ARCHIVES and SPECIAL COLLECTIONS QUEEN ELIZABETH II LIBRARY MEMORIAL UNIVERSITY, ST. JOHN'S, NL

Margaret Duley papers COLL-248
Website: http://www.library.mun.ca/qeii/cns/archives/cnsarch.php Author: Bert Riggs Date: 1994
Scope and Content: Margaret Duley wrote at least five novels, a non-fiction book, a number of short stories, poems, radio broadcast scripts and volumes of correspondence. Yet very little of that body of material has survived. It is believed that she destroyed her own manuscripts and other writings and much of her incoming correspondence. That some of her work has survived is probably due more to oversight than intention. What is included in this collection is mainly outgoing correspondence, written by Duley to her sister, aunt and cousin. It is those people who are responsible for its survival.

This collection consists of correspondence between Margaret Duley and her aunt, Alice Duley Jefferies, and her cousin, Freda Jefferies, both living in England, covering approximately the 10-year period between 1952 and 1962. There is also a second correspondence in the form of a continuing letter journal which Duley wrote almost daily to her sister, Gladys Courtney, in North Carolina, during Duley's European trip in 1953. Other items include two formal family pictures, one of the five Duley children and one of the parents and children with extended family members, both taken around 1898. There is a small amount of Margaret Duley's original writing: drafts of short stories; a novel fragment; a notebook, which provide a brief glimpse into her creative abilities. Custodial History: The Somerset letters were a gift to the Archives and Special Collections by Duley's cousin, Freda Jefferies, at the instigation of Dr. Allison Feder, in 1984. The European Journal and the picture of the Duley children were probably acquired at the same time and also through Feder. The letter to Joseph R. Smallwood was transferred from the Smallwood collection April 16, 1985, and the clipping of her obituary notice from The Evening Telegram was added about the same time. The dust jacket for Novelty on Earth was transferred from the Centre for Newfoundland Studies Book Review file in 1991. The photograph of Duley in 1941 was added in September 1994; it is a reproduction of the one Feder used in her book. The writings in series 2 and the picture (3.02) were gifts of Feder in 1997 and 1998. Restrictions: There is to be no photocopying of the items contained in this collection. There are no restrictions on access to or use of the material contained in this collection. Patrons should be aware that copyright rules and regulations do apply and are reminded that it is the responsibility of the user to obtain copyright clearance from the copyright holder(s).
Extent: 1.5 cm; 3 photographic images (one oversize) Biography or History: Margaret Iris Duley was born in St. John's on September 27, 1894, the second daughter and fourth of five children born to Tryphena Soper and Thomas James Duley. Thomas Duley, originally from Birmingham, England, came to Newfoundland in 1883 to work in a jewellery business, eventually establishing his own jewellery business on Water Street, which operated until 1941. Tryphena Duley, originally from Carbonear, was occupied with raising children, running a household, and performing the charitable works expected of the wife of a member of the St. John's business community.

Margaret Duley was educated at the Methodist College, St. John's, graduating in 1910 with the equivalent of Grade Eleven. The following year Thomas Duley took Margaret and her sister Gladys to England for the wedding of his sister Alice to Edward Jefferies. Her exact whereabouts for the rest of the decade are uncertain, but she did enrol in the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in 1913 or 1914 and is believed to have remained in England for several years before returning to Newfoundland.

Duley was back in Newfoundland by the early 1920s as she was an active participant in the fight for women's suffrage through her involvement in the Ladies Reading Room and Current Events Club and the Women's Franchise League. Women received the right to vote in municipal elections in 1920 and in parliamentary elections in 1925. Duley was active in various St. John's social circles, dining regularly at Government House, and attending dances and garden parties there. She also enjoyed travel, visiting her sister Gladys in North Carolina, with sojourns in Montreal, Toronto and New York; in 1928, along with her brother, Cyril, she took a trip along the coast of Labrador on the S. S. Kyle.

It is as a writer that Margaret Duley is best known: she was the first Newfoundland writer to receive international attention and praise for her writing. It is likely she wrote from childhood and may have been encouraged to do so by her parents. Her mother published a small book, A Pair of Grey Socks (1915?) , which contains a poem by Margaret about knitting socks. It is also likely that Margaret continued to write throughout the 1920s and 1930s, but it is not until 1936 that her first major work, a novel entitled The Eyes of the Gull, was published by Arthur Barker Limited of London. It was reviewed quite favourably in the British press but at home it was a different story. The reaction in St. John's to Duley's success was not kind, particularly in her circle, from people she thought were her friends.

Luckily, this reception did not stop Duley from writing. Three years later she published a second novel, Cold Pastoral (London: Hutchinson and Company), soon followed in 1941 by Highway to Valour, published in Toronto and New York by the Macmillan Company. This third novel was also published in London in 1943 by Methuen and Company. Her fourth novel, Novelty on Earth, was also published in Toronto and New York by Macmillan, in 1943; it, too, was released in Britain by Methuen in 1944 and was released in a Swedish edition, Sa Stred Sara, in 1946. Each novel was received with more praise than its predecessor, with favourable reviews in major US and Canadian publications. It appeared that Duley was well on her way to becoming a very productive and important novelist.

