Legends of Vancouver. Johnson, E. Pauline (Tekahionwake). Published by McClelland, Goodchild, & Stewart, Limited, Toronto, Copyright Pauline Johnson 1911. New Edition, Illustrated. (First printing following the privately printed, card cover edition, Saturday Sunset Presses Limited, 1911). 8vo – over 7¾” – 9¾” tall. xvi, 165 pp. with six black and white photographic plates, including frontispiece. Maroon red cloth boards with gilt titles and decoration front; gilt spine titles. Top edge gilt, fore and tail edges rough cut. In very good condition with rubbing to head of spine and top right corner; frontis portrait partially detached; hinges lightly weakened.
Pauline Johnson (Takehionwake) (1861 -1913) was a daughter of a Mohawk Chief and a white mother. She was one of Canada’s most celebrated performers, poet, feminist and indigenous activist of the Victorian era. She performed on tours across Canada, in the United States and England where she first met Chief Joe Capilano in 1906. When she retired from the stage in 1909, she settled in Vancouver where she renewed her acquaintance with her ’tillicum skookum’ or great friend Joseph Capilano. During long visits and canoe rides, he told her the tales of Salish culture she was to re-tell in Legends of Vancouver.
