True may not have started out wanting to work in publishing, but she came to believe that she was doing worthwhile work, especially when it encouraged the development of Canadian literature. During a talk she gave in 1928 she said, “that Canadian publishers were fostering Canadian literature at a financial sacrifice...[and that] anyone who did anything to promote Canadian literature was doing a service to his country...Canadian literature could do a lot for the Dominion. It would help to unify the vast areas that are now more or less separated...Everyone could not travel and the next best method of familiarizing oneself with conditions and people in other parts of a vast country was to read about them.”10 True already had a skillful speaking presence; the newspaper report of her talk noted that she “spoke in a humorous vein.”
One of the more demanding parts of her job seems to have been the rejection of manuscripts. Some were easier to reject than others. She told the Kiwanians that “it was unnecessary to read a whole manuscript in order to determine whether it was publishable or not. Very often one page was enough to settle that point. Sometimes, she said, she saved up half a dozen offerings and dealt with them over the weekend.” She also found that many would-be authors had unrealistic expectations of possible financial returns, telling them “of a young girl who brought in a novel and without waiting to ascertain whether or not it would be published demanded a 50-50 split with the firm. That meant, if the book retailed for two dollars that the authoress would get a dollar while the publishers would have to give a discount to the bookseller, pay the expenses of writing and marketing and accept what was left as profit.” The book wasn’t accepted so “there was no need to haggle over financial details.”11
Other times it was harder. Reeta Wright remembered that “she hated to disappoint them, especially the younger people that would expect some reaction she couldn’t give.” One of True’s short stories, written around this time, included a character, Maridell, the daughter of a minister, who had to assess a book submitted by a minister who reminds her very much of her father.
This photograph was taken around 1930 when True travelled to England where she represented the Canadian Managing Director, Henry Button, at the English head office of J.M. Dent and Sons. Her secretary, Reeta Wright, remembered her as looking “very mannish” with her short hair. Courtesy David Cobden
...Maridell left the “Pilgrims of Peace” as long as she dared. Finally, one day, “I daren’t read this manuscript,” she said to her chief, “I wish you’d take a look at it.”
He glanced through a few pages. What Maridell brought him was usually well worth serious consideration. Thus it took him a few minutes to realize the nature of the work. Then he threw it down, amazed, infuriated. “Putrid!” he roared. “Hopeless! What do you mean by asking me to read such tripe? Shoot it back.” Then as she hesitated, “What’s the matter? Don’t stand there looking like a sick cat! “
“I felt sorry for him,” she murmured lamely. “He was a minister— from the country.”
Her employer exploded, “If we were to weep over every fool that thought he could write, the world would be flooded...Pah! Take it away. It makes me sick just to look at it.”
What could Maridell do? Sometimes one grew very weary of working in a publishing house, but she supposed there were unpleasant features about any job. She shrugged her shoulders and dictated a letter.12
During her years at Dents, True worked on several books and is sometimes credited as the author [more accurately the editor] of a childrens’ book, Canada in Story and Song. She also wrote poetry and short stories, several of which were later published.
While working at Dents that she had her first real contact with the left-wing intellectuals who later inspired her to join the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (C.C.F.). J.M. Dent & Sons published the Canadian Forum during her years there so she had the opportunity to meet several of its contributors, including historian Frank Underhill and law professor Frank R. Scott who later formed the League for Social Reconstruction. The League was a major influence on the founding of the C.C.F. and played a large role in the writing of its declaration of principles, “The Regina Manifesto.” The philosophy of their magazine, described as “avowedly nationalist and progressive, and usually on the left of the spectrum on political and cultural issues”13 was familiar to True since it mirrored the “social gospel” ideals popular in the Methodist church of her childhood and which formed much of the philosophy behind the C.G.I.T. which had influenced her teenage years. The social gospel “sought to apply Christianity to the collective ills of an industrializing society...and held an optimistic view of human nature and entertained high prospects for social reform. By W.W. I it had become a principal informing principle of social reform.”14. The movement had particularly strong support in western Canada, where it was led by charasmatic leaders like James Shaver Woodsworth.
In 1930, True reached the pinnacle of her publishing career when she was sent to England, on behalf of the Canadian office, “to negotiate financial arrangements and expedite the preparation of various text books.”15 She resigned her position with the company almost immediately afterwards, leading to speculation as to what happened during that business trip to London that caused her to leave what had been, thus far, an exceptionally successful career.
Clara Thomas felt that True was “always very restless...things never really did satisfy her. She was always going on, looking ahead.” It does seem that True was never satisfied with any position for very long and certainly not with one where she couldn’t reach the top. But her decision was prompted by more than restlessness. In her 1930 resume she listed as her “Reasons for Wishing to Leave—[the] Impossibility of specialization in so small a firm, and thus impossibility of any further development whatsoever, except that of succeeding Mr. Button, remote by 20 years, and unlikely even then in view of my sex and the conservative feeling of our London principals.”16 This final phrase provides some idea of what was likely said to her at the London head office. Dents would not have been unique in their resistance to the idea of a woman advancing to become a managing director. After all, the Supreme Court (then still in Britain) had only recently ruled that “women were persons under the law” and thus eligible for appointment to the Canadian Senate.
However discouraged True may have become about her chances in the publishing field, she remained confident enough to state clearly what were then considered decidedly feminist demands. Describing the “Type of Position Desired” she wrote “something which will use all my energy...in which having the strength, perseverance and courage of a man, I shall be permitted to go as far as a man of parallel ability.”17
3
A STRUGGLING WRITER
1930–1931
True couldn’t have chosen a worse time to leave a secure position; just as the Canadian economy slid into the decade-long “Great Depression”. All began well. She was hired almost immediately by the Canadian Federation of University Women as the Managing Director of their Vocational Bureau to “help university girls find their niche in business life.”1 The Bureau supported itself from the fees that it collected for filling a position, but, at a time when thousands of experienced men were unable to find work, the Bureau soon found it impossible to earn enough fees to continue and was closed in July 1931.
Her reference letter from the Convenor of the Vocational Committee responsible for the Bureau noted that True had “carried on the work in a splendid manner. She has the qualities of insight, understanding, and objectiveness necessary for vocational guidance, as well as those of initiative and executive ability which must be part of a successful director.”2 A less formal letter