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Maria Tippett was born in Victoria on December 9, 1944. Raised in Victoria, Tippett travelled and studied in Europe from 1964 to 1966. She received her B.A. from Simon Fraser University in 1972 and her Ph.D from London University in 1982. She was a lecturer from 1977 to 1986 at Simon Fraser University and UBC. She was Robarts Professor of Canadian Studies, York University, Toronto (1986-1987) and Senior Research Fellow at Churchill College, Cambridge University (1995-2004).
Tippett always made British Columbia her base and considered herself a fulltime writer. She was elected to the Royal Society of Canada in 1992 and received an LLD from Windsor University in 1992. She and her husband and fellow academic Peter Clarke, an historian, initially divided their time between Cambridge and Salt Spring Island. She received honorary doctorates from Simon Fraser University and University of Victoria in 2006.
Later moving to Pender Island, Maria Tippett completed Made in British Columbia: Eight Ways of Making Culture (Harbour, 2015) to explore the nature of B.C.'s distinct culture by profiling artists Emily Carr, Bill Reid, Francis Rattenbury, Arthur Erickson, Martin Allerdale Grainger, Jean Coulthard, George Woodcock and George Ryga. It was shortlisted for the 2016 Basil Stuart-Stubbs Book Prize for Outstanding Scholarly Book on British Columbia, a prize created in 2012 to recognize the best scholarly book published on a British Columbia subject by a Canadian author. The book was also shortlisted for a Hubert Evans non-fiction prize.
Also a writer, Emily Carr is now widely acknowledged as the province's most original, enduring painter. Architect Francis Rattenbury designed the Empress Hotel and the Victoria Parliament buildings, before being murdered by chauffeur. Arthur Erickson was a mercurial personality who gained international acclaim as an architect. George Ryga's groundbreaking play, The Ecstasy of Rita Joe, exposed the anguish and reality of life for First Nations women in B.C. and became a national hit. Bill Reid became the foremost craftsman of First Nations art, as a sculptor, carver and jeweller. Jean Coulthard wrote music that reflected the landscape around her. Martin Grainger's novel, Woodsmen of the West, was arguably the first B.C. novel to be respected within the canon of Canadian literature. Anarchist, poet and philosopher George Woodcock was indisputedly the province's most prolific and multi-faceted man of letters.
Maria Tippett died August 8, 2024 from pancreatic cancer at the age of 79.
AWARDS:
Governor General's Award (non-fiction 1979)
John A Macdonald Prize 1980
Eaton's Book Award 1978
BOOKS:
Sculpture in Canada: A History (D&M, 2017) $49.95 9781771620932
Made in British Columbia: Eight Ways of Making Culture (Harbour, 2015) $32.95 978-1-55017-729-9
Portrait in Light and Shadow: The Life of Yousuf Karsh (Anansi, 2007)
Bill Reid, Becoming an Indian (Random House, 2003)
Stormy Weather: F.H. Varley (M&S, 1998)
Becoming Myself, A Memoir (Stoddart, 1996)
Between Two Cultures: A Photographer Among the Inuit (Penguin, 1994) Photographs by Charles Gimpel.
By a Lady: Celebrating Three Centuries of Canadian Women Painters (Penguin, 1992)
Making Culture: English-Canadian Institutions and the Arts Before the Massey Commission (University of Toronto Press, 1990)
Breaking the Cycle and other stories from a Gulf Island (Orca, 1989) With illustrations by John Koerner.
Art at the Service of War (U of T Press, 1984)
Emily Carr: A Biography (Oxford 1979, Penguin 1982, Stoddart 1998; Fitzhenry and Whiteside 2002; Anansi, 2006).
