On the margins of the Canadian literary canon: the case of Magdalena Raskevich-Eggleston

Abstract

In the fall of 2002, Anne Goddard, at the time the archivist at the Library-Archives Canada, and her colleague Amy Tector had to make a decision: What to do with the personal archive of the famous Canadian journalist, Wilfrid Eggleston. It was not an easy task, because the documentary heritage which fit in six boxes contained not only Eggleston’s personal archive but also that of his Lithuanian- Canadian wife, the poet and writer Magdalena Raškevičiūtė (Raskevich) Eggleston. Her archive consisted of diaries, letters, poems, manuscript drafts, a travel journal, an autobiography, etc. After some deliberation and thorough analysis, both archives were preserved. The decision is important because it presented researchers with an opportunity to explore the archives of Raškevičiūtė from the perspective of social history, everyday life history, and diaspora history. In addition, it is very likely that in the near future, the preserved archive will allow the Lithuanian-Canadian author to finally leave the margins of the Canadian literary canon and appear as a female writer in her own right without any social or marital constraints. The first step has already been made: in 2014, Raškevičiūtė-Eggleston was included in a preliminary database of early Canadian women writers.