The Life and Letters of Annie Leake Tuttle: Working for the Best

Ashley Thomson is a full librarian at Laurentian University and co-editor or co-author of nine books, most recently Margaret Atwood: A Reference Guide, 1988-2005.

Annie Leake Tuttle (1839–1934) was born to an impoverished family in
Nova Scotia, grew up to be a gifted teacher, and later in her life
became the matron of a rescue home for immigrant Chinese women who had
worked as prostitutes. Since 1857, when she was “born again,” the
constant in her life was how best to serve her Lord—a focus that
helped her to survive the various misfortunes that beset her.

Toward the end of her life, Tuttle passed on her autobiography to a
family member. It made its way into the Maritime Conference Archives of
the United Church where Marilyn Fardig Whiteley discovered it. Whiteley
is an independent scholar who has taught at several Canadian
universities and has also been a staff member of the UCC/Victoria
College Archives in Toronto.

This book consists of Tuttle’s autobiography, supplemented by letters
she wrote family members over the years. The text is organized around
the different phases of her life, and each section is introduced by
Whiteley, a gifted writer in her own right. Readers who view history as
more than the story of famous male politicians will welcome this book
for the fresh light it sheds on women, education, the church, social
conditions in both British Columbia and Nova Scotia, family life, and
even the Halifax Explosion.