edition includes a memoir by the artist, Charles Pachter. Slipcased. Off-mint.

The poetic/artistic exploration of what it means to find yourself thrown into a hostile environment, these poems by Margaret Atwood and silk-screen illustrations by Charles Pachter are based on the journals of Canadian pioneer Susanna Moodie. The setting allows Atwood to write cutting lines about the fundamental tensions in creating and defining a self. One such tension, the assertion of will on the world as well as on one's self, set against the spirit-crushing tribulations of loneliness and hopelessness, is especially electric. The Journals of Susanna Moodie is a beautiful and hypnotic book.

Margaret Atwood's inspiration for this collection of poems was Susanna Moodie's Roughing it in the Bush, in which the Suffolk-born writer recorded her life as a settler in the Canadian backwoods in the 1830s. Covering Moodie's arrival in the country, her move to Belleville and her later years, the poems were published in a limited edition in 1980 with illustrations by Charles Pachter. This facsimile edition includes a memoir by Pachter. Slipcased.