Ella Manuel
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Ella Manuel was born on March 24, 1911, in Lewisporte, Newfoundland.[1] Her parents, Robert William Manuel and Jessie Sophia Reader, also gave birth to Manuel's younger sister Louise Manuel on March 7, 1913.[1] Both girls were raised in their family hotel, the Manuel Hotel, where they had an apartment.[1] Her parents were both of merchant class.
Manuel was a prominent writer, journalist, and radio host who represented Newfoundland and Canada through local and global broadcasts like the BBC. She was educated in Boston. After graduation, she moved back to Lewisport in 1931 before moving to England in 1933, where she would meet her first husband, Joe Berger and have a son, Anthony Berger. She moved with her family to the United States in 1939 until she got divorced and moved back to Lewisporte in 1944. In Lewisport, Manuel met Lee Wulff and wed in 1947, eventually getting divorced at just over a year of marrage.[1]
Manuel held strong anti-war beliefs alongside conservationist and women right's efforts. She firmly believed that women should have an equal right to men and that it is each person’s responsibility to treat the earth sustainably. Manuel was presented with the Persons Awards in 1980 by the Governor-General[1] for her activist efforts.
Manuel's most famous publication is That Fine Summer.[2]
Manuel eventually died in 1985 due to heart failure.[1]
Education[edit]
Uncommon for the time, Manuel parents both stressed the importance of education for girls. At the age of 15, in 1926, Manuel moved to Boston to live with her aunt while attending University.[1] After a make-up year of high school science, Manuel attended Boston University in the fall of 1927. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science in chemistry in 1931 during the great depression.[1]
The Boston Symphony Orchestra inspired Manuel to study music and learn piano.[1]
Career[edit]
Canada[edit]
In 1931 Manuel moved back to Lewisporte.[1] She began teaching piano and helping manage her family’s hotel.[1]
Manuel eventually moved back in August of 1944 with her two sons.[1] This is when Manuel initially began to chair public meetings on wildlife conversations. In Corner Brook, she began to host radio programs on farming and cooperatives and write for the daily Western Star paper.[1] She would read children’s stories on the VOWN radio station in the attic of the Glynmill Inn.[1] She would often create stories based on the people she met as a way for her to re-discover and for others to discover the people of Newfoundland. She would also retell famous stories in her own characteristic style.[1] She eventually graduated from children’s stories to local news and created her own program called Citizens’ Forum.[1]
In the fall of 1945, Manuel was hired by fisher Lee Wulff to help him make a movie for the Newfoundland government about tuberculosis called Silent Menace.[1] Wulff explained the need for a fishing stop on the way to Portland Creek to Bonne Bay, and having learned how to fish as a child, Manuel began to take an interest in sports fishing.[1] She decided to open a seasonal sport-fishing operation in Lomond. She officially made moved to Lamond in the summer of 1946.[1] She moved into an empty house previously called St. Tecla. Manuel renamed it Killdevil Lodge.[1] The Lodge was unsuccessful, despite attempted improvements through Manuel getting a liquor license.[1] By the mid-1950s, she sold the property to the Anglican Church.[3] Today, the church still owns the site as a conference and visitor center.[3]
After moving away for a short time with Wulff, Manuel moved back to Newfoundland in Spring 1949.[1] Upon returning, she wrote for newspapers, magazines, book reviews, and reports for provincial fisheries.[1] She continued broadcasts and assembled her own private journal and type-written scraps. She travelled the Newfoundland coast and told stories about the journeys on the CBC.[1] Manuel continued to tell stories about people she met and became known for her, saying, “Now I am proud to introduce you to some of my Newfoundland friends and neighbours".[1]
In the mid-1950s, Manuel began to have a regular column called “Think it Over” in the Western Star.[1] She would talk about issues like paving roads, women workers in Newfoundland, fisheries science, dangers of censorship, the taste of scallops, women leaders in India, and English humour. Manuel would also write in the Atlantic Guardian, Newfoundland Journal of Commerce, the Family Herald, and Weekly Star talking about current environmental issues like oil exploration, fishing for herring, and electrification.[1]
At one point, Manuel moved to Halifax due to the male domination of men in radio networks.[1] She eventually spoke on behalf of Newfoundland across Canada on the BBC and the Australian Broadcasting System.[1]
England[edit]
In 1933 Manuel took a boat from Botwood, Newfoundland, to London, England.[1] She lived there for five years.[1] After taking a course in “Superior Household science” that taught her how to housekeep and cook British cuisine,[1] she began looking for a job. She answered an ad in the London times to nanny a boy, Peter Berger, while he was home from boarding school.[1] The boy’s father, Joe Berger, was a senior executive for the chain Marks and Spencer (M&S).[1] After the boy went back to school, Berger got Manuel an interview at M&S. Due to Flora Solomon’s push in welfare at the company, Manuel was hired into the Welfare Department at 3 pounds 10 shilling.[1] The nature of her work allowed her to travel all over England. She worked closely with Solomon checking conditions and persuading store managers to appoint welfare officers. She would inspect M&S shops and order materials for their canteens.[1]
She was eventually promoted to Welfare Supervisor for the North of England.[1] She was directly in charge of about 500 people.[1]
In their spare time, Berger and Manuel began to volunteer with the British Movement of Children from Germany.[1] This organization helped bring children to England who were fleeing from Spain and Nazi Germany.
