Biography of Dorise Nielsen wins 4 Manitoba book awards

A biography of pioneering feminist and socialist Dorise Nielsen has won four awards, including book of the year, at the Manitoba Writing and Publishing Awards.

A Great Restlessness: The Life and Politics of Dorise Nielsen is the first book by Faith Johnston, a former Ottawa teacher.

It documents the remarkable life of Nielsen, a homesteader's wife who struggled through the Depression in rural Saskatchewan, began working against poverty with the CCF and became the first Communist elected to the House of Commons in 1940. She moved to Mao's China in 1957, and watched communism there take an ugly turn.

So why has Dorise Nielsen been largely forgotten, although the names of her political allies, including Tim Buck and Jacob Penner, crop up in histories of war-time Canada? I think it is because she was a difficult woman who espoused a difficult cause. She turned her back on Canada. She is just too ornery to celebrate.

LINK: CBC
LINK: Dorise Nielsen
LINK: A Fascinating Yet Forgotten Feminist