Joanna E. Wood
Joanna E. Wood was a Canadian author known for her contributions to fiction in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Originally from Scotland, she moved to New York with her family in 1869 before settling in Canada’s Niagara Peninsula, a setting that would influence her writing. Using the pseudonym Jean d'Arc, Wood gained recognition for her realistic portrayals of small-town life and the social conditions faced by women in post-Confederation Canada. Her literary career began with the publication of her first story in 1890, followed by her debut novel, *The Untempered Wind*, in 1894, which garnered critical acclaim for its exploration of moral issues in Canadian society.
Wood's work often reflected themes of love and personal choice, as seen in her second novel, *Judith Moore: Or, Fashioning a Pipe*, where a renowned singer grapples with the allure of fame versus the tranquility of rural life. Notably, she became the first Canadian author to have a novel serialized in *Canadian Magazine* with her darker tale, *A Daughter of Witches*. After releasing several works, including *Farden Ha’* and *Where Waters Beckon*, she relocated to Niagara-on-the-Lake in 1906. Although she ceased publishing after this move, Wood continued to engage with the public through talks until her death in 1927. Her contributions remain a significant part of Canadian literary history.
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Subject Terms
Joanna E. Wood
Writer
- Born: December 28, 1867
- Birthplace: Lesmahagow, Lanarkshire, Scotland
- Died: May 1, 1927
- Place of death: Detroit, Michigan
Biography
Canadian author Joanna E. Wood, who sometimes used the pseudonym Jean d’Arc, wrote fiction during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Her novels and short stories gained wide popularity. Wood’s stories were first contributed to American magazines under her pen name, according to articles about her success that appeared in Canadian Magazine in 1901.
Although she was born in Scotland, her parents, Agnes Todd and Robert Wood, moved the family to New York in 1869 and eventually settled on a farmstead on Canada’s Niagara Peninsula. The serene location would later appear in some of Wood’s writings. Wood decided early in life that she wanted to be a writer. She worked and studied diligently to achieve this goal. She attended St. Catharine’s Collegiate Institute, studied in France, and then returned to Canada, where she continued to study and write.
In her fiction, Wood realistically depicted small-town life in the years following Canadian confederation, and she explored the social conditions of women in this setting. Her first story was accepted for publication in 1890. In 1894, she published her first novel, The Untempered Wind, a social satire in which critics found similarities to the writing of Thomas Hardy. It examined the moralistic fervor prevalent in small-town Canadian life, and it established her reputation as a talented artist. Wood alludes to The Scarlet Letter in The Untempered Wind and the plots of the two books share the similarities of an unwed mother as a main character and the conflicts resulting from the treatment that she receives as a result of her social position. Since Woods did not identify the setting of this novel, a reviewer in New York mistakenly labeled Wood’s book as a great American novel.
She traveled extensively throughout Europe and the United States and continued to write. In 1898 she published her second novel, a pleasant romance—Judith Moore: Or, Fashioning a Pipe. The protagonist is a famous singer who seeks refuge from her exhausting life in a remote farming community of Canada. There she meets and falls in love with a farmer and must choose between the glamour and goals of her life as a singer or the stability and serenity of life on a farm with her love.
A darker tale, A Daughter of Witches, was printed in serial format in Canadian Magazine that same year, making Woods the first Canadian author to have her novel serialized in the magazine. In 1901, she wrote Farden Ha’, which was set in a Scottish mining town, and the following year she published her final novel, Where Waters Beckon. She and her mother moved to Niagara-on-the-Lake in 1906, and although she had stopped publishing her writing, she continued to speak publicly on various topics. Wood died in 1927.