United States[edit]
For a brief period between April 1939 and August 1944, Manuel moved to America due to World War Two.[1] She settled initially in Madison, Connecticut but eventually moved to Greenwich, Connecticut.[1] While in America, Manuel was a stay-at-home mother. She and Berger fostered four other children in addition to her son and stepson.[1]
Relationships[edit]
Joe Berger[edit]
While working for Joe Berger, taking care of his son, Manuel and Berger eventually began to have an affair.[1] After Manuel’s parents’ initial hesitation, because Berger was divorced and older, they were eventually engaged with Manuel’s parent’s approval.[1] They married in a London Registry in October of 1935, with Flora Solomon as their witness.[1]
Berger and Manuel had a son, Anthony Berger, born in November of 1937.[1] This was Berger’s second son as he had another son from a previous marriage, the son that Manuel initially looked after; Peter Berger.[1]
Manuel moved back to Newfoundland in 1944, and Berger stayed in America due to his job in Oswego.[1] Manuel felt that she was growing more as an individual when she was not with Berger.[1] She wrote to Berger in the Spring of 1945, telling him that she wanted a divorce.[1] After the initial shock, the divorce was finalized in 1946.[1] Both children were placed in joint custody.[1]
After working for the UNRRA, Berger died in 1948 at the age of 49. He married once more before dying because of a hemorrhagic stroke.[1]
Lee Wulff[edit]
After meeting Lee Wulff in Newfoundland, Manuel and Wulff married in early 1947.[1] Wulff, Manuel, and her two sons moved to New York state together. The marriage was unsuccessful as Manuel was unwilling to be a cook or a housewife.[1] By the summer of 1948, Manuel moved to Vermont without Wulff to be with her sons as they attended school.[1] While some were unsure if the couple ever officially divorced, Manuel’s son, Anthony, confirmed that the couple did formally divorce.[1]
Political views[edit]
One of the first political events Manuel’s was said to attend was in England, where a boy had taken her to a political meeting where William Joyce was present.[1] Her beliefs capture her views in a more prominent role for women and society, a future for Newfoundland and Labrador, and a more healthy, peaceful world[2]
World War II[edit]
Manuel often traveled, and after a trip to Russia, Manuel was impressed with the Soviet communism accomplishments.[1] Similarly, after a trip to Holland, Manuel had crossed the border to Nazi Germany, and she was shocked at the poor quality of life.[1]
She was also vocally upset that the League of Nations had not stopped Italy from going to war with Abyssinia.[1]
Manuel was angry with the British government as they didn’t stop people from going to Spain during its civil war to fight fascist.[1] She joined the Left Book Club and personally put-up posters to send medical supplies to Spain.[1]
When it came to World War Two, Manuel thought England was incapable and idiotic to consider war.[1] Manuel and her then-husband, Berger, helped bring children safely into England from Spain and Germany.[1] In the US, Manuel commented on the war in Europe by calling it a "terrible commentary on Christianity".[1] She felt the conflict was unnecessary and believed England should have outright opposed Adolf Hitler by all political means.
