Gould, Mona

Mona Gould (nee McTavish) was born on January 25, 1908, in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. Even at a young age, she always knew she was a writer, and after winning a poetry contest at 10, she felt she had all the confirmation she needed. She left school early and became a reporter, filing stories from Port Stanley, Ont., where her family spent summers. She married Graham Gould, a musician, in 1929, and their son John was born later that year. Thus began some years of traditional - if slightly bohemian - domestic life in St. Thomas, Ont. By the thirties, her poetry was appearing in Canadian Forum, Saturday Night, Chateleine and Canadian Poetry magazine. Encouraged by E.J. Pratt, and by B.K. Sandwell of Saturday Night, she published two volumes of poetry with MacMillan: Tasting the Earth (1943) and I Run With the Fox (1946). After the war, Gould became a broadcaster with CKEY, a columnist for New Liberty magazine and Gossip, a fashion magazine. Her radio programs, Listen Ladies and Be My Guest, led to speaking engagements and interviews with such figures as Eleanor Roosevelt, Julie Harris and Louis Armstrong. Gould died of old age on March 8, 1999, in Collingwood, Ont., aged 91.