From Desolation to Splendour: Changing Perceptions of the BC Landscape (with Douglas Cole, Clarke Irwin, 1977)
[Alan Twigg / BCBW 2015] "Art" "Eaton's" "Carr"
Review of the author's work by BC Studies:
Phillips in Print: The Selected Writings of Walter J. Phillips on Canadian Nature and Art
Made in British Columbia: Eight Ways of Making Culture
Tippett always made British Columbia her base and considered herself a fulltime writer. She was elected to the Royal Society of Canada in 1992 and received an LLD from Windsor University in 1992. She and her husband and fellow academic Peter Clarke, an historian, initially divided their time between Cambridge and Salt Spring Island. She received honorary doctorates from Simon Fraser University and University of Victoria in 2006.
Later moving to Pender Island, Maria Tippett completed Made in British Columbia: Eight Ways of Making Culture (Harbour, 2015) to explore the nature of B.C.'s distinct culture by profiling artists Emily Carr, Bill Reid, Francis Rattenbury, Arthur Erickson, Martin Allerdale Grainger, Jean Coulthard, George Woodcock and George Ryga. It was shortlisted for the 2016 Basil Stuart-Stubbs Book Prize for Outstanding Scholarly Book on British Columbia, a prize created in 2012 to recognize the best scholarly book published on a British Columbia subject by a Canadian author. The book was also shortlisted for a Hubert Evans non-fiction prize.
Also a writer, Emily Carr is now widely acknowledged as the province's most original, enduring painter. Architect Francis Rattenbury designed the Empress Hotel and the Victoria Parliament buildings, before being murdered by chauffeur. Arthur Erickson was a mercurial personality who gained international acclaim as an architect. George Ryga's groundbreaking play, The Ecstasy of Rita Joe, exposed the anguish and reality of life for First Nations women in B.C. and became a national hit. Bill Reid became the foremost craftsman of First Nations art, as a sculptor, carver and jeweller. Jean Coulthard wrote music that reflected the landscape around her. Martin Grainger's novel, Woodsmen of the West, was arguably the first B.C. novel to be respected within the canon of Canadian literature. Anarchist, poet and philosopher George Woodcock was indisputedly the province's most prolific and multi-faceted man of letters.
Maria Tippett died August 8, 2024 from pancreatic cancer at the age of 79.
AWARDS:
Governor General's Award (non-fiction 1979)
John A Macdonald Prize 1980
Eaton's Book Award 1978
BOOKS:
Sculpture in Canada: A History (D&M, 2017) $49.95 9781771620932
Made in British Columbia: Eight Ways of Making Culture (Harbour, 2015) $32.95 978-1-55017-729-9
Portrait in Light and Shadow: The Life of Yousuf Karsh (Anansi, 2007)
Bill Reid, Becoming an Indian (Random House, 2003)
Stormy Weather: F.H. Varley (M&S, 1998)
Becoming Myself, A Memoir (Stoddart, 1996)
Between Two Cultures: A Photographer Among the Inuit (Penguin, 1994) Photographs by Charles Gimpel.
By a Lady: Celebrating Three Centuries of Canadian Women Painters (Penguin, 1992)
Making Culture: English-Canadian Institutions and the Arts Before the Massey Commission (University of Toronto Press, 1990)
Breaking the Cycle and other stories from a Gulf Island (Orca, 1989) With illustrations by John Koerner.
Art at the Service of War (U of T Press, 1984)
Emily Carr: A Biography (Oxford 1979, Penguin 1982, Stoddart 1998; Fitzhenry and Whiteside 2002; Anansi, 2006).
From Desolation to Splendour: Changing Perceptions of the BC Landscape (with Douglas Cole, Clarke Irwin, 1977)
[Alan Twigg / BCBW 2015] "Art" "Eaton's" "Carr"
Review of the author's work by BC Studies:
Phillips in Print: The Selected Writings of Walter J. Phillips on Canadian Nature and Art
Made in British Columbia: Eight Ways of Making Culture
Articles: 1 Article for this author
Bill Reid: The Making of an Indian (Random House $39.95)
Article
Half-Haida artist Bill Reid referred to his early works as 'artefakes.' Maria Tippett examines his life and career at the forefront of the renaissance of northwest coast native art in Bill Reid: The Making of an Indian (Random House $39.95). 0-679-31089-4
[BCBW 2003]
