Canadian Women in Print, 1750–1918

``A must-read for all students of women's writing in Canada: as useful for its clarifying generalizations as for its effective marshalling and analysis of details, Canadian Women in Print demonstrates why Gerson has been, ever since the publication of A Purer Taste in 1989, such an important scholar in Canadian literary and book history studies.'' -- Janice Fiamengo, University of Ottawa -- Papers of the Bibliographical Society of Canada, 48/2, Fall 2010
``Carole Gerson's assiduous study of writers, publishers, editors, and journalists provides a panorama of predominantly nineteenth-century Canadian women.... The chiefly historical frame keeps the text readable, because Gerson rarely adopts complex theoretical idioms; her language is consistently straightforward and clear.... The range of Gerson's study is vast.... Her numerous headings keep the study's pace consistent and its emphasis focussed, both of which are necessary in a study of such an expansive era. That being said, Gerson's narrative is meticulous and impressive. Through statistical data, a plethora of explanatory footnotes, and well-supported historical evidence, she succeeds in reconstructing a percipient vision of this pre-1918 epoch.... Gerson's primary goal, to broaden the frame of literary history and to make known the women that populate this enlarged scope, is certainly well-realized. This achievement is due partly to the confident, clear style of Canadian Women in Print ; its conversational tone would seem inviting to any audience. Gerson's historical anecdotes, especially in her section on women's prefaces, prove similarily captivating, as well as illustrative. Moreover, the text is erudite, yet skillfully distilled to only its most significant conclusions. As such, the critic's wealth of knowledge never overwhelms the page or the reader, but her bibliography still provides a myriad of other historical, literary, or critical resources to aid scholars. Despite its aversion to alternative and equally helpful critical approaches, Gerson's project is fundamentally accomplished and instructive. It reclaims many lost figures and offers a foundation for future studies of a gradually enlarging historical lens focussed on Canadian women in print.'' -- J.A. Weingarten -- Canadian Literature, #212, Spring 2012
``Carole Gerson is Canada's lead detective in the field of women's writing, and Canadian Women in Print, 1759-1918 could not have been written by anyone else as it attests to her astonishingly wide, yet precise, knowledge of women's roles all along the line of production....The choice to divide the book into ten finely honed chapters, each with its own angle of vision on the print industry rather than a linear chronology, works well.... [R]eally an exemplary reference tool to savor chapter by chapter and to keep close at hand on the bookshelf. It is a must for Canadianists and feminists and an inspiration to young archival researchers wondering how they, too, might make their imprint on the field.'' -- Roxanne Rimstead, Université de Sherbrooke -- Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature, 30.1, Spring 2011
``Anyone who knows of Carole Gerson's outstanding scholarship on early Canadian women's writing and early Canadian print culture might have hoped that she would distill and download her lifetime of information and research into one comprehensive tome. Well, she did, and this is the book.... Canadian Women in Print is primarily a literary history, and because Gerson has such a strong command of her material, the highly detailed narrative of women writers and their entrance into print unfolds effortlessly.... Her coverage of the canonical is supplement nicely by the not-as-well-known.... She examines by way of âcollage,â as she says, some of the case studies and some of the motivations that induced women to get involved in writing and publishing. Her description of the book as collage helps to explain why the book âarranges many separate snapshots of specific individuals and scenes of writing in order to present larger composite storiesâ (p. xiii). Indeed, the book is supplemented with the kind of iconic snapshots that would be an ideal introduction to a new researcher in this field. The collage strategy, echoing the best kind of nineteenth-century scrapbook, makes the book very readable and highly digestible.... Her...work here is nothing less than the definitive, condensed introduction to the field.... In short, the most trustworthy reference work for any scholar wanting a concise and correct introduction to the field of early Canadian women's writing. Gerson's work has been nothing less than foundational, and here she solidifies again the importance of women's writing in Canada, and her role as its outstanding historian.'' -- Kathryn Carter, Associate Dean, Wilfrid Laurier University -- H-Canada, July 2014