ETIQUETTE IN CANADA the Blue Book of Canadian Social Usage

Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1949. (CAD) 2nd edition 1949, completely revised. No markings, but small bookseller's stamp to the endpaper, Near Fine;lacking the dust jacket. Beige colored cloth with gold titles on blue rectangle, 360pp, index. No photos. The author advances this book because "the books which have been available are not entirely suitable because they are by American writers. [American etiquette] differs in many instances from social usage in Canada". From the preface to the first edition: "Another reason why a book on etiquette as practised in Canada is so much needed is to combat the influence of motion pictures, with their bizarre way of representing social life". There are 46 chapters, ranging from Bringing out a Daughter to What a Man Must Know.. Gertrude Edwina Seton Thompson was born in Toronto in 1873 and died in Victoria in 1965. She wrote extensively for several Canadian magazines, writing sometimes under her middle names ---Edwina Seton--which connected her to her paternal uncle, Ernest Thompson Seton. She is best known for this book but also for taking in the author Mazo de la Roche and her cousin Caroline Clement as lodgers in her home and acting aa an informal secretary and privacy guard for de la Roche. This book gives us a glimpse into the expected social behaviour of almost 75 years ago. The chapters on Bringing Out a Daughter and the Trousseau appear quaint. as well as the instructions for Cards and Calling. The suggestions for the bridegroom's wedding costume seems almost Edwardian: a cutaway morning coat with dark stripped grey trousers, double-breasted waistcoat of grey doeskin, cut medium high, light grey suede gloves, a high slik hat, patent leather boots, a walking stick and a white flower in the buttonhole. But the book does try to update the information into the 1950s with a chapter like The Girl who Goes to College and When About to Travel: "In contemplating a trip abroad ...no one need fear of being lonely on board ship." Then there is the chapter on "Servants": " the scarcity and high wages of domestic help have had the result of making smaller quarter a necessity. Where 5 used to be employed, two are now kept, and in some cases a single servant only is retained." One can certainy read this book as a disappearance of a way of life. (2.1 JM HOJ 302/0. 2nd. Hardcover. Near Fine/Lacking the Dustjacket. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾".