Helen Creighton: Canada's First Lady of Folklore

Susan McKnight is an administrator with the Ontario government.

Helen Creighton was a very determined woman with a unique method of
completing her chosen mission of retrieving and preserving the folklore
and folksongs of the Maritimes. By working with her “informants” and
becoming part of their lives, she gained a true understanding of the
history and emotion behind the songs she collected. The excerpts from
Creighton’s journals that appear in this excellent biography make it
abundantly clear that her work was a labor of love.

The technological changes chronicled in the book are fascinating. In
the beginning, Creighton manually transcribed all the music and lyrics;
she moved on to heavy, awkward wax recordings (which did not always
survive) and, finally, to easily transported cassette recordings. Her
story takes us, as well, into the early days of Canadian radio and the
beginnings of many now-famous Canadian musical personalities. Creighton
even witnessed the “takeover” of many informants’ homes by the
dreaded television set, which eroded much of the singing and
storytelling that had earlier been an all-important family activity.

Helen Creighton was devoted to her family, untiring in her search for
new samples for her collections, and an accomplished historian in the
field of Canadian folklore. Clary Croft, as Creighton’s protégé and
a folklorist, has written a moving and complete biography that does her
subject justice. The book includes extensive endnotes and a thorough
bibliography.