Sowing Seeds in Danny

Nellie McClung (1873-1951), born Nellie Letitia Mooney was a Canadian feminist, politician, and social activist. She was a part of the social and moral reform movements prevalent in Western Canada in the early 1900s. She published her first novel Sowing Seeds in Danny in 1908. It was a national best seller and was followed by numerous short stories and articles in Canadian and American magazines. In 1911, the McClungs moved to Winnipeg. The women’s rights movement in Winnipeg embraced her. An effective speaker with a sense of humour, she played a leading role in the successful Liberal campaign in 1914. Her great causes were women’s suffrage and temperance. It was largely through her efforts that in 1916 Manitoba became the first province to give women the right to vote and to run for public office. She served as a Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 1921 to 1926. Her works include: The Second Chance (1910), The Black Creek Stopping- House and Other Stories (1912), The Next of Kin: Stories of Those Who Wait and Wonder (1917), Three Times and Out (1918) and Purple Springs (1922).