Elspeth Cameron

Elspeth Cameron
Born(1943-01-10)10 January 1943
Barrie, Ontario, Canada
Died13 August 2025(2025-08-13) (aged 82)
St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada
OccupationsWriter, poet
Known forBiographies

Elspeth MacGregor Cameron (10 January 1943 – 13 August 2025) was a Canadian writer best known for her biographies of noted Canadian literary figures such as Irving Layton and Earle Birney. She was also noted for her 1997 memoir No Previous Experience, a memoir of her process of self-discovery when, having previously identified as heterosexual, she began to develop a sexual and romantic attraction to historian Janice Dickin McGinnis.[1] She also published a volume of poetry.

Cameron lived in St. Catharines, Ontario. She taught at Concordia University, the University of Toronto and Brock University. She died in St. Catharines on 13 August 2025, at the age of 82.[2]

Awards

Her biography of Hugh MacLennan, Hugh MacLennan: A Writer's Life, was nominated for the Governor General's Award for English-language non-fiction at the 1981 Governor General's Awards.[3] No Previous Experience won the W. O. Mitchell Literary Prize.[4]

Bibliography

  • Hugh MacLennan: A Writer's Life (1981)
  • A Spider Danced A Cosy Jig (1984)
  • Irving Layton: A Portrait (1985)
  • Robertson Davies: An Appreciation (1991)
  • Earle Birney: A Life (1994)
  • Great Dames (1997)
  • No Previous Experience: A Memoir of Love and Change (1997)
  • And Beauty Answers: The Life of Frances Loring and Florence Wyle (2007)
  • Aunt Winnie (2013)
  • A Tale of Two Divas: The Curious Adventures of Jean Forsyth and Edith J. Miller in Canada’s Edwardian West (2017)

References

  1. ^ "Out of the closet with a vengeance". Waterloo Region Record, 14 June 1997.
  2. ^ Stoffman, Judy (8 September 2025). "Biographer Elspeth Cameron told stories of Canadian literary talents and revealed her own secret life". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 17 September 2025.
  3. ^ "Gallant's collection of short stories takes fiction prize". The Globe and Mail, 18 May 1982.
  4. ^ "Calgarians are on a roll". Calgary Herald, 18 July 1998.


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