Clara Sabean was born in Granville Ferry, Nova Scotia to a family of limited means. Starting from very little, she invented a life that took her all over North America, including glamorous years as a performer billed as ‘The Champion Swimmer of the World’.
However, much of her life is a mystery, lived under several different names. Using local memories, newspaper archives, and other sources, author and researcher Ern Dick set out to get a clearer picture of this mystery woman.
Table des matières
Acknowledgements 4
Notes on the text 9
Illustrations 12
1: Who, Where, What, When, How and Why? 13
2: Clara Sabean 21
3: Clara Beckwith 33
4: Mrs. Stanley Mc Innis 65
5: C. M. Mc Innis 71
6: Mr. Clement Miller 83
7: Clara Miller 89
8: Pursuing Clara 99
Afterword 109
Appendix A: In the Swim 113
Appendix B: Extract from The Romance of Old Annapolis Royal 169
Appendix C: From 1860s Lambeth to Niagara in the 1900s: Imitation and Innovation amongst Female Natationists 175
Appendix D: Timeline 197
About the author 240
Notes 241
A propos de l’auteur
Ern Dick is an archivist, oral historian, lecturer, and student of the sound and moving image of Atlantic Canada-and now is becoming an historical detective. He was originally from a fruit and vegetable farm in south-western Ontario, worked for the Public Archives of Canada and as Corporate Archivist of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in Ottawa, and has been living in Granville Ferry, Nova Scotia for the past 25 years.
Ern has worked with museums, broadcasting, heritage societies large and small, friends and neighbours to animate the past-always following the stories the past has to tell.