1890-1970
Pioneering Figure in Canadian Literature
Winnipeg, Manitoba
Photos courtesy of Professor Julie Salverson
Laura Goodman Salverson was born Laura Gudmundsson in Winnipeg, Manitoba on December 9th, 1890. Her parents were Icelandic immigrants, Lárus Guðmundsson and Ingibjörg Guðmundsdóttir. It has been recorded that throughout her youth, her parents explored western North America, from Manitoba to Minnesota and the Mississippi, with their young daughter in tow; Laura spoke only Icelandic until the age of ten. These explorations with her parents helped steep L aura in her family’s Icelandic heritage and the history of this ancient and proud culture. In 1913, Laura married George Salverson, a railway man.
Laura first began to write in order to supplement the family income which led into a prolific writing career. Laura Salverson’s writings were meant to supplement the family’s income. In the writing she produced in the first part of her career, she focused on the trials and adversities of the immigrant experience, particularly in Western Canada. She lamented the loss of culture of immigrant communities in the North American melting pot of the time, and she was highly critical of the “American Dream.” Additionally, Salverson was a staunch pacifist and outspoken against World War I.
Laura was an active member of the Canadian Author's Association and the Paris Institute of Arts and Sciences, which awarded her a gold medal for literary merit in 1938. She was founder and first editor of the Icelandic Canadian (later called Icelandic Connection). Laura wrote many articles for the publication. Laura Goodman Salverson was the first person to win two Governor General's Awards, first in 1937 for The Dark Weaver (fiction) and again in 1939 for her memoir Confessions of an Immigrant's Daughter(non-fiction).
Karen Gummo, storyteller, artist and writer, has been studying Salverson’s remarkable life for many years, and incorporates her knowledge and insights into performance material. In May 2023, Karen Gummo made a presentation at the Icelandic National League of North America Convention in Banff entitled “Torment & Triumph in the Nineteen Twenties: Laura Goodman Salverson and Winnifred Eaton Reeve – Gifted Immigrant Writer”. Karen created a lovely artistic theatrical presentation-one-woman-show about Laura Goodman Salverson while putting together the layers of a Vinarterta.
Karen wrote the following article for the Lögberg-Heimskringla newspaper and generously gave the INLNA permission to reprint the article here.
How do I love thee Laura Salverson? Let me count the ways
Article by Karen Gummo Republished with Permission
When I explore historical characters, I often fall in love with them, and my work with Laura Goodman Salverson is no exception. Who is she and how did I come to cherish her? You may remember from my article in last spring’s Logberg Heimskringla that I was first introduced to this early Icelandic Canadian writer 17 years ago by an acquaintance who had just moved into the southwest Calgary Bankview house where Laura (or “LG” as most people came to know her) and her “two Georges” (husband and young son) had made their home after moving from Edmonton and points east in the fall of 1923. (Owing to her husband George’s career with the Grand Trunk Railroad, moves were a frequent occurrence and the family only lived in Calgary for a total of five or six years).
The house, at 2111 14A Street SW, was only 11 years old then and the views of the “dun-coloured hills on the northern horizon” were not obscured by trees. The Salversons were living at the very edge of town in an area subdivided by rancher and entrepreneur William Nimmons as part of the explosive growth Calgary experienced after the arrival of the Canadian Pacific Railroad in 1883.
I was fortunate to tour through the house and borrow several of Laura’s historic novels that the owner had found at second–hand bookstores. Through them I began the process of getting to know Laura Salverson, the woman that I would be called upon to portray in first person. To date I have studied four of her eleven published novels: “The Viking Heart” (1923), “When Sparrows Fall” (1925), “Lord of the Silver Dragon” (1927), “Immortal Rock; The Saga of the Kensington Stone” (1954), along with her autobiography “Confessions of an Immigrant’s Daughter” (1939), a few of her short stories published in magazines and newspapers, and finally her volume of poetry “Wayside Gleams” (1925).
