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Edna Staebler (1906–2006) was a member of the Order of Canada and an award-winning journalist. She was a regular contributor to Maclean’s, Saturday Night, The Toronto Star, Chatelaine and many other newspapers and magazines.
Born on Jan. 15, 1906 in Berlin (now Kitchener), Ontario, Staebler graduated from the University of Toronto with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1929 and the Ontario College of Education in 1931. She was president of the Canadian Federation of University Women from 1943-1945. She was a member of the Toronto Women’s Press Club, the Media Club of Toronto, the Canadian Author’s Association, and the Writers’ Union of Canada.
Her first magazine article was published by Maclean’s in 1948, and her first book in 1967. She was author of Cape Breton Harbour, Places I’ve been and People I’ve Known, and the classic Schmecks cookbook series. Her last publication was Haven’t Any News: Ruby’s Letters from the Fifties – an edited collection of her sister's letters, published in 1995.
A biography of Edna, To Experience Wonder, Edna Staebler: A Life, was written by Veronica Ross and published in 2003, and a collection of her diaries, Must Write, was edited by Christl Verduyn in 2005.
"O dear, I must learn to express myself. I just can't say things concisely and in a way that anyone might understand. Expression is what I absolutely lack. I'm sure I can appreciate it in others. I think art is really just expression and I can't express myself any way at all. I s'pose I'm not artistic... what the devil am I anyway?" – from Must Write: Edna Staebler's Diaries
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