Gilean Douglas was a outstanding journalist who writing focuses centrally on nature. Douglas was not what you would call a ‘typical women’; she was an outdoorsman. She would spend months in her cabin up in the mountains of British Columbia, isolated from society, and wrote articles of her experiences in the wilderness. Douglas however from wrote many of her outdoor experiences under the male pseudonym Grant Madison because a women writing about these experiences was questioned regarding her credibility.

‘Grant Madison’s’ often moved people resulting in people writing fan letters address to him.  Fortunately I was able to get my hands on a few fan letters address to Madison from UBC’s Rare Books and Special Collections. A lot of the fan letters complimented Madison on his work, include how his writing has pushed them to explore more of the beauty nature has to offer. However one letter stood out to me more than any of the others. This letter was written in 1949  by a man who we shall call Henry, for reasons of confidentiality. Henry’s letter started off like all the others, regarding the ‘cleverness’ of Madison’s work, but then the letter takes a more somber tone almost turning into a letter of confession. Henry explains to Madison that he feels so “inadequate and useless” because of his inability to adjust himself “to life in the city” in order “to be socially acceptable.” Henry is writing to a man (Madison) whom he has never met and confiding in him about his personal struggles. This letter really portrays the impact Gilean Douglas work had on people. A lot of what she wrote was about her fulfilling experiences in the wilderness, isolated from society, and it can be inferred that this lifestyle really resonated with Henry. Henry at the end of his letter ask Grant Madison if he could “elaborate more fully the idea… that one can live alone yet have a full (something) occupied life of mental and physical activity.” Henry has found someone like him who has struggles in conforming to the norms of society and wishes further understand this sort of lifestyle that might be beneficial for him.

This experience that Henry is going through of feeling “inadequate” has a lot do with the social norms of the 1940s. Henry in his letter explains how he believes in marriage and like children but doesn’t have any emotional attraction to such a lifestyle. Henry is unable to conform to the image of a ‘man’ (breadwinner, husband, father) in the 1940s, and feels isolated from society because of his experience. I believe there were more men like Henry who were impacted by Grant Madison’s work in the same way but refused to write a letter regarding it because of the impact it would have on their ‘masculinity’. Rodney Carter highlights the concept of “archival silences” which implies that some voices/stories are excluded from the archives by “powerful groups” in order to “define the shape an archives takes.” (Carter, 217) I am sure many other men experience a similar feeling of abnormality like Henry but due to the pressure that was put on men to conform to this ideal image of ‘the man’ they remained silent. Henry through the letter is accepting his unmasculine traits, and essentially questioning his identity which many men would be fearful of doing do to the repercussions such labelling would do to their standing in society.  

Henry’s letter not only displays the impact Gilean Douglas’s work had on individuals but also highlights the silence of men like Henry who were unable to conform to ‘male image’ in society and experience a sense of loneliness because of it.

Work Cited

Carter, Rodney G.S. “Of Things Said and Unsaid: Power, Archival Silences, and Power in Silence.” Archivaria 61 (2006): 215-33.  Archivaria. Association of Canadian Archivists. Thurs. 24. Jan. 2019. <http://archivaria.ca/index.php/archivaria/article/view/12541>.