Hilda Mary Hooke

Hilda Mary Hooke was born at Odcombe, Somerset, England, 3 October 1898. Her parents were Oswald Edgar Smith and Louisa Elizth (Tapscott) Smith.^[3] She came to Canada in 1902.^[4]

For some years after her arrival, she was engaged in musical and dramatic work.^[4] Hooke was affiliated with the Little Theatre in London, Ontario, since the 1920s as producer, director, and playwright. Here Will I Nest, first performed in 1938, became the first Canadian play to be adapted into a motion picture.^[5] She wrote three plays around the central figure of Lord Talbot and another three centered on Dr. John Troyer.^[6]

Later in her writing career, she became a poet.^[4] She also wrote a book about folklore (Thunder in the Mountains: Legends of Canada).^[7]

While serving as secretary to the Chief Inspector of Public Schools, London, Ontario, she published less.^[4] In 1946, she also served as secretary to Canon Quintin Warner.^[8]

On 26 September 1925, she married Richard Tapscott Smith.^[3] She died in Comox, British Columbia, 1978.^[9]

• Here Will I Nest, 1938^[9]
• A Time of Grace: A Play in Three Acts, 1941^[9]
• One-Act Plays from Canadian History, 1942^[9][6]
• The Streamlined Madonna, 1946^[9]
• Legend, 1949^[10]

• Here Will I Nest (alt. Talbot of Canada), 1942^[2]

• Thunder in the Mountains: Legends of Canada, 1947^[9]

• "The challenger. A part song for mixed voices.", 1919 (music by Peter C. Lutkin)