In her autobiography (republished this July by McGill-Queens University Press), Laura describes how she was driven to use her literary skills to honour her ancestors and never to bring shame upon them. She dared to write in English, which may have disappointed some in her community, but she wished to lift up the ordinary lives of the lowly Icelandic immigrant so that through her storytelling, their trials and successes would not be forgotten. She was intent on portraying the particular challenges facing women of her day and did so in powerful fashion. There are also intense scenes of family abuse and triumphs over alienation and community ridicule included in her prairie novels. In her 1927 novel “Lord of the Silver Dragon”, she was inspired by accounts from the pages of the ancient sagas of Greenlanders to creatively portray the tales of legendary Icelandic explorers such as Leif Eriksson and his Hebridean lover Lady Thorgunna as found in the Flatey Jarbok. This book, originally written on vellum around 1387, was carefully stowed with the most valued possessions of many of the Icelandic emigrants who saw themselves as continuing the quest for the promised Vinland that Leif Eriksson had so boldly begun.
Through my membership in Icelandic Roots, I made a connection with Laura Salverson’s niece, Jo Peterson. Jo has supplied me with bits of family treasure key to my understanding of her aunt Laura’s story. Among the helpful nuggets she has shared is a memoir written by Laura’s husband George Sr. one year after Laura died in 1970. This memoir contains key details of events that occurred in Calgary at the time 100 years ago when her first novel “The Viking Heart” was first available for purchase in the front window display of Calgary mayor, writer and entrepreneur F.E. Osborne’s downtown bookstore on 8th Avenue S.W.
George and Laura Salverson had a rather extraordinary relationship. In addition to his own career with the railway, he was a key supporter of her creative writing, typed most of her early manuscripts, humbly delivered her to receive her awards and often represented her interests on various literary boards.
Laura’s only granddaughter, Julie Salverson, teaches drama at Queens University in Kingston, Ontario. Professor Salverson is currently finalizing a book about her own father, George Salverson Jr., who carried on his mother’s legacy by becoming a high ranking and prolific current events and drama writer for CBC for over forty years (including for well-known series such as “The Beachcombers”). Julie has shared with me some of her own reflections of her grandmother and sent me recordings of interviews with her father where he too pays tribute to his mother LG.
At the Icelandic National League Convention of North America held at the Banff Centre this May, I presented to an appreciative audience the monologue performance that I call “Torment and Triumph, Laura Goodman Salverson and Winnifred Eaton Reeve, Two Immigrant Daughters”. (Reeve was already an accomplished author and prominent member of the local Calgary literary community when Laura and her family arrived in 1923. She was jealous of the attention Laura’s first novel The Viking Heart received both locally and internationally and made serious malicious accusations concerning Laura’s character.) Among my listeners was “Vinarterta Lady” Arden Jackson, the daughter of a man who once boarded at Laura Salverson’s home in Regina and consequently developed a special bond. I made other important connections during the Convention and have now been invited to perform this piece at the opening weekend of “Edda”, the new museum at the University of Iceland in Reykjavik that will house the repatriated sagas written in the 1200 and 1300s. This is a dream come true for me.
During my performance I assemble the layers of a vinarterta cake as though I were Laura in her 1955 Winnipeg kitchen. I don’t speak Icelandic fluently but I intersperse the layers of this story with verses from the Icelandic folksong A Sprengisandi - a fitting analogy to the drama of “Torment and Triumph” - for it describes the terror of a humble shepherd facing the dangers of venturing into territory where dwell the Outlaws, Trolls and the Elfin Queen herself. Laura may at times have felt like a lowly writer in the face of such an accomplished author as Winnifred Eaton Reeve, yet I’ve concluded that Laura was a mighty woman in her own right.
This will be my second visit to Iceland; my cousins and various friends will be hosting me and touring me around the country during my visit. Besides my museum performance, I will join a circle of Icelandic storytellers in a home in Reykjavik. Professor Salverson, who has not previously been to Iceland, will meet me in Reykjavik near the end of my trip and see my show for the first time at the “Edda”. Then she and I will travel north to Reykholt where her grandmother Ingibjorg lived, then to the Snaelfellsness peninsula to a farm called Ferru-cot where her great-grandfather’s (Laura’s) family was from. Along the way Julie and I will make more connections to each other, to these stories and the people of Iceland to whom we are both related.
