The Life and Letters of Annie Leake Tuttle: Working for the Best by Marilyn Färdig Whiteley (review)

Book Reviews 383 included, but Halifax's naval base is· not. Adolphe Chapleau and Hector Langevin are omitted, though D'Arey McGee is included, while Charles Tupper merits only two sentences. As for culture, Hugh Maclennan rates only two sentences, mentioning two of his novels, while Ralph Connor, Mazo de la Roche, Carol Shields, Margaret Laurence, W.O. Mitchell, and Morley Callaghan, among others, are excluded. Cape Breton gets three sentences, one ofthem factually wrong when he states that Highland Scottish settlers arrived at Cape Breton on the Hector in 1773, although he contradicts himself and gets it right in the entry on Nova Scotia. As for historians, there is a general entry on historical writing, but C.P. Stacey and Harold Innis merit separate entries, while Donald Creighton and Frank Underhill do not. Athletes such as Maurice Richard are excluded, although the Bluenose schooner gets almost a full page. Many more examples could be given. The bibliography is somewhat better than the text of the book and provides a useful reference for students and general readers, although the sections on Atlantic Canada are noticeably weaker, omitting important recent publications, than those on Ontario and the West. Somewhat surprisingly, the bibliography on Quebec is stronger than the entries would lead one to expect. One hesitates to be critical because no one could seriously be expected to have the breadth and depth ofknowledge necessary to produce a book ofthis kind alone. Having decided that he wanted to produce a Canadian historical dictionary, it is regrettable that Gough did not assemble a team ofscholars to assist him in determining guidelines and in generating the entries. Jon Woronoff, the series editor - there is no indication ofwhat the series is - says in his foreword that the book was published because Canada 'is a very complex, and intriguing, nation which certainly deserves to better known by foreigners and probably Canadians as well.' Unfortunately, this volume will not contribute to that knowledge as it might have done. BRIAN TENNYSON University College ofCape Breton The Life and Letters ofAnnie Leake Tuttle: Workingfor the Best. MARILYN FARDIG WHITELEY. Waterloo, Ont.: Wilfrid Laurier University Press 1999· Pp. 168, illus. $29.95 In its Life Writing Series, Wilfrid Laurier University Press has attempted to make accessible those voices traditionally excluded from the publication process. The Life and Letters ofAnnie Leake Tuttle: Workingfor the Best is the seventh volume in this series. Edited by Marilyn Fardig Whiteley, it 384 The Canadian Historical Review features the autobiography and a sampling ofpersonal letters, missionary reports, and miscellaneous writings by the Nova Scotia-born Tuttle (1839-1934), who was propelled through life by the spiritual imperative 'Do all the Good you can.' In a multitude ofsettings from Newfoundland to British Columbia, she found spheres ofusefulness as a schoolteacher, normal school educator, matron of a rescue home for Chinese immigrant women, and social activist in a host ofvoluntary religious associations . She was committed to the principles of service and self-sacrifice, and, though the strong bonds offamily obligations constrained her, she dutifully played her roles as daughter, niece, aunt, wife, and stepmother. Throughout her life, Tuttle remained dedicated to kinship networks and communityties that buttressed her identity and power. In her final years, she became custodian offamily memories for the Leakes and Lockharts, who were now scattered over North America. At first glance, Tuttle's autobiography is bound to disappoint. Emotion finds little expression in the contrived linearity ofevents, places, and people. Even Whiteley concedes that the autobiography is penned in the 'vocabulary ofservice rather than the rhetoric ofromance.' However, she steers readers away from such superficial impressions, and her introduction guides them to a fuller appreciation of the nuances of Tuttle's writings. Whiteley sets the scene for each chapter, delineating time, place, and cultural context, without upstaging Tuttle's. own words. Background details explain the circumstances that led to the creation of this autobiography, written by a woman forced into introspection by old age and an eroding sense ofself. For this reason, the autobiography lacks the spontaneity ofa diary documenting life as it unfolds. Recording memories in her small leather-bound book, Tuttle was searching for meaningful patterns in her life. For her...