Mazo

by

Brigid Cami

IF YOU WERE ASKED TO NAME the most famous Canadian authors, who would come to mind? Margaret Atwood, surely. Alice Munro, Leonard Cohen. Mordecai Richler, L. M. Montgomery, Robertson Davies, . . . and probably a handful of others if you were given a moment to think about it. And yet, even if you were given a good hour to concentrate – to name every author you could – I suspect that there would be one name invariably missing from that list: Mazo de la Roche.

Figure 1. Mazo de la Roche. Photograph appears in her autobiography, Ringing the Changes, captioned as “Myself – London 1936.”
Figure 1. Mazo de la Roche. Photograph appears in her autobiography, Ringing the Changes, captioned as “Myself – London 1936.”

I came across Mazo de la Roche at the Toronto Reference Library’s annual Treasure Sale last fall. It was my first time attending the sale. I was surprised that I had to check my purse in order to enter the room, although I soon understood why – the books were old (read: expensive). I wandered around aimlessly flipping through things I knew I wouldn’t buy. Any time I saw something that interested me, the price tag quickly hardened my heart.

One of the books I came across was a worn-out maroon hardcover with faded gold lettering on the front reading “POSSESSION” and underneath it “MAZO DE LA ROCHE.” I flipped through to find that it was a first edition, published in Toronto in 1923. But the real selling point was the single-digit price written in pencil on the inside cover. Sold. 

Back at home I sat down with

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