Just Mary: The Life of Mary Evelyn Grannan

David E. Kemp is professor emeritus of drama at Queen’s University.

During the post-Depression and postwar periods, Mary Evelyn Grannan’s
Maggie Muggins and Just Mary stories were enjoyed by Canadian children
from coast to coast. Grannan’s books eventually sold over 400,000
copies, and in 1948 the first Maggie Muggins doll appeared.

In her excellent foreword, Dr. Gwendolyn Davies of the University of
New Brunswick recalls agonizing over whether to ask Santa Claus for a
Barbara Ann Scott doll or a Maggie Muggins doll (the figure skater won
out). The fact that two such important Canadian cultural icons were
successfully commercialized as dolls, Davies observes, speaks volumes
about Canada’s sense of nationalism during the postwar period.

Mary Grannan was a former Fredericton schoolteacher who became a radio
star when she hit the national airwaves in 1939. Her popularity peaked
in 1955 when Maggie Muggins moved to television, paving the way for
gentle CBC children’s programming such as The Friendly Giant and Mr.
Dressup. Gannon’s extraordinary life and career during the pioneering
days of Canadian broadcasting and publishing is the subject of this
deeply engaging first book by Margaret Hume, a former librarian at
Concordia University who was herself an adoring young fan of Maggie
Muggins.