Joyce Barkhouse
{{Short description|Canadian writer (1913–2012)}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Joyce Barkhouse
| honorific_suffix = {{Post-nominals|country=CAN|CM|ONS|size=100%}}
| image =
| imagesize =
| alt =
| caption =
| pseudonym =
| birth_name = Joyce Carman Killam
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1913|05|03|mf=yes}}
| birth_place = Woodville, Nova Scotia, Canada
| death_date = {{death date and age|2012|02|02|1913|05|03|mf=yes}}
| death_place = Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, Canada
| occupation = children's book writer
| genre = fiction for children
| notableworks = Pit Pony (1983)
| awards =
}}
Joyce Carman Barkhouse {{Post-nominals|country=CAN|CM|ONS}} (May 3, 1913 – February 2, 2012) was a Canadian children's writer best known for writing historical fiction. She is the aunt of Margaret Atwood, with whom she co-wrote the children's book Anna's Pet. Barkhouse achieved her greatest recognition for her novel Pit Pony.
Education and family life
Born in Woodville, Nova Scotia, the daughter of Harold Edwin Killam, a rural family physician, and his wife, Ora Louise (née Webster), Joyce was educated in Woodville until transferring to King’s County Academy in Kentville to complete grade twelve. After receiving a Teacher's License from the Provincial Normal College in Truro in 1932, she began teaching in Sand Hill.
Family
In 1939, she began teaching in Liverpool, Nova Scotia where she met Milton Joseph Barkhouse, a teller with the Royal Bank of Canada. After marrying in 1942, they had two children, Murray Roy, and Janet Louise. Barkhouse and her husband lived in Halifax, Charlottetown and Montreal, Quebec. After his death in 1968, she returned to her native Nova Scotia.{{cite web|url=http://www.library.dal.ca/DUASC/FindingAids/MS_2_646|title=The Archives of Joyce Barkhouse: A Guide|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120415090628/http://www.library.dal.ca/DUASC/FindingAids/MS_2_646/|archivedate=2012-04-15}}
Writing career
Barkhouse began writing in 1932 but did not publish her first book until 1974, George Dawson: The Little Giant, a biography of the noted scientist George Mercer Dawson. She is best known for writing the novel Pit Pony, published in 1989, which was produced as a CBC Television film in 1997,{{cite web|url=http://www.writersunion.ca/ww_profile.asp?mem=98&L=B|title=Joyce Barkhous profile|work=The Writers' Union of Canada|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20071023180030/http://www.writersunion.ca/ww_profile.asp?mem=98&L=B|archivedate=2007-10-23}} and a Gemini Award-winning television series in 1999.
Honours
In 2007, she was awarded the Order of Nova Scotia.{{cite web|url=http://www.gov.ns.ca/iga/2007recipients.asp|title=Order of Nova Scotia Recipients}} In 2008, she was made a Member of the Order of Canada for "her contributions to children’s literature and the Canadian literary community".{{cite web|url=http://www.gg.ca/media/doc.asp?lang=e&DocID=5601 |title=Governor General Announces New Appointments to the Order of Canada |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090121152728/http://www.gg.ca/media/doc.asp?lang=e&DocID=5601 |archivedate=2009-01-21 }} She was an honorary life member of The Writers' Union of Canada and the Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia.
Selected works
- Heroine of Lunenburg(based on the [0371138-C5_U5_ExploreHeritage.pdf Raid on Lunenburg (1782)]
- Smallest Rabbit, illustrated by Barbara Martin (1996)
- Yesterday's Children (1992)
- Pit Pony (1989)
- Anna's Pet with Margaret Atwood, illustrated by Ann Blades (1980)
References
{{reflist}}
External links
{{Archival records
| title = Joyce Barkhouse fonds
| location = Dalhousie University Archives
| inventory_number = MS-2-646
| description_URL = https://findingaids.library.dal.ca/joyce-barkhouse-fonds
}}
- [https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/pit-pony-author-joyce-barkhouse-dies-1.1298131 CBC notice of Barkhouse's death, February 3, 2012]
- {{LCAuth|n81066490|Joyce Barkhouse|3|ue}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barkhouse, Joyce}}
Category:Canadian children's writers
Category:Members of the Order of Canada
Category:Members of the Order of Nova Scotia
Category:Novelists from Nova Scotia
Category:People from Kings County, Nova Scotia
Category:Nova Scotia Teachers College alumni
Category:Canadian women children's writers
Category:20th-century Canadian novelists