Marjorie Grant Cook (1882-1965)
Born in Quebec City, Marjorie Grant Cook received an award in the Quebec Literary Competition of 1924, although she spent most of her adult life in England, where she enjoyed an extensive career as the author of book reviews and novels.
16 June 1882, Quebec City, QC
15 June 1965, Pulborough, Sussex, England
Name at birth:
Marjorie Grant Cook
Alternate names:
M. Grant
Marjorie Grant
Caroline Seaford
Entry revised by Linnea McNally, Carole Gerson, and Karyn Huenemann
Marjorie Grant Cook (1882-1965)
Marjorie Grant Cook was born in 1882 in Quebec City, where she spent her childhood with her lawyer father, William Cook (1843-1915), and mother, Jessie Cassels (b. 1851). In 1911, she was employed in there as a schoolteacher. Marjorie's first publication appeared in the Montreal journal
Beck's Weekly, during its two-year run from 1914 to 1916. In 1917, two years after her father's death, Marjorie moved to London and then to Paris. She published her first book in 1918, Verdun Days in Paris, in which she documented her stay in that city during the First World War. After the war, she lived in London for many decades, returning repeatedly to Canada during the 1920s and 1930s. During these years, she inconsistently lists herself as Canadian or British, both in terms of citizenship and permanent residence. By 1939, though, she had settled permanently in Pulborough, Sussex, where she died in the summer of 1965.
Marjorie's fourth book,
Another Way of Love (1922), won the Quebec Literary Competition award in 1924, the same year in which she co-authored the official guide for the British Empire Exhibition. Arguably Marjorie's most significant contribution to the literary world were her 1200+ book reviews published in The Times Literary Supplement in the 1920s and 1930s, which included reviews of works by Willa Cather, Rosamond Lehmann, Radclyffe Hall, Storm Jameson, Naomi Mitchison, Vita Sackville-West, Edith Wharton, and Rebecca West. Her literary circle included close friendships with Rose Macauley and with the family and children of Rose’s lover, Gerald O’Donovan. Marjorie issued several of her first books as Marjorie Grant; however, most of her fiction appeared between 1934 and 1946 under her pseudonym, Caroline Seaford.
Published Texts
Fiction
Latchkey Ladies (London: Heinemann, 1921)—as M. Grant
Another Way of Love (London: Heinemann, 1922)
Glory Jam (New York: Minton, Balch, 1934)—as Caroline Seaford
More Than Kind (London: Gollancz, 1935)—as Caroline Seaford
The Velvet Deer (London: Lovat Dickson, 1937)—as Caroline Seaford
Dear Emily (London: Gollancz, 1938)—as Caroline Seaford
They Grew in Beauty, A Novel (London: Cape, 1946)—as Caroline Seaford
Non-fiction
The British Empire Exhibition 1924: Official Guide (London: Fleetway, 1924)—with Frank Fox
Life writing
Verdun Days in Paris (London: Collins, 1918)—as Marjorie Grant
Periodical Contributions
Beck's Weekly (Montreal, QC)
Canadian Magazine (Toronto)
Maclean's (Toronto)
Times Literary Supplement (New York)
University Magazine (Montreal)
Wilson Bulletin for Librarians
Family and Relationships
Father: William Cook 31 January 1843 – 21 March 1915
William Cook, the second son of Reverend John Cook (1805-1892) and Elizabeth Airth (1805-1881), was born in 1843 in Quebec City, Canada East. In 1861, he was a law student, still living with his family; he subsequently became an advocate and King's Counsel. On 27 June 1874, he married Jessie Cassels (1851), and together they had seven children. William died in Quebec City in 1915.
Mother: Jessie Cassels 4 January 1852
Jessie Cassels, daughter of banker Robert Cassels (c1815-1882) and Mary Gibbens MacNab (b. 1909), was born in 1852 in Quebec City, Canada East. On 27 June 1874, she married advocate William Cook (1843-1915) and they had seven children together. Jessie died sometime after 1931.
Siblings
John Cook (b. 1876)
John Cook (b. 1876)
Mary Cook (b. 12 April 1878)
William Cook (b. 9 March 1881)
Dorothy Graeme Cook (b. 20 September 1887)
Geoffrey Hay Cook (10 October 1888 – 11 October 1918): m. Annie Watson Cameron (1891-1991)
In 1918, Geoffrey married Nova Scotian Annie Watson Cameron in Sydney, NS. The next month, Geoffrey died in Montreal of pneumonia; Annie remained unmarried until her death in Montreal in 1991, shortly after her 100th birthday.
Religion
Presbyterian
Residences
London, England (intermittently 1919-1939)
Montreal, QC
Pulborough, Sussex, England (1939, 1950, 1965)
Quebec City, QC (1882-1939)
Education
Awards
Quebec Literary Competition Award, English Section for Another Way of Love (Quebec Writers' Federation, 1924)
Employment and Volunteer Activities
Employment
School teacher
Tangential Information
Because Marjorie began to publish under "Cook" with
Another Way of Love, several academic publications imply that she must have married some time in the 1920s. Canadian and British official records, however, do not support this theory: most notably, her birth record shows "Marjorie Grant Cook" as her full name.
Marjorie G. Cook, writer, lived at Lilac Cottage, Chanctonbury Road, Sussex, England, in 1939; her probate records list her as living at Lowther Cottage, Mare Hill, Pulborough, (15 miles for Chanctonbury), at the time of her death in 1965. A Marjorie Grant Cook is also registered in the electoral records for Kensington South, London, for the years 1938 and 1939, and a Marjorie Cook well into the 1950s. As no occupation or further information is given about the Kensington Marjorie, is it uncertain whether it is a different woman or if Marjorie Grant Cook maintained two British residences.
A Marjorie Grant received her MA from Columbia University in New York in 1922 with the thesis
Agriculture Past and Present in Porto Rico. Although Marjorie Grant Cook published significantly in the New York Times Literary Supplement, given her travels it seems unlikely that this was the same person, despite the title being attributed to Marjorie Grant Cook in some catalogues.
Archival Holdings
Published Resources
1851 Census of Canada East, Canada West, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia.
1861 Census of Canada.
1891 Census of Canada.
1901 Census of Canada.
1911 Census of Canada.
1939 England & Wales Register.
Canada, Ocean Arrivals (Form 30A), 1919-1924.
England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007.
England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1966, 1973-1995.
LeFanu, Sarah. Rose Macaulay (London: Virago, 2003).
Nova Scotia, Canada, Marriages, 1763-1935.
Ontario, Canada, The Ottawa Journal (Birth, Marriage and Death Notices), 1885-1980.
Quebec, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1968.
UK, Incoming Passenger Lists, 1878-1960.
Watters, R.E. Checklist of Canadian Literature and Background Materials, 1620-1960 (Toronto: U of Toronto P, 1972).