Who Was Doris Hedges?

A lively biography of Canada's first literary agent and her efforts to forge a writing career in Montreal.

A lively biography of Canada's first literary agent and her efforts to forge a writing career in Montreal.

Lecker Robert :

Robert Lecker is Greenshields Professor of English at McGill University and author of Who Was Doris Hedges?: The Search for Canada’s First Literary Agent.

Robert Lecker is Greenshields Professor of English at McGill University and author of Who Was Doris Hedges?: The Search for Canada’s First Literary Agent.

"Lecker's deep knowledge of the history of Canada's publishing industry and his keen curiosity allows him a fascinating glimpse into a bygone era of Canadian writing and of Anglo Montreal life. This thoroughly researched and well-written book includes a wealth of information about the economic conditions under which writers, agents, and publishers labored in at the time." Patrick Coleman, University of California, Los Angeles, American Review of Canadian Studies

"Who Was Doris Hedges? takes a fresh approach to the literary, cultural, political debates and conditions of the mid-twentieth century in Canada, from the perspective of a figure who has barely been preserved in the literary archive. Hedges is worth preserving and thinking about because her career charts the narrative of a woman striving to establish herself within the English-Canadian literary culture and marketplace." Lorraine York, McMaster University, and author of Reluctant Celebrity: Affect and Privilege in Contemporary Stardom

"Although the private woman continues to evade the scholar’s suspicious gaze, Lecker's reconstruction of her public record is an important reminder of the variety of figures who contributed to the literary landscape in Canada in the mid-century. While Hedges's presence in literary histories may have been erased because her agency failed and her own literary works did not fit within the modernist movements that have been favored by critics, her reappearance on these pages is a welcome contribution to the on-going re-evaluation of early and mid-twentieth century Canadian literary history." Kait Pinder, Acadia University, American Review of Canadian Studies

"Lecker is a lively and engaging narrator. Some of the most enjoyable moments in the book are the ones in which he narrates his own experience of researching (including the moving Coda in which he visits her grave). He balances his own speculations, close readings, and contextual asides with a significant emphasis on Hedges' own voice (in the book and also on the associated website that includes a recording of Hedges speaking on the radio and in which her particular cultural position is audible in the registers of her voice)." Claire Battershill, University of Toronto, American Review of Canadian Studies

“Who Was Doris Hedges? tells us much about mid-century Canada: its cultural scene; its political and social atmosphere; its economic development. [Lecker] writes in his final chapter, "I have pursued her elusive story ... with a passion I cannot explain. Who was this enigmatic woman?" Intellectual passion is certainly evident in this book, along with skill, insight, and determination.” Times Literary Supplement