140th Birthday of W. Lacey Amy
W. Lacey Amy was born in Sydenham,
Ontario, Canada, 9 June 1877. He is best remembered as ‘Luke Allan’ the
novelist and by the series of 25 Blue Pete novels based on life in the 1910’s
featuring Canadian Mountie Westerns.
On this his birthday, it is well to
thank the individuals and institutions that have helped to provide up-to-date
information on this almost forgotten Canadian. Unfortunately, there was little
systematic research in the beginning of my studies of the author.
While indexing The Wide World, a monthly magazine from July 1918, for the ‘fictionmags’ group of
periodical experts, an article on The
Empire’s Only Eskimo Soldier caught interest. Fully illustrated, featuring
a Canadian Eskimo from Labrador, it has been reproduced.
Subsequent research into John Shewak
turned up three other journalistic reports about our soldier and his previous
life, mostly thanks to the archives of Memorial University (Newfoundland and
Labrador).
The journalist, W. Lacey Amy,
interested this researcher and thanks to web searches, the travels of Lacey Amy
quickly became apparent as did his pseudonym ‘Luke Allan’. Remote
Canada 100 Years Ago, currently under revision, with additional
stories, is a collection of travelogues by Lacey Amy.
In that research, it was discovered
that he had been the owner of The Medicine
Hat Times, circ. 1913. Kris Samraj, non-fiction librarian at the Medicine
Hat Library was kind enough to forward all of the private research provided by
a distant relative of Lacey Amy. This elderly niece from Brandon, Manitoba,
provided some key information. (The only contact was a phone call—no web
featured communication was possible.) It should be noted that Lacey Amy had no
offspring.
As Luke Allan emerged as a ‘popular’
author in England, it also became apparent that fame is fleeting, his 45 novels
were most difficult to locate. Often AbeBooks.Com and AddAll.Com had to be
resorted to fetch copies of his works.
About 15 novels were delivered as
digital files from libraries or as interlibrary loans (ILL). Memorial
University provided more stories on John Shiwak and I believe one of Lacey
Amy’s travel articles. (There are four stories on Labrador and Newfoundland.)
The University of New Brunswick
provided at least one ILL of Detective Muldrew series of murder mystery novels.
Although ‘Luke Allan’ was translated
into French, it appears that those books never crossed from France.
In Ontario, the University of
Toronto Libraries have contributed much to what we know. Similarly, the Library
and Archives, Canada have been most helpful. Back in 1989, Claudio Murri, an
Italian exchange student penned The
Life and Opinions of William Lacey Amy. Thoughtfully he provided one
copy of that paper to the Arts and Letters Society of Toronto. The current
archivist, Scott James, was able to provide the paper, a photograph of the
author and some details—for instance he was at one time the club librarian, and
was made a lifelong member! Mr. Murri was very pleased to be contacted about
his paper and remembered it fondly—it provided many details which would
otherwise be lost.
Still in Ontario, there were other
institutions that provided valuable information.
Alberta seemed to know the
connection of ‘Luke Allan’ with that province quite well. Of course all of Blue
Pete books, some 25 featured Alberta. But perhaps another 10 non-series novels
feature early Alberta. The biggest find here was four dust-jacket images; these
are an advertizing time capsule. They represent and art of the period (1930s)
that still inspires. (These images will appear in An Illustrated Bibliography of Lacey Amy.)
Finally in Canada, one of the novels
was provided from British Columbia.
Not to be forgotten, The Library of
Congress and the British Library have provided stories and research on the
author. The Library of Congress, in recent personal communication described one
missing source as an ‘orphan novel’. The
Pace, “this story forms the psychological study of a young man who is both
spiritually and morally down and out. He is sick of modern frivolities and
seeks refuge in the Canadian Rockies. Here he meets the girl of his heart, who
infuses new hope and life into his erstwhile jaded existence.”
The
Short Stories of Lacey Amy includes five of his short stories.
Stories
from the Great War is a collection of his articles on World War I.
So, Happy Birthday, W. Lacey Amy, I hope you appreciate all the work
done by individuals and institutions across Canada and the world.
