Both Hands:  A Life of Lorne Pierce of Ryerson Press

Sandra Campbell

Campbell, Sandra. Both Hands: a Life of Lorne Pierce of Ryerson Press. Montreal, McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2013. 644 p. Illus.

(many refs to CWJ, including part of Chapt. 15.)

• p. 266 -  “The artists of the Group of Seven and their allies of pen  and palette – many of them Pierce’s friends and associates (for example, J.E. H. MacDonald, C.W. Jefferys…and others) – were in the 1920s active in advocating a better and more autonomous Canadian culture…”
• p. 269 -  “Another textbook venture, the Ryerson Canadian History Readers, Pierce’s series of over 102 booklets (fifteen to thirty-two pages in length) on Canadian history for Canadian schools, launched in 1925, were produced by dozens of authors – historians, teachers, and professional writers and journalists – including Pierce himself (who wrote five of them).  Artist C.W. Jefferys, a gifted illustrator of long experience, did much of the illustration work.  Jefferys’s romantic visual images from Canada’s past (the material details – clothing, fences, farm implements, muskets – painstakingly researched) contributed to the financial and pedagogical success of the series.”
• p. 270 -  “The definition [of romantic historian] applies perfectly to Pierce, his commissioned writers, and his visual collaborator Charles Jefferys in the Ryerson Canadian History Readers.”
• p. 304 -  “Based on textbook sales, Betsey [sic] Jefferys, daughter of Pierce’s friend artist C.W. Jefferys, was hired full-time as secretary to assist Blanch Hume in October 1934.”
• p. 305 -  “The house [in York Mills] sat on the edge of Hogg’s Hollow not far from the Don River, a green enclave only a few blocks from home of Lorne’s artist friend and collaborator C.W. Jefferys.”
• p. 314 -  “He donated generously…to individual artists and writers such as C.W. Jefferys…” “,,,he acquired…the painting The Westward Passage from artist C.W. Jefferys.”
• p. 324 -  “Champlain on Georgian Bay, 1615.”
• p. 324-5 -  “Madame Hebert Watching the Departure of the French from Quebec after Its Capture 1628”
• p. 324-5 -  “Loyalists Camping on the St. Lawrence”
• p. 326 -  “The First Furrow”
• p. 362 -  “…his Ryerson Press work with artist/illustrators like C.W. Jefferys and Frederick Varley.”  [Edith’s influence]
• p. 364 -  “At its zenith in the early 1950s, Pierce’s personal art collection encompassed works by C.W. Jefferys, Tom Thomson, A.Y. Jackson, Wyly Grier, and Thoreau MacDonald. “Pierce was therefore quick to start handing out commissions for book design and illustration to the likes of C.W. Jefferys…and other gifted Canadian designers.”
• p. 369-71 -  “He was emphatic about the cultural significance to Canada of the Group and their forerunners and inheritors – artists like Cornelius Krieghoff, Paul Kane, James Wilson Morrice, Maurice Cullen, C.W. Jefferys, and in the wake of the Group, Thoreau MacDonald and others
• p. 379 -  “The foreward [to Colgate’s 1943 Canadian Art], penned by C.W. Jefferys…”
• p. 380 -  “Art historian Colgate, publisher Pierce and artist Jefferys were all well over fifty years old.”
• p. 382 -  “…[Pierce] consulted closely with such figures as Group members…and such distinguished and established older artists as C.W. Jefferys, Wyly Grier…and others.” “…Pierce was key in convincing [AGT’s Martin] to sponsor a  major exhibition on  Jefferys in 1942.  He also convinced [NGC’s Harry] McCurry to host the exhibition on Jefferys despite the National Gallery’s policy at the time of not showcasing the work of living artists.”
• p. 382 -  “The prime movers in [the Queen’s Art Foundation]…included…artists C.W. Jefferys and A.Y. Jackson and others”
• p. 405-6 -  “Pierce’s study, furnished with walnut antiques and Oriental rugs, boasted a Jefferys watercolour.
• p. 481 -  “The walls of Pierce’s apartment were hung with Canadian art - …a Horatio Walker…a Jefferys:  all small works, for his was a ‘a poor man’s collection’, as Pierce pointed out to callers.”
• p. 482 -  “For Pierce, perhaps the sweetest moment of the 1950s came at the beginning of the decade.  After endlessly cajoling C.W. Jefferys to complete his illustrated history of Canada, Pierce published the third and final volume of Jefferys’s iconic The Picture Gallery of Canadian History in 1950 to great acclaim.”
• p. 501 -  “It was Pierce’s broad and successful promulgation of his vision of Canadian cultural nationalism – through…the promotion of writers and artists list C.W. Jefferys and the Canadian Art series…”
• p. 566, note 25 -  “Betsy Jefferys Fee (who worked for Lorne Pierce in the 1930s), interview with Beth Robinson, Toronto, spring 1988, taped interview in possession of BPR.”
• p. 575, note 81 -  “See LP Diary, 18 April 1934.  Reminiscences of Ryerson employees like Betsey [sic] Jefferys and Blanche…”
• p. 578-584 -  Notes – many refs. to CWJ
• p. 589-90, note 3 -  lists Canadian art series of 16 titles, CWJ published 1945
• p. 591, note 33 -  “See C.W. Jefferys, “Albert H. Robson,”  Canadian Bookman, 16 (1939, 4.”
• p. 593 , note 57 “…a portrait of Lorne Pierce and C.W. Jefferys is in the historical museum in Saint John, New Brunswick, commissioned from J.R. Tate by Pierce’s friend Dr J.C. Webster of Shediac.  See Dickinson, Lorne Pierce: a Profile, 70-1.” [Note – I think these are 2 separate portraits] note 68  -  “LP to C.W. Jefferys, 23 December 1946, file 8 box 13, LPP”
• p. 594 , note 77 -  “C.W. Jefferys, Foreword to ibid [Colgate, 1943]., vii-viii.” note 87  -  “For an account of the Foundation, See [Lorne Pierce, ed.,] Queen’s University Art Foundation (Toronto:  Ryerson 1944).”
• p. 644 -  Index list for Betsey [sic] Jefferys, and for CWJ. [see other Campbell reference below for earlier version of Chapter 15]