Helena Coleman
{{Short description|Canadian poet, music teacher, and writer}}
{{distinguish|Helene S. Coleman}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2017}}
{{Infobox person
| name =
| image = Page028 CanadianSingersAndTheirSongs ColemanHelena.jpg
| alt =
| caption = Helena Coleman, from a 1919 publication.
| birth_name = Helena Jane Coleman
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1860|04|27}}
| birth_place = Newcastle, Ontario, Canada
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1953|12|07|1860|04|27}}
| death_place = Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| nationality = Canadian
| other_names =
| occupation = Poet, music teacher, writer
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
| signature = Helena Coleman signature.png
}}
Helena Coleman (April 27, 1860 – December 7, 1953) was a Canadian poet, music teacher, and writer.
Early life
Helena Jane Coleman was born on April 27, 1860 in Newcastle, Ontario, to the Rev. Francis Coleman, a Methodist minister,John William Garvin, [https://books.google.com/books?id=1FpAAAAAIAAJ&dq=helena+coleman&pg=PA206 Canadian Poets and Poetry] (Frederick A. Stokes Company 1916): 205-212. and his second wife, English-born Jane C. Gould. Helena's mother Jane died on September 28, 1862, predeceasing her baby son (and Helena's full brother) Francis Gould Coleman (May 1862 - January 13, 1863).{{cite web |title=Jane C. Gould Coleman (1827-1862) - Find a Grave |url=https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/125753829/jane_c_coleman |website=www.findagrave.com |language=en}}
Helena Coleman's father's first wife, Emmeline Maria Adams Coleman, died on June 23, 1858, two years before Helena was born. Helena had five older half-brothers, Albert Evander Coleman, Francis August Coleman, geologist Arthur Philemon Coleman, Lucius Quincy Coleman and Rufus Adams Coleman.{{cite web |title=Emeline Maria Adams Coleman (1822-1858) - Find a Grave |url=https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/125652625/emeline_maria_coleman |website=www.findagrave.com |language=en}} Emmeline (and Helena's half-siblings) were descendants of John Quincy Adams. Emmeline was also the sister of educator Mary Electa Adams.)[http://digital.lib.sfu.ca/ceww-646/coleman-helena-jane "Helena Jane Coleman"] Canada's Early Women Writers (Simon Fraser University Digital Collections). Some sources incorrectly ascribe Helena to the Adams genealogical line with her half-siblings.
Helena Coleman attended Ontario Ladies' College in Whitby, Ontario, with further study in Germany.Jean O'Grady, [https://books.google.com/books?id=b4MNZYlcbMkC&q=Coleman&pg=PA48 Margaret Addison: A Biography] (McGill- Queen's University Press 2001): 48. {{ISBN|9780773521520}}
Career
Coleman taught piano at Ontario Ladies' College from 1880 to 1892, as head of the music department, while her brothers' aunt Mary Electa Adams was the principal.Johanna Selles, [https://books.google.com/books?id=6ayE6JB6gf0C&dq=helena+coleman&pg=PA213 Methodists and Women's Education in Ontario, 1836-1925] (McGill-Queen's University Press 19996): 213. {{ISBN|9780773514430}} There she was a friend and colleague of Margaret Addison, who became a dean of the school. Coleman was also a friend of New Zealand writer Edith Joan Lyttelton, during her stays in Canada.Terry Sturm, [https://books.google.com/books?id=YCThMLYK1UgC&dq=helena+coleman&pg=PA116-IA5 An Unsettled Spirit: The Life and Frontier Fiction of Edith Lyttleton] (University of Calgary Press 2003): 14, 116.{{ISBN|9781552381281}} Coleman was a mentor to Canadian poet Marjorie Pickthall.Elizabeth Popham, David G. Pitt, eds., [https://books.google.com/books?id=r3z2DQAAQBAJ&dq=helena+coleman&pg=PA573 E. J. Pratt: Letters] (University of Toronto Press 2017): 573, notes 144 and 145. {{ISBN|9781442650237}}Sandra Campbell, [https://books.google.com/books?id=nOLRHMFvID0C&dq=helena+coleman&pg=RA1-PT36 Both Hands: A Life of Lorne Pierce of Ryerson Press] (McGill-Queen's University Press 2013). {{ISBN|9780773588653}}Diana M. A. Relke, [https://books.google.com/books?id=d5uR9j-0Ld4C&dq=helena+coleman&pg=PA83 Greenwor(l)ds: Ecocritical Readings of Canadian Women's Poetry] (University of Calgary Press 1999): 83. {{ISBN|9781552380178}} Her friendship with fellow Canadian poet Ethelwyn Wetherald was especially intimate.Jennifer Chambers, [http://www.canadianpoetry.ca/cpjrn/vol57/chambers.html "'You Woman-Hearted, Poet-Brained Wonder Worker,': The Poetic Dialogue of Love Between Ethelwyn Wetherald and Helena Coleman"] Canadian Poetry 57 (Fall/Winter 2005): 65-85.
