Toronto Between the Wars: Life in the City 1919-1939

by Charis Cotter

Winner of Heritage Toronto's Award of Excellence, Book category in 2005. The pace of life in Toronto picked up after 1919 and never slowed down again. During the 1920s and '30s, Toronto went through massive changes that affected the physical and the social life of the city. In these two decades between World War I and World War II, Toronto was finding its place in the swiftly changing world of the twentieth century. Toronto Between the Wars features 180 archival photographs of Toronto during this fascinating period. Each picture is accompanied by a captivating story about some aspect of life in the city. During this period, cars became commonplace, the downtown skyline changed as new skyscrapers were built, and women's roles changed dramatically. Then the Depression sent the economy into a tailspin, unemployment became rampant and poverty took its toll. People struggled to afford the basic necessities and lived under the shadow of a growing threat of another war in Europe. The text reveals little known facts, such as how a leading retail family kept their interest in a major downtown property secret for twenty years. Photographs capture unguarded moments with startling a tired but happy group of disheveled merrymakers waiting for a bus; two women in flouncy bridesmaid dresses; an old man cleaning the statue of Queen Victoria; and children buying fish from an itinerant fishmonger. With intriguing pictures and absorbing text, Toronto Between the Wars offers a rare opportunity to observe life in Toronto during a critical time in its history.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Photography

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Charis Cotter is a writer, editor and storyteller living in Newfoundland. She grew up in Cabbagetown and Parkdale in downtown Toronto. After taking a degree in English at Glendon College, York University, she went on to study acting at The Drama Studio in London, England. After several years as an actor, she moved into publishing, where she has been working as a freelance editor and writer for more than 20 years.

In 2005 Charis won the Heritage Toronto Award of Excellence for her book, Toronto Between the Wars: Life in the City 1919–1939. Since then she has written several critically acclaimed children’s books, including a series of biographies about extraordinary children and an illustrated book about international ghosts. Born to Write: The Remarkable Lives of Six Famous Authors was a finalist for the 2010 Norma Fleck Award for Canadian Children’s Non-fiction.

Charis first toured schools as an actor in a Young People’s Theatre production of W. O. Mitchell’s "Jake and the Kid." Her favourite part of the show was interacting with the students during the question period after the play. Today Charis is known for her lively school presentations, based on her books. She has toured Canada from coast to coast, entertaining children with her alter egos: Queen Elizabeth II (complete with gown, crown and royal attitude) and the Scottish Silky Ghost, who dusts everything in sight, including children. Her fascination with ghosts has led her to many far corners of Newfoundland, looking for ghost stories.

In 2013 Charis founded her own publishing company, Baccalieu Books, to publish The Ghosts of Baccalieu. She created this book with the students from Tricon Elementary School in Bay de Verde, with funding from ArtsSmarts.* Students contributed drawings and traditional ghost stories collected from the community. Charis has sold The Ghosts of Baccalieu to libraries, bookstores and the general public, with a portion of the revenue going back to Tricon Elementary.

Charis continues to do ghost storytelling workshops at schools, community centres and book festivals. She reviews children’s books for the National Reading Campaign, Quill and Quire and The Canadian Children’s Book News.

The Swallow: A Ghost Story, was published by Tundra Books (Random House) in September 2014. This spooky gothic novel, set in Cabbagetown, Toronto, in the 1960s, is partially based on Charis’s childhood experiences living behind a cemetery. The German translation rights have been purchased by cbjVerlag/Random House Germany, who will publish it as Das Unsichtbare Mädchen (The Invisible Girl). The school presentation for The Swallow features a theatrical performance of an excerpt from the book and a ghost-story writing workshop.

*ArtsSmarts is sponsored by the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council and the Department of Education through the Cultural Connections Strategy.

Reviews

[Manybooks · Rating 1 out of 5]

REVIEW OF THE KINDLE EDITION

Although the written information presented in Charis Cotter's Toronto Between the Wars: Life in the City 1919-1939 is indeed historically interesting and appears to be well enough researched (and I do appreciate that the author has meticulously listed her sources and has also not shied away from presenting both Toronto, Ontario, Canada positives and negatives, including depicted and described instances of bigotry and racism, and especially rising Anti-Semitism), the ebook edition of Toronto Between the Wars: Life in the City 1919-1939 truly and really is SIMPLY HORRIBLE. For not only do the black and white accompanying photographs appear as much too small and far too often like one is looking at photographical negatives (with faces that are glowing in an almost ghost-like fashion, to the point that eyes and other facial features give an uncanny atmosphere of unintentional dread and doom), considerably worse is the fact that Charis Cotter's written text has in my humble opinion been rendered almost unreadable and woefully unapproachable, even incomprehensible on the Kindle (with sentences often if not even as a rule appearing out of synch and illogically placed, and yes, I am also more often than not unsure to which of the included photographs the featured narrational details actually pertain, which pictures they are even supposed to describe and analyse).

And therefore, for the Kindle edition of Toronto Between the Wars: Life in the City 1919-1939, I am sorry, but a one star ranking is ALL that I personally am willing to consider (and even if I do in the future get a chance to peruse Toronto Between the Wars: Life in the City 1919-1939 as a traditional dead tree tome, I will still be leaving this, I will be retaining my one star ranking for the ebook version, as how both the visuals and Charis Cotter's written narrative have been rendered and presented on the Kindle is not only totally user unfriendly, it is also simply and patently unacceptable and a total and sad waste of money).

[Yves · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is basically a photo optic on Toronto early 20th century which did not have context aside from the emotions from the photos themselves.

Which photo grabbed my attention? Page 139 with the ice delivery and Page 187 the hockey game.

[Willy Marz Thiessam · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great resource for the history of Toronto as a visual reference, between 1918 and 1939. Stunning images from a broad perspective of just about everything that was Toronto in this time period.