Grace Sparkes: Blazing a Trail to Independence
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by Marie-Beth Wright
St. John’s, N.L., 2014
342 pp., illus., $19.95 paperback
Grace Sparkes’s advocacy, volunteering, and political work in the 1900s made her a pioneer of women’s and seniors’ rights. The book Grace Sparkes: Blazing a Trail to Independence is a tribute to the Newfoundland icon.
Writer Marie-Beth Wright, a retired mathematics and history teacher from Newfoundland and Labrador, dives deep into Sparkes’s life. Wright touches on her childhood, her marriage, the death of her husband, and her fight against Confederation in a biography that is detailed and honest — most notably because Wright interviewed more than fifty friends of Sparkes as well as her only daughter, Grace.
The book features photos of Sparkes from ages four to eighty-four. Some photos capture key moments in her life, such as one that shows her receiving the twenty-fifth anniversary of Confederation medal.
A highlight of the book is the chapter that focuses on Sparkes’s fight against Confederation. It illustrates her fierce determination to advocate for what she believed in, even when the odds were against her.
For example, during her first electoral campaign, her husband, John, died. Although she was shattered, she carried on. “I knew he would call me a damn fool if I didn’t,” Sparkes told CBC Radio in a 1996 interview.
The journalist, teacher, and advocate may not have won the seat, but she earned a name for herself as a trailblazer for women in Newfoundland — a key theme throughout this book.
— Danelle Cloutier (Read bio)
Danelle Cloutier is a Red River College student in Winnipeg and recently completed an internship at Canada's History magazine.