Coleman's poems appeared under dozens of pseudonyms (using masculine, feminine, and indeterminate names) in many Canadian and American magazines, including Atlantic Monthly, Collier's, and Ladies' Home Journal, until 1906, when she published Songs and Sonnets (1906) under her own name, by the Tennyson Club of Toronto.W. T. Allison, [https://books.google.com/books?id=acI-AQAAIAAJ&dq=helena+coleman&pg=PA404 "A New Canadian Poet"] Canadian Magazine (February 1907): 404-408. Further poetry collections were Marching Men: War Verses (1917)John William Garvin, ed., [https://books.google.com/books?id=gJQyAQAAIAAJ&dq=helena+coleman&pg=PA46 Canadian Poems of the Great War] (McClelland & Stewart 1918): 46-51. and Songs (1937).Helena Coleman, [http://www.canadianpoetry.ca/georgian_and_edwardian/Helena_Coleman/songs.html Songs] (Ryerson Press 1937). Her stories and articles continued to appear under various pseudonyms. Another book by her, Sheila and Others (1920), was a collection of short stories and bore the byline "Winifred Cotter".[http://library.vicu.utoronto.ca/collections/special_collections/f8_helena_coleman Helena Coleman Fonds], E. J. Pratt Library, Special Collections, Victoria University. She was a member of the Canadian Authors Association, and of the University Women's Club of Toronto.
Personal life
Helena Coleman used crutches that she called her "helpers", after surviving polio in childhood. After 1928 she used a wheelchair. Coleman lived most of her life in Toronto with her brother Arthur, and with a niece, Helen Coleman. She died in 1953, aged 93 years, in Toronto.Elcie Pomeroy, [http://images.ourontario.ca/Partners/ClaPL/CLaPL002714860pf_0007.pdf "Tribute to Helena Coleman, Poet Native of Village of Newcastle"] The Canadian Statesman (January 14, 1954): 6. Her papers are archived in the E. J. Pratt Library at Victoria University.
References
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External links
{{Commons category|Helena Coleman}}{{Archival records|title=Helena Coleman fonds}}
{{wikisource author}}
- {{find a Grave|89079998}}
- [http://www.sonnets.org/coleman.htm Poems by Coleman] at Sonnets.org.
- [http://digital.lib.sfu.ca/ceww-646/coleman-helena-jane Coleman] in SFU Digitized Collections, Simon Fraser University, Coll. Canada's Early Women Writers (with a photograph)
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Coleman, Helena}}
Category:19th-century Canadian poets
Category:20th-century Canadian poets
Category:Canadian women in World War I
Category:Canadian people of English descent
Category:People from Clarington
Category:Canadian music educators
Category:19th-century Canadian women writers
Category:20th-century Canadian women writers
Category:Canadian women music educators