Helena Coleman
Helena Coleman was a Canadian poet, music teacher, and writer.
Early life
Helena Jane Coleman was born on April 27, 1860 in Newcastle, Ontario, to the Rev. Francis Coleman, a Methodist minister, and his second wife, English-born Jane C. Gould.Helena Coleman's father's first wife, Emmeline Maria Adams Coleman, died on June 23, 1858, two years before Helena was born. Helena had five older half-brothers. Emmeline Some sources incorrectly ascribe Helena to the Adams genealogical line with her half-siblings.
Helena Coleman attended Ontario Ladies' College in Whitby, Ontario, with further study in Germany.
Career
Coleman taught piano at Ontario Ladies' College from 1880 to 1892, as head of the music department, while her brothers' aunt Mary Electa Adams was the principal. There she was a friend and colleague of Margaret Addison, who became a dean of the school. Coleman was also a friend of New Zealand writer Edith Joan Lyttelton, during her stays in Canada. Coleman was a mentor to Canadian poet Marjorie Pickthall. Her friendship with fellow Canadian poet Ethelwyn Wetherald was especially intimate.Coleman's poems appeared under dozens of pseudonyms in many Canadian and American magazines, including Atlantic Monthly, Collier's, and Ladies' Home Journal, until 1906, when she published Songs and Sonnets under her own name, by the Tennyson Club of Toronto. Further poetry collections were s:Marching Men: [War Verses|Marching Men: War Verses] and Songs. Her stories and articles continued to appear under various pseudonyms. Another book by her, Sheila and Others, was a collection of short stories and bore the byline "Winifred Cotter". She was a member of the Canadian Authors Association, and of the University [Women's Club of Toronto].