To Experience Wonder: Edna Staebler—a Life

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

Many people today may not be immediately familiar with the name Edna
Staebler until you say “Food That Really Schmecks” and suddenly the
light of recognition snaps on. Staebler’s schmexy cookbooks have sold
in the hundreds of thousands in Canada, where 5000 copies sold
constitutes a “best seller.”

But Staebler is more than just another cookbook author. In the 1930s,
she wanted to be a teacher but was fired from her first job for
demonstrating backflips to her physical education class. She married the
love of her life, who turned out to be an abusive alcoholic. While still
saddled with an unhappy marriage, she launched herself into a career in
journalism and sold her first magazine article at the age of 42. Her
articles began appearing regularly in magazines and newspapers, but
Staebler did not write her first cookbook until the age of 60. Over the
years, she became friends with many of the leading writers of her era,
including W.O. Mitchell, Pierre Berton, and Margaret Laurence. More
importantly, she inspired and influenced scores of fledgling writers.
Through her, in 1991, Wilfrid Laurier University established the Edna
Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction, and in 1996, Staebler was
awarded the Order of Canada.

A life such as hers definitely deserves a well-written biography, and
fortunately this one does Staebler justice. Using painstaking research
and meticulous organization, Ross traces Staebler’s life from her
birth in 1906 in Berlin (now Kitchener), Ontario, to her very active
working “retirement” at the age of 97 in her waterfront home on
Sunfish Lake. What comes through is Staebler’s remarkable character, a
combination of Mennonite gentleness and a sincere generosity of spirit
backed up with an iron resilience. This is a book that will inspire both
readers and writers. Twelve pages of photos, endnotes, and an index
round out the volume.