Conservationism[edit]
Living in Bonne Bay, Manuel actively tried to make it a national park. She was thrilled to see other people enjoying nature when hiking trails began to pop up. She also worked to create the current national park Gros Morne.[4]
Manuel would often find ways to either produce reports on behalf of the provincial fishery or write independently on fisheries science.[1]
One of the main areas Manuel focused on was the topic of seal fisheries. She was verbally upset at the international opposition of seal fisheries.[1] She felt that many young people did not know the history of hunting methods involved and felt pride in Newfoundlands seal fishers.[1]
Manuel wanted people across the world to understand the beauty of Newfoundland so that they would want to keep the shores and land environmentally clean.[1] This promoted a lot of her work telling stories as a journalist and radio host.[1] She believed that it was each person's responsibility to leave the world a little bit better than when you got it so that individuals can keep our planet clean for the next generation.[1]
Women's Rights[edit]
In 1965, Manuel joined the Voice of Women (VOW),[1] an organization initially established in 1960.[5] She advocated for peace and antinuclear movements through her experience as a woman.[1] She eventually became vice-president of VOW and was referred to as one of “the big guns” alongside Kay MacPherson and Muriel Duckworth.[1] After clashes with leaders and political knavery’s, Manuel eventually left.[1] This organization is now called the Canadian Voice of Women for Peace and is considered the oldest national feminist group in Canada.[5]
In 1968, Manuel was the only individual to present a brief to the Royal Commission on the Status of Women in Canada.[1] She discusses the loneliness and isolation that rural women experience.[1] Manuel argued in support of family-planning clinics and TV and radio programs on health care, childcare, and consumer information for rural women to become educated.[1] Her brief eventually became noted in Canada Persons Award.[1]
Because of Manuel’s work, she was awarded the Persons Award by the Governor-General in 1980.[1] She was praised for her advocacy of women’s rights and making children conscious of social issues.[1]
Publications[edit]
That Fine Summer, written by Ella Manuel, was published in 1978. The story is set in Notre Dome Bay in the first half of the century. The main character is Mahala, a headstrong and independent girl, drawing inspiration from the author’s childhood. This story is about Mahala learning to fish with her grandfather. It is written with the landscape in mind to remind children of the land’s rich heritage before the environment’s decline due to fishery.[2]
The story was republished with new illustrations by Newfoundland artist and illustrator Aileen Woolridge.[2]
In popular culture[edit]
Today, the leading scholarship on Manuel is a book titled No Place for a Woman: The Life and Newfoundland Stories of Ella Manuel, written by Manuel’s son, Anthony Berger.[1] Berger recorded a podcast retelling each of his mother’s stories accounted for in the book. The podcast is entitled Down to Sally's Cove: Newfoundland Stories by Ella Manuel.[6]
A trust and scholarship has been set up under Manuel’s name to support higher education pursuing young women in rural Newfoundland and Labrador.[7] The Trust was established in Manuels memory to support more significant opportunities and more prominent roles for women in society.[7] Manuel felt there is no reason men should get different education opportunities than women.[7] One set of funds for the trust comes from the royalties of Manuel's book That Fine Summer[8].
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 1.19 1.20 1.21 1.22 1.23 1.24 1.25 1.26 1.27 1.28 1.29 1.30 1.31 1.32 1.33 1.34 1.35 1.36 1.37 1.38 1.39 1.40 1.41 1.42 1.43 1.44 1.45 1.46 1.47 1.48 1.49 1.50 1.51 1.52 1.53 1.54 1.55 1.56 1.57 1.58 1.59 1.60 1.61 1.62 1.63 1.64 1.65 1.66 1.67 1.68 1.69 1.70 1.71 1.72 1.73 1.74 1.75 1.76 1.77 1.78 1.79 1.80 1.81 1.82 Berger, Antony R. (2020). No place for a woman : the life and Newfoundland stories of Ella Manuel. St. John's, NL. ISBN 978-1-55081-836-9. OCLC 1181842923. Search this book on
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Inc, Indigo Books & Music. "That Fine Summer". indigo.ca. Retrieved 2021-11-21.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "» Killdevil Church Camp of The Anglican Diocese of Western Newfoundland, Canada". Retrieved 2021-11-22.
- ↑ "ELLA MANUEL SCHOLARSHIP | SaltWire". www.saltwire.com. Retrieved 2021-11-22.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Canadian Voice of Women for Peace -". Canadian Voice of Women for Peace. Retrieved 2021-11-22.
- ↑ "Down to Sally's Cove: Newfoundland Stories by Ella Manuel". Buzzsprout. Retrieved 2021-11-22.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 "ELLA MANUEL SCHOLARSHIP | SaltWire". www.saltwire.com. Retrieved 2021-11-22.
- ↑ "Ella Manuel | Breakwater Books Ltd". 2013-11-12. Retrieved 2021-11-22.
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