Early Experiments 1895–1902

Winnifred Eaton’s writing apprenticeship began in Montreal where, as a young girl, she invented “stories and fairy songs.” Eaton exaggerated when she claimed that she was 14 when her first publication, a serialized short story, appeared in Montreal’s Metropolitan (“Poor Devil,” a fragment of which Eaton preserved in her scrapbook). During this early stage of her career, Eaton published short stories, several of which are set in Montreal, and also experimented with journalism. Her experience writing for a Montreal newspaper, she claimed, got her a job as a writer and reporter for the daily Gall’s News Letter in faraway Kingston, Jamaica, for a few months in 1895-6, where she purported to have published pieces signed “Busybody” and “Man on the Street.” Her works for Gall’s News Letter, other than one poem, have yet to be located.

Early Experiments

TitleDate PublishedTranscription Available
Thumbnail of the first page of the facsimile for A Poor Devil.
A Poor Devil1894–1895Yes
Thumbnail of the first page of the facsimile for Sneer Not.
Sneer NotMarch 10, 1896Yes
Thumbnail of the first page of the facsimile for [I am not a new woman].
[I am not a “new woman”]January 1898Yes
Thumbnail of the first page of the facsimile for Li Ching’s Baby.
Li Ching’s BabyApril 1898Yes
Thumbnail of the first page of the facsimile for A Prayer for Understanding.
A Prayer for UnderstandingFebruary 1899Yes
Thumbnail of the first page of the facsimile for Three Loves.
Three LovesJanuary 1901Yes
Thumbnail of the first page of the facsimile for Margot.
MargotDecember 1901Yes
Thumbnail of the first page of the facsimile for Three Loves [Reprint].
Three Loves [Reprint]July 1902Yes

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People Mentioned

Joey Takeda

Joey Takeda is the Technical Director of The Winnifred Eaton Archive and a Developer at Simon Fraser University’s Digital Humanities Innovation Lab (DHIL). He is a graduate of the M.A. program in English at the University of British Columbia where he specialized in Indigenous and diasporic literature, science and technology studies, and the digital humanities.
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February 03, 2024JTPublishedGenerated page.
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