The Feminine Gaze: A Canadian Compendium of Non-Fiction Women Authors and Their Books, 1836–1945 by Anne Innis Dagg (review)

humanities 431 university of toronto quarterly, volume 72, number 1, winter 2002/3 documents, enable the reader to understand the importance each plays in constructing a history of the period. Thus, through shifting back and forth between his own historical narrative and these summaries of what the individual journals contain, Keith provides a context in which to value the journals. While a small confusion arises from separating the introductory discussion of the journals from the journals themselves, this minor difficulty is more than compensated for by the extremely thorough and helpful information North of Athabasca contains. The reader simply needs to flip back and forth between the two sections in order to reap the full benefit of Keith=s work on any specific journal. Access to these seminal documents is especially important in today=s multidisciplinary academy, where boundaries between history, life writing, anthropology, and the like become increasingly blurred. Yet because readers from diverse disciplinary backgrounds often know little about this highly specialized subject, even published documents remain relatively inaccessible unless a great deal of editorial assistance is provided. This is where North of Athabasca excels. In addition to Keith=s >Historical Background ,= the pages of the journals themselves are carefully annotated with explanatory information essential to understanding the frequent abbreviations and specialized terms used by the traders. There are probably more than seven hundred notes to the eleven journal entries alone, supplemented by several hundred more for the >Historical Background= section. Readers will find both helpful explanations and specialized information in the notes, which offer the editor=s considerable understanding of this interesting period of Canadian history on an >as needed= basis. There is also a six-page glossary that will prove quite useful, given the special language of the fur trade. Finally, as well as the bibliography and index one would normally expect of a scholarly book, North of Athabasca includes an eighty-five-page section entitled >Biographical Notes, Mackenzie River and Slave Lake Districts, 1795B1821.= Less likely to interest the reader who is looking only for a broad grasp of Keith=s subject, this section is B like the journal transcriptions themselves B of central importance to the historian. Keith has constructed rare biographies of scores of minor figures involved in the trade, including Aboriginal and mixed-blood players without whose engagement there would have been no fur trade. (RICHARD C. DAVIS) Anne Innis Dagg. The Feminine Gaze: A Canadian Compendium of Non-Fiction Women Authors and Their Books, 1836B1945 Wilfrid Laurier University Press. viii, 346. $45.00 The subtitle of The Feminine Gaze signals the careful attention to detail that distinguishes this interesting book. In place of the term >annotated biblio- 432 letters in canada 2001 university of toronto quarterly, volume 72, number 1, winter 2002/3 graphy,= which usually suggests a comprehensive work of authority, Anne Innis Dagg prefers >compendium= with its promise of surprise and open engagement, which is what awaits the reader of this impressive collection. As a work of reference, The Feminine Gaze will be valuable to scholars working across a number of fields, including women=s studies, Canadian studies, history, religion, education, science, and literature. It also should delight the general reader who is interested in the cultural history of women in Canada. As critic Helen M. Buss asserts in her foreword, >This collection contradicts the truism that women have not been part of public culture in Canada=s past. Perhaps closer to the truth is that they have been, by and large, edited out of the public history of our culture.= In fact, Dagg has uncovered the vast contribution made by anglophone women writers to the cultural development of this country. She examines the period 1836 to 1945, identifies 476 women writers, and describes approximately 677 books. Her conviction that >If we are to know our country properly, it is essential that the contribution of women writers, which often focused on women=s needs and interests previously ignored by men, be given proper weight= is borne out by extensive research into the work and lives of Canadian women. Dagg categorizes the authors in her collection as professional women; professional writers; religious women; visiting British women; and highprofile society women...