I give great thanks to all who have encouraged me along the way and listened in the story circle as I prepared segments of this piece. Calgary storyteller Mary Hays and I shared a performance during 2023’s Historic Calgary Week that highlighted the lives of LG and 1920’s Calgary activist Jean McWilliam in a piece called “Back Alley Secrets”. Shaun Hunter and I have presented our collaborative research process at the Calgary Public Library. I also offered excerpts of the tangle between Salverson and Reeve when I “popped up” as LG on Shaun’s walking tour of Calgary’s Beltline and Mt. Royal neighbourhoods during the Winnifred Eaton Reeve conference at the University of Calgary held this past July. Perhaps I will have the chance to perform this piece in some of the other places where Laura lived - and beyond. Every performance yields new connections and inspirations – while deepening my understanding of and admiration for Laura Goodman Salverson.
Karen Gummo’s Favourite Poem by Laura Goodman Salverson
Asphodel Fields
(From "Wayside Gleams" by Laura Goodman Salverson)
Gray lie the fields and pale are the flowers.
Fragile and wraith-like and studded in dew.
Steel-gray the river encircling the bowers
Bearing the barges, deep purple in hue.
As clouds after sunset, deep tinted and solemn,
They glide o'er the river so gray and so chill;
Through fields of Remembrance
Where Life's tear has fallen,
Mid Asphodel flowers,
So pale and so still.
Thus hope the great pilot, and Love the good captain,
With patience eternal
Press on through the gloom;
Somewhere living waters from God's gleaming fountain
Refresh the glad hills where the white lilies bloom.
Laura Goodman Salverson: A Lasting Legacy as a Canadian Literary Influencer
Laura Goodman Salverson stands as a trailblazer in Canadian literature, whose contributions and groundbreaking achievements have often been overlooked despite her immense impact. The Canadian Book Review highlights Salverson’s legacy as not only a pioneer but also as an influencer whose work and recognition paved the way for future generations of Canadian writers, especially women.
Historic Achievements in Canadian Literature
First Woman to Win the Governor-General’s Award for Fiction: In 1937, Laura Salverson made history by winning the Governor-General’s Award for Fiction for her novel The Dark Weaver. Notably, this was only the second year the prestigious award was presented, and Salverson became the first woman ever to receive it.
First Woman to Win the Governor-General’s Award for Non-Fiction: Two years later, in 1939, Salverson achieved another milestone by winning the Governor-General’s Award for Non-Fiction for her memoir Confessions of an Immigrant’s Daughter. Once again, she was the first woman to receive this honour in the category.
Dual Winner and Literary Company: Laura Salverson was the first individual to win two Governor-General’s Awards, a rare feat that places her among an elite group of Canadian writers. This select group includes literary icons such as Michael Ondaatje, Margaret Atwood, Mordecai Richler, and Hugh MacLennan, who have all garnered recognition in multiple categories.
Enduring Presence in Canadian Literary Canon: Salverson’s debut novel, The Viking Heart, became a longstanding title in the influential New Canadian Library series (listed as number 116), ensuring her work reached and influenced generations of readers and writers alike.
Legacy and Influence
Laura Goodman Salverson’s accomplishments are not only significant for their historical firsts but also for the doors they opened for future Canadian authors. Her trailblazing wins demonstrated that women’s voices and stories were worthy of national recognition at the highest levels. Her literary output, marked by nuanced explorations of immigrant identity and the Canadian experience, continues to resonate today.
By earning top honours in both fiction and non-fiction categories, Salverson set a precedent for versatility and excellence in Canadian writing. Her inclusion in the company of celebrated writers like Margaret Atwood and Michael Ondaatje underscores the enduring value of her contributions.
While Laura Goodman Salverson’s achievements may have been overlooked in mainstream narratives, her pioneering spirit and influential body of work remain foundational to Canadian literature. She serves as a reminder of the importance of recognizing and celebrating the diverse voices that have shaped— and continue to shape—Canada’s literary landscape.
References:
https://canadianbookreview.wordpress.com/2018/02/20/laura-salverson-an-overlooked-pioneer-of-canadian-literature/
https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/scl/article/view/8024/9081
Icelandic Connection https://icecanmag.com › icecon › issue › download
The Dark Weaver: Against the sombre background of the old geneations flame the scarlet banners of the new (1937). https://www.fadedpage.com/showbook.php?pid=20220858
Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/P006125
Arden Jackson’s article on her connection to Laura Goodman Salverson and showing a photo of her grandfather’s autographed copy of The Viking Heart. https://ardenjackson.com/as-you-like-it-connection-to-laura-goodman-salverson/
https://canadianbookreview.wordpress.com/2018/02/20/laura-salverson-an-overlooked-pioneer-of-canadian-literature/