The Feminine Gaze: A Canadian Compendium of Non-Fiction Women Authors and Their Books, 1836-1945

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian Studies at
Concordia University and an avid outdoor recreationist. She is the
author of several books, including The Mountain Is Moving: Japanese
Women’s Lives, Kurlek and Margaret Laurence: T

Ever since the so-called “new critics” in Britain began in the 1920s
to elevate poetry and fiction and to neglect nonfiction genres such as
biography, Canadian biographers have not received the respect accorded
to their genre by earlier scholars. Anne Innis Dagg sets out to redress
that situation with this compendium.

After a 20-page introduction, Dagg covers 476 writers, with mention of
their 674 books. Typical entries occupy half a page to one-and-a-half
pages, and each one includes a brief biography and an index of the
author’s book titles. There is a special index for authors who were
scholars and medical workers, and an index covering all of the authors.
Despite the brevity of individual entries, The Feminine Gaze is a useful
reference tool for anyone working in the field of women’s studies. It
deserves a place in high-school and community libraries, as well as in
university holdings.