Jean Blewett was a writer and journalism who advocated for the rights of woman in the 19th and 20th century. She was born to a Scottish family near Lake Erie in Ontario, Canada in 1862 (this is often erroneously suggested to be 1872). Unlike many women of her time, she received a comprehensive formal education at the St. Thomas Collegiate. She began to write extensively at this time and in 1890, Blewett published her first novel, Out of the Depths.
While writing poetry and fiction, Blewett also contributed to the The Mail, what is now known as The Globe and Mail. In 1896 she was awarded $600 after winning a poetry contest held by the Chicago Times-Herald. This greatly increased her popularity in Canada and the United States. The following year she released her first poetry collection, Heart Songs. It was a massive success and furthered Blewett's acclaim. She would not release another collection for almost a decade, yet when The Cornflower and Other Poems appeared in 1906 it was also well-received.
Blewett's work was distinctly Canadian in theme and content. She wrote of the people, the landscape, and the confusing times in the newly-Confederated nation. She also paid particular attention to the roles and treatment of women. She was a vocal advocate for suffragism, and witnessed women receive the vote in Canada in 1918. She died in 1934 and she was formally noted as a Person of National Historical Significance a decade later. Blewett's work has been anthologized several times, most recently in Poems which compiled all of her published work, and several unpublished pieces, in 2012.