But as quickly as Margaret Duley had begun to publish novels, she stopped. She wrote a fifth novel, Octaves of Dawn, which she sent to her publisher, but for some reason it was returned and she destroyed the manuscript. She published at least two short stories in the early 1940s: "Mother Boggan" (Fortnightly: April 1940) and "Sea Dust" (Chatelaine: November 1943) and wrote several others which were not published. But after the rejection of Octaves of Dawn, her days of writing fiction were over.

Duley did write one other book before the close of the decade. That book was The Caribou Hut (1949), a small volume that told the story of the hostel that was established at the King George V Institute in St. John's during World War II to provide accommodation and entertainment for soldiers on leave. She also wrote the foreword to and assisted R. B. Job in the compilation of John Job's Family (1953), a history of the Job family and its business ventures in St. John's from 1730, and published an article in The Atlantic Guardian (July 1956) entitled "Glimpses into Newfoundland Literature".

In addition to her writing, her regular visits to her sister in North Carolina and trips to Montreal and Toronto, Duley found time to volunteer in the war effort, particularly with the Caribou Hut, the St. John Ambulance Corps and the Women's Patriotic Association. After the war she did volunteer work at the Tuberculosis Sanatorium library in St. John's and in 1951 served as vice-president of the St. John's branch of ZONTA, an organization for professional women. During 1950 and 1951 she also worked part-time as a public relations officer with the Red Cross.

In 1952, the urge to travel came over her once again. First it was a trip to North Carolina. Then she decided to visit Europe, a trip she had wanted to take for many years. She left St. John's on October 30, 1952, arriving in England a week later. After spending the winter in England, on March 17, 1953 she left for the continent and for the next month travelled extensively through France, Switzerland and Italy. In June she returned to St. John's.Much of the remainder of Duley's life was fraught with sadness and pain. In 1955 she was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and while it was slow to conquer, conquer it did. She continued to live alone for a few years, but late in 1959 she went to live with her sister-in-law, Florence, and her niece, Margot, at their St. John's home. They cared for her as long as they could but her health worsened and the need for professional nursing care became a daily necessity. Margaret became a resident of St. Luke's Homes. She died there on March 22, 1968.

Three of Margaret Duley's novels, The Eyes of the Gull, Cold Pastoral and Highway to Valour, were reprinted by Griffin House, Toronto in 1976-1977. She is also the subject of a full-length critical and biographical study, Margaret Duley: Newfoundland Novelist (St. John's: Cuff Publications, 1983) by Dr. Alison Feder.

1.0 Correspondence
1.01 Letters to Alice Jefferies, Somerset, England, 1950-1955. 1.01.001 Letters to Alice Jefferies, Somerset, England, 1950-1955.
1.02 Letters to Freda Jefferies, Somerset, England, 1953-1962 1.02.001 Letters to Freda Jefferies, Somerset, England, 1953-1962
1.03 Letter from Freda Jefferies, Somerset, England 1.03.001 Undated
1.04 European Journal - letters to Gladys Courtney, North Carolina, 1953 1.04.001 Letters to Gladys Courtney, North Carolina, 1953
1.05 Letter to Joseph R. Smallwood, March 10, 1952 1.05.001 Letter to Joseph R. Smallwood, March 10, 1952
1.06 Letter to Freda Jefferies from Muriel Rogerson, March 25, 1968 1.06.001 Letter to Freda Jefferies from Muriel Rogerson, March 25, 1968
2.0 Writings
2.01 "Tender is the North" (short story), typescript, 14 leaves
2.02 "The International Tramp" (short story), typescript, various drafts, incomplete, 15 leaves
2.03 "Granny goes the last mile" (short story), typescript, photocopy, incomplete, 5 leaves
2.04 "Octaves of Dawn" (?), (novel), typescript, leaves numbered 220 to 239, 221 repeated, 141 fragment, unnumbered fragment
2.05 "Forever in the Ocean" (song) typescript, photocopy, 1 leaf
2.06 Notebook containing various writings, c. 1950, 46 pages with covers
3.0 Photographs
3.01 Duley Children: Nelson, Gladys, Cyril, Lionel, Margaret, c. 1899. Photographer: E. W. Lyon, St. John's, NF
3.02 Front row: unidentified; Gladys Duley; Grandfather John Soper; Margaret Duley; Nelson Duley; Grandmother Julia Soper; Cyril Duley; unidentified; back row: unidentified woman; Tryphena Soper Duley; Thomas Duley, c. 1900 S. H. Parsons
3.03 Margaret Duley: head and shoulders formal portrait of Duley, 1941
4.0 Miscellaneous
4.01 Dust jacket and review clipping for Novelty on Earth
4.02 "Newfoundland novelist Margaret Duley dies" : obituary notice from The Evening Telegram, March 25, 1968, photocopy, p 22
4.03 "World War I Veteran Passes" : obituary notice for Cyril Chancey Duley, photocopy, undated