Sui Sin Far, 1865-1914

LC control no.	no 93021285
Descriptive conventions	rda
LC classification	PR9199.2.S93
Personal name heading	Sui Sin Far, 1865-1914 *Browse this term in* LC Authorities or the LC Catalog
Variant(s)	水仙花, 1865-1914 Shui Xian Hua, 1865-1914 Eaton, Edith, 1865-1914 Far, Sui Sin, 1865-1914 Sui, Sin Far, 1865-1914 Eaton, Edith Maude, 1865-1914
Associated country	England Canada United States
Birth date	1865-03-15
Death date	1914-04-07
Place of birth	Macclesfield (England)
Place of death	Montréal (Québec)
Field of activity	Chinese Americans Chinese--North America Journalism Poetry Fiction Shorthand Legal services
Profession or occupation	Authors Journalists Poets Novelists Stenographers Legal secretaries
Found in	White-Parks, A. Sui Sin Far, 1991: t.p. (Sui Sin Far) p. 1, etc. (b. Edith Maude Eaton, Macclesfield, England, Mar. 15, 1865; Chinese mother, English father; emigrated Canada 1873; called Sui Sin Far by her family; signed autographs with both names; d. Montréal, Apr. 7, 1914; author) NUC pre-56 (hdg.: Eaton, Edith Maud, 1867- ; usage: Sui Sin Far <Edith Eaton>) Mrs. Spring Fragrance, 1912: title page (by Sui Sin Far (Edith Eaton)) Wikipedia, viewed May 24, 2024: Sui Sin Far (Sui Sin Far (Chinese: 水仙花; pinyin: Shuǐ Xiān Huā, born Edith Maude Eaton; 15 March 1865 - 7 April 1914) was an author known for her writing about Chinese people in North America and the Chinese American experience. "Sui Sin Far", the pen name under which most of her work was published, is the Cantonese name of the narcissus flower, popular amongst Chinese people. Born in Macclesfield, Cheshire, England, Eaton was the daughter of Englishman Edward Eaton, a merchant who met her Chinese mother Achuen Grace Amoy in Shanghai, China. Because of their poverty, at a young age, Edith Eaton left school to work in order to help support her family. By age 18, Eaton was setting type for the Montreal Star. She began writing as a young girl; her stories and poetry were accepted for publication in Montreal's Dominion Illustrated magazine, and, beginning in 1890, she published anonymous journalistic articles about the local Chinese community in Montreal's English-language newspapers, the Montreal Star and the Daily Witness. She also worked as a stenographer and legal secretary. She left Montreal first in 1891 to work as a stenographer and special correspondent in what is now Thunder Bay, Ontario. In 1896, she worked as a journalist for Gall's News Letter in Kingston, Jamaica, for about six months, and began to publish under her Chinese pen name.) <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sui_Sin_Far> Wikipedia, viewed May 24, 2024: Sui Sin Far (Later, she moved to San Francisco, Los Angeles then in Seattle, before going to the east coast to work in Boston. While working as a legal secretary she continued to write. Although her appearance and manners would have allowed her to easily pass as an Englishwoman, she asserted her Chinese heritage after 1896 and wrote articles that told what life was like for a Chinese woman in white America. First published in 1896, her fictional stories about Chinese Americans were a reasoned appeal for her society's acceptance of working-class Chinese at a time when the United States Congress maintained the Chinese Exclusion Act, which banned Chinese immigration to the United States. Over the ensuing years, Eaton wrote a number of short stories and newspaper articles while working on her first collection of fiction. Published in June 1912, Mrs. Spring Fragrance was a collection that included some linked short stories that was marketed as a novel. Eaton never married. She died in Montreal and is interred in Mount Royal Cemetery. A study of Eaton and her life, Sui Sin Far/Edith Maude Eaton: A Literary Biography by Annette White-Parks, was published in 1995. Becoming Sui Sin Far: Early Fiction, Journalism and Travel Writing by Edith Maude Eaton by Mary Chapman updates this earlier study.) <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sui_Sin_Far>
Associated language	eng