Alice Jones Canada's Early Women Writers Linnea McNally Daryn Wright Canada's Early Women Writers Canadian Writing Research Collaboratory Born digital object, initially housed by the Simon Fraser University library English Born digital Life writing Biography Bibliography Alice Jones (1853-1933)
Image from Henry Morgan, Types of Canadian Women (Toronto: Briggs, 1903).

Member of an illustrious Nova Scotian family, novelist Alice Jones spent her later life in France.

 26 August 1853, Halifax, NS 27 February 1933, Menton, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France Name at birth: Alice Catherine Jones Alternate names: "Alix John" Note

This author's life has been researched earlier for inclusion in the <XREF URL="http://digital.lib.sfu.ca/ceww-collection" RESP="KME">Canada's Early Women Writers</XREF> project at Simon Fraser University. Information in this entry therefore may not be comprehensive, but has been verified.

Entry revised by Linnea McNally and Daryn Wright

 Alice Jones (1853-1933)

Alice Catherine Jones grew up in the comfortable Halifax home of her father, Alfred Gilpin Jones (1824-1906), a successful businessman who represented Halifax in the Federal Parliament and became Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia. From a strong Loyalist background, Alice and her sister, poet and painter Frances Jones Bannerman, found their chief artistic inspiration in Europe, where Alice travelled widely and studied languages after her early education in Halifax. Their literary circle included their cousins and childhood neighbours, Helen Morrow Paske Duffus and Susan Morrow Jones; the latter married Alice's brother Guy.

Beginning her writing career with travel articles, Alice established her reputation by winning a literary prize from The Week in 1891 for her story Hidden Treasure. She published five novels in the United States and England, one of which, The Night Hawk (1901), appeared under her pseudonym, "Alix John."

After acting as her father's chatelaine at Government House in Halifax during his tenure there, she moved to France, where she resided from about 1905 until her death in 1933.

 Published Texts Fiction The Night Hawk: A Romance of the '60s (New York: Stokes, 1901) Bubbles We Buy (1903)—published in England as Isabel Broderick (1904) Gabriel Praed's Castle (Boston, MA: Turner, 1904) Marcus Holbeach's Daughter: A Tale of the Gulf Shore (Toronto: Allen, 1912) Flame of Frost (Toronto: Allen, 1914) The Consul's Niece (1907) At the Harbour's Mouth (1905) Periodical Contributions The American Magazine (Springfield, OH) Canadian Magazine (Toronto) Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly (Springfield, OH) The Week (Toronto) Family and Relationships Father: Alfred Gilpin Jones (28 September 1824 – 15 March 1906)

Alfred Gilpin Jones was born in 1824 in Weymouth, NS. He was married to Margaret Wiseman Stairs in 1850. After she died in 1875, he married Emma Albro two years later. A businessman, Alfred was an M.P. and the Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia from 1900 to 1906. He died in 1906.

 Mother: Margaret Wiseman Stairs (1826 – 5 February 1875)

Margaret Wiseman Stairs was born in Halifax, NS, in 1826. She married Alfred Gilpin Jones (1824-1906) in 1850 and they had six children together before she died in 1875.

 Siblings Frances Maria Jones (6 April 1855 – 1944): m. Hamlet Bannerman Alfred Ernest Jones (December 1857 – 22 February 1932): m. Alice Katharine Nagle Walter Goldsbury Jones (1862 – 1925): m. Blanche Hildred West Guy Carleton Jones (1864 – 23 October 1950): m. Susan Morrow (1865-1926)

Guy's wife Susan Morrow was the author of several books of fiction, including A Girl of the North (1900) and Out of Drowning Valley (1910). She published under several pseudonyms, including Carleton-Milecete and S. Carleton.

 Harry Treadway Jones (1868 – 13 September 1957): m. Laura McWatt Religion Anglican Residences

France (c1905-1933)

Halifax, NS (1853-1905)

 Awards

Story prize for Hidden Treasure (The Week, 1891)

 Employment and Volunteer Activities Tangential Information

Alice's maternal grandfather, William Stairs, was a prominent businessman and politician in Halifax. In addition to his hardware company, Wm. Stairs &amp; Son (later William Stairs, Son, & Morrow), he served as the mayor of Halifax in 1847 and 1848, the year he was offered a seat on the Legislative Council. After his retirement from business and politics, William helped to found the Union Bank of Halifax, serving as its president until his death in either November or December 1944.

Archival Holdings Archibald MacMechan fonds, Dalhousie University Archives, Halifax, NS (letter to Archibald MacMechan, 12 July 1905) Public Archives of Nova Scotia, Halifax, NS (manuscripts of three novels) Published Resources 1871 Census of Canada. 1881 Census of Canada. 1911 Census of Canada. Blain, Virginia Beers, Isobel Grundy, and Patricia Clements, eds. Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Woman Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present (New Haven, CT: Yale UP, 1990). Davies, Gwendolyn. Jones, Alice C. Encyclopedia of Literature in Canada. Ed. William H. New (Toronto: U of Toronto P, 2002). Doughty, Arthur G. and Adam Shortt. Canada and Its Provinces: A History of the Canadian People and Their Institutions (Toronto: Glasgow, Brook, 1914): 565. England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1966, 1973-1995. Nova Scotia, Canada, Deaths, 1864-1877, 1890-1960. Skene-Melvin, David. Canadian Crime Fiction: An Annotated Comprehensive Bibliography of Canadian Crime Fiction From 1817 to 1996 (Shelburne, ON: Battered Silicon Dispatch Box, 1996). Watters, R.E. Checklist of Canadian Literature and Background Materials 1628-1960 (Toronto: U of Toronto P, 1970): 317.