Christie Lucy Harris was a Canadian author, scriptwriter, journalist, and teacher best known for children's literature inspired by the legends and cultures of the Pacific Northwest Coast. Her books included Raven's Cry, Once Upon a Totem, and the Mouse Woman series. She was a Member of the Order of Canada and a major figure in Canadian children's literature.
Background
Ethnicity:
She was born into a family of Irish immigrants who moved from the United States to British Columbia during her childhood.
Christie Lucy Harris was born in Newark, New Jersey, on November 21, 1907, in a family of Irish immigrants traveling to Canada. The family reached British Columbia in 1908 and settled first in the Shuswap area. During the First World War, her father, Ed Irwin, served overseas, and the family moved to Vancouver and later to a farm in Cloverdale. As a child and adolescent, Harris accompanied her father to meetings of farmers' associations and wrote reports of those meetings for local newspapers. At the age of twelve she began contributing newspaper reports to the New Westminster Columbian. She later married Thomas Arthur Harris, an officer of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, in 1932. They lived in White Rock and the Lower Fraser Valley and raised five children: Michael, Moira, Sheilagh, Brian, and Gerald.
Education
Harris graduated from Provincial Normal School at the age of seventeen and began teaching in Surrey in 1925. Her early experience teaching primary pupils in Vancouver directly contributed to her development as a children's writer: she wrote stories for her pupils, and the children's section of the Vancouver Daily Province purchased and published them. Her education was therefore followed by a closely connected progression from classroom teaching to newspaper writing, radio scripting, and children's literature.
Career
Harris began her professional life as a teacher in Surrey in 1925 and continued teaching in British Columbia through 1932. While teaching primary pupils in Vancouver, she wrote stories for children that were published by the Vancouver Daily Province. She later contributed to the women's page of the Vancouver Daily Province and became women's editor of the British Columbia News Weekly from 1951 to 1957. From 1936 to 1963 she worked as a freelance scriptwriter for Canadian Broadcasting Corporation radio, writing adventure serials, skits, adult dramas, radio talks, and school broadcasts. She also collaborated with composer Harry Biener on several projects and contributed to CBC school broadcasts for approximately two decades. After her husband's transfer to Prince Rupert in 1958, Harris wrote school-broadcast scripts concerning the cultures of the Pacific Northwest Coast. This work led to sustained research into Indigenous mythology, art, and history. With support from a Canada Council grant, she worked with the Haida artist Bill Reid while researching the life and artistic context of the Haida carver Charles Edenshaw; she also worked with Wilson Duff and, in Masset, British Columbia, with Edenshaw's daughter Florence Davidson. Harris subsequently produced a substantial body of children's books, including retellings of Northwest Coast legends, historical and adventure fiction, and the novel Raven's Cry. Her career as a writer extended into the 1990s, with Something Weird Is Going On published in 1994.
Achievements
Authored approximately twenty books for young people, along with hundreds of newspaper stories, radio talks, radio plays, and school broadcasts.
Became one of the leading English-language Canadian writers of children's literature about the legends, stories, and cultural traditions of the Pacific Northwest Coast.
The Christie Harris Illustrated Children's Literature Prize was established in British Columbia in her memory after her death.
Works
Adventure stories
Cariboo Trail
(A collection of adventure stories for young readers.)
1957
children's fiction
You Have to Draw the Line Somewhere
(A children's book illustrated by Moira Johnston.)
1964
Confessions of a Toe-Hanger
(A children's book illustrated by Moira Johnston.)
1967
Collection of legends
The Trouble with Princesses
(Retells Northwest Coast princess stories and compares the...)
1980
The Trouble with Adventurers
(A collection of Northwest Coast legends and myths about a...)
1982
Once Upon a Totem
(A collection of Northwest Coast stories, illustrated with...)
1963
Mouse Woman and the Vanished Princesses
(A collection of Haida legends featuring Mouse Woman, illu...)
1976
Mouse Woman and the Mischief-makers
(A collection of Haida stories featuring Mouse Woman, illu...)
1977
Mouse Woman and the Muddleheads
(A collection of Haida legends featuring Mouse Woman, illu...)
1979
Once More Upon a Totem
(A further collection of Northwest Coast stories, illustra...)
1973
Fantasy novel
Sky Man on the Totem Pole?
(A fantasy novel based on Northwest Coast stories and oral...)
1975
Historical adventure
West with the White Chiefs
(A children's historical work based on the 1865 journal of...)
1965
Historical nonfiction
Mule Lib
(Written with Tom Harris and illustrated by Franklin Arbuc...)
1972
historical novel
Raven's Cry
(A novel portraying the impact of European contact on the ...)
1966
Illustrated nonfiction
Figleafing Through History: The Dynamics of Dress
(Written with Moira Johnston and illustrated by Johnston; ...)
1971
Mystery novel
Mystery at the Edge of Two Worlds
(A children's mystery novel illustrated by Lou Crockett.)
1978
Mystery stories
Something Weird Is Going On
(A collection of detective and mystery stories for young r...)
1994
novel
Secret in the Stlalakum Wild
(A children's novel illustrated by Douglas Tait.)
1972
Let X Be Excitement
(A novel for young readers.)
1969
Forbidden Frontier
(A novel illustrated by E. Carey Kenney.)
1968
Membership
Harris was a lifetime member of the Writers' Union of Canada. Her professional participation also included sustained work in Canadian broadcasting, journalism, and children's literature.
Lifetime member.
Writers' Union of Canada
,
Canada
Interests
Her documented interests included Northwest Coast Indigenous mythology, oral traditions, art, and the historical context of Haida artists and carvers.
Connections
Harris was married to Thomas Arthur Harris, a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer whom she had known since her youth on a neighboring farm in Surrey. They had five children: Michael, Moira, Sheilagh, Brian, and Gerald. Harris drew on her family as life models and technical advisers in some of her writing.
Father:
Edward
Her father, Ed Irwin, served overseas during the First World War and later participated in farmers' associations in British Columbia.
Mother:
Matilda
References
Christie Harris fonds, University of Calgary Archives
Documents Harris's family background, education at Normal School, teaching career, marriage to Thomas Arthur Harris, five children, broadcasting work, literary career, and connections with Indigenous artists and researchers.
