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KIT COLEMAN: Queen of Hearts by Ted Ferguson

KIT COLEMAN: Queen of Hearts

By

Pub Date: Oct. 27th, 1978
Publisher: Doubleday

There seems little reason for this anthology of the wit and wisdom of Kathleen ""Kit"" Coleman. Journalist Ted Ferguson says he was inspired by reading her ""bright comments"" in some old issues of the Toronto Mail, which hired Kit Coleman in 1889 as Canada's first advice-to-the-lovelorn columnist. Her writings actually went further afield--money matters, politics, the arts--but if they reveal anything to us today, it is the inanity that was taken for shocking candor at the turn of the century. A sample is this advice directed to one Mary Anderson: ""A wise woman, my good little Mary, until the magic gold circle is actually on her finger, keeps her real powers in the background."" It might have been interesting to read a real biography of this ""peppery, indefatigable redhead,"" married three times--twice by age 26--and the only female journalist accredited to cover the Spanish-American War. As it is, this little book has only curiosity value.