Wetherald was born of English
Quaker parents at Rockwood, Ontario, on April 26, 1857.[2] She was one of eleven children of Jemima Harris Balls and William Wetherald, the founder and principal of
Rockwood Academy, and later a Quaker minister.[3] Her family then moved to
Pennsylvania where her father William became superintendent of
Haverford College.[4] Only two years later, the family moved back to
Ontario. She was further educated at the
Friends' Boarding School, Union Springs, N.Y., and at
Pickering College.[5] She never married, but did adopt a daughter,
Dorothy Rungeling.
Wetherald had been known principally as a journalist and poet, but she also co-authored an historical romance novel An Algonquin Maiden: A Romance of the Early Days of Upper Canada with Graeme Mercer Adam in 1887.[6] Her first independent publication, The House of the Trees and Other Poems, was published in 1895 and two more books of verse, Tangled in Stars and The Radiant Road, were published in 1902 and 1904.[7] She wrote both prose and verse as a contributor to The Christian Union, The Chicago Current, The Week, Canadian Magazine, and Saturday Night.[8] She also worked as an editor and contributor for The Globe using the pen name Bel Thistlethwaite, and was part of the editorial staff for The Advertiser in London, Ontario. She was an assistant to editor Francis Bellamy of the Ladies Home Journal and to Forrest Morgan, the editor of The World's Best Literature.[9] In 1921, she published a book entitled Tree Top Morning, which she dedicated to her daughter Dorothy Rungeling who also became an author.[10] In the last few years of her life, she contributed to the Welland-Port Colborne Evening Tribune children's column "Patty Perkins Club". She used her own name and occasionally used the pseudonym "Octo" for octogenarian.[11]
^New Women: Short Stories by Canadian Women, 1900-1920, University of Ottawa Press, 1991, p. 279
^Unheard Niagaras: literary reputation, genre, and the works of May Agnes Fleming, Susie Frances Harrison, and Ethelwyn Wetherald, Jennifer Chambers, Edmonton, Alta. University of Alberta, Dept. of English and Film Studies, 2005, p. 210
^Unheard Niagaras: literary reputation, genre, and the works of May Agnes Fleming, Susie Frances Harrison, and Ethelwyn Wetherald, Jennifer Chambers, Edmonton, Alta.: University of Alberta, Dept. of English and Film Studies, 2005, p. 274
Wetherald was born of English
Quaker parents at Rockwood, Ontario, on April 26, 1857.[2] She was one of eleven children of Jemima Harris Balls and William Wetherald, the founder and principal of
Rockwood Academy, and later a Quaker minister.[3] Her family then moved to
Pennsylvania where her father William became superintendent of
Haverford College.[4] Only two years later, the family moved back to
Ontario. She was further educated at the
Friends' Boarding School, Union Springs, N.Y., and at
Pickering College.[5] She never married, but did adopt a daughter,
Dorothy Rungeling.
Wetherald had been known principally as a journalist and poet, but she also co-authored an historical romance novel An Algonquin Maiden: A Romance of the Early Days of Upper Canada with Graeme Mercer Adam in 1887.[6] Her first independent publication, The House of the Trees and Other Poems, was published in 1895 and two more books of verse, Tangled in Stars and The Radiant Road, were published in 1902 and 1904.[7] She wrote both prose and verse as a contributor to The Christian Union, The Chicago Current, The Week, Canadian Magazine, and Saturday Night.[8] She also worked as an editor and contributor for The Globe using the pen name Bel Thistlethwaite, and was part of the editorial staff for The Advertiser in London, Ontario. She was an assistant to editor Francis Bellamy of the Ladies Home Journal and to Forrest Morgan, the editor of The World's Best Literature.[9] In 1921, she published a book entitled Tree Top Morning, which she dedicated to her daughter Dorothy Rungeling who also became an author.[10] In the last few years of her life, she contributed to the Welland-Port Colborne Evening Tribune children's column "Patty Perkins Club". She used her own name and occasionally used the pseudonym "Octo" for octogenarian.[11]
^New Women: Short Stories by Canadian Women, 1900-1920, University of Ottawa Press, 1991, p. 279
^Unheard Niagaras: literary reputation, genre, and the works of May Agnes Fleming, Susie Frances Harrison, and Ethelwyn Wetherald, Jennifer Chambers, Edmonton, Alta. University of Alberta, Dept. of English and Film Studies, 2005, p. 210
^Unheard Niagaras: literary reputation, genre, and the works of May Agnes Fleming, Susie Frances Harrison, and Ethelwyn Wetherald, Jennifer Chambers, Edmonton, Alta.: University of Alberta, Dept. of English and Film Studies, 2005, p. 274