Jean Freeman was determined that her friend's memoirs would reach the public domain and many years after her friend's death, the pledge has been completed with the publishing of Fists Upon A Star, the story of Florence James.
Freeman, a noted author, storyteller and part-time actress who appeared in several episodes of Corner Gas, was in Estevan on Sunday to help introduce the book to local readers and history buffs.
Freeman said James, a native of Seattle, was a noted repertory theatre producer, who ended up moving to Saskatchewan with her husband Burton following the Communist scare in the United States in the 1940s and the resulting rise of McCarthyism that was supposedly geared toward exposing and expelling known Communists and "red sympathizers." The exercises and committees charged with the duties ended up going overboard in their enthusiasm and well-documented misplaced knowledge base.
James found herself a target of these committee members, which meant the loss of her theatre, career and ultimately her husband who died during the turmoil years.
"So she came to Saskatchewan," Freeman said, "which was the place to be in 1952. She lived and worked here until her death in 1988. The work was with the Saskatchewan Arts Board, the agency for which Freeman also toiled as a community writer.
"We worked on her book for over 20 years. Different publishers were approached and rejected the manuscript. Some said it had too many personal references, others said it had too much about how to start a theatre information in it."
After several false starts, an interested publisher, the University of Regina Press, said they felt there were several examples of adventures in it to warrant publication.
"For me, it has been a labour of love and then being a guardian of her story," said Freeman, who added that James made lasting contributions to the Canadian art and theatre worlds.
Mary Blackstone provided the introductory message as part of the tome that takes readers through a collection of memories.
"It's probably the last scholarly book I'll work with," said Freeman. "They are certainly different from children's books, which is what I generally write and deal with," she added with a chuckle.
Freeman said the reading and presentation in Estevan on Sunday was arranged by the publisher earlier on, "before they realized it was the same day as a Roughrider home game. I expect I'll be done with the reading in time to catch the second-half in a local bar, I hope," she added.
Freeman had brought the book to Weyburn earlier and that date, along with the Estevan launching were, in essence, pre-launch events since the book will not hit the regular book store stands until October.
