Until Next Year: Letter Writing and the Mails in the Canadas, 1640-1830

by Jane Ellen Harrison

Quickly, easily, by e-mail, fax and phone — in a variety of ways — we communicate with distant friends, family and associates, and we think nothing of it. Canadians in the past knew a very different world. Over long distances, in all sorts of weather and amidst the dangers of war, pirates and myriad other hazards, the growing colony of Canada was entirely dependent upon letters to communicate news, commerce, loneliness or desire. To carry each letter to its destination, correspondents had to rely on ad hoc, unofficial and occasional opportunities, as well as upon the efforts of friends, travelers and members of the society at large. Letters were precious possessions, their arrival anxiously anticipated, often for months. Until Next Year recreates this exciting and engaging world, when writing a letter was considered an art and when creating paper itself took the patience and skill of a seasoned artisan. Using the private letters of Canadians and their correspondents, Harrison details how letters were written, how they were delivered, who wrote them and why. Beyond the letters themselves, this story is amply enriched with an abundance of maps, photographs and prints.

176 pages, Hardcover

First published June 9, 1997

About the author

Jane Ellen Harrison (9 September 1850 – 15 April 1928) was a British classical scholar and linguist. Harrison is one of the founders, with Karl Kerenyi and Walter Burkert, of modern studies in Ancient Greek religion and mythology. She applied 19th century archaeological discoveries to the interpretation of ancient Greek religion in ways that have become standard. She has also been credited with being the first woman to obtain a post in England as a ‘career academic’. Harrison argued for women's suffrage but thought she would never want to vote herself. Ellen Wordsworth Crofts, later second wife of Sir Francis Darwin, was Jane Harrison's best friend from her student days at Newnham, and during the period from 1898 to her death in 1903.

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