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_-"' Edrlir Staeblerz' . . a Very" talented _ _ A f Mratinell.oo l writer By Tony James . When Edna Staettler's name is men- tioned, three different people come to mind. To a cook, she is known as mean- thor of a best selling cooAbook entitled Food That Really Sehmecks, a collec- tion of Mennonite and family recipes. Pierre Berton. a friend of 28 years, de- scribes Kitchener-Waterloo as her sort of country. In an introduction to Sauer- kraut and Enterprise, he stated that fre- quently a procession of Canadian writers, himself included. find themselves at her door to try her food. enjoy her friendship and take in the serenity that surrounds herhome. To a person interested in history, she is known as the author of Saueykraut and Enterprise. a series of articles' writ- ten about the Mennonites and the history of Kitchener-Waterloo. a In addition to her role as a famous Ca- nadian author Mrs. Staebler is known in Kitchener-Waterloo as a close friend and neighbour. She has lived here all her life and even though she loves to travel she looks forward to returning to her little green cottage on Sunfish Lake in rural Waterloo. And to 'peoiile in Eastern Canada she is known as the author of Cape Breton Harbour. a book which 'delves into the souls of the people in a little fishing vil- Mrs. Staebler began her professional writing career in 1948 when she had an article published in Macleans Magazine in Toronto. The story was about sword- fishing in Cape Breton and it went over so well that a staff member urged Pierre Berton, then the story editor. to let her do another. He gave his consent and Mrs. Staebler was launched into her career. "I'd never dreamed of becoming .a magazine writer," said Mrs. Staebler. _ she described her career as interesting, sometimes tiring and occasionally har- On one assignment she found herself on a canal barge heading from Donnacona to Western Quebec. The barge was car- rying newsprint through an inland water- way and had been specially designed to go through the narrow locks at the Chambly Canal. "The little boats fit through the locks like a finger in a glove." said Mrs. staetr ler. ”once in a while the boat would get stuck in the shallow river and we would have to sit and.rock back and forth. I must admit it certainly was an interest- ing trip." Mrs] Staebler's spirits were somewhat let down when two of the crew members were drowned along the way. On another assignment. Mrs. Staebler flew to several places with Eastern Pro- vincial Airways and wrote an article on the company, She found this assignment particularly tiring. "On one occasion they told me to be ready for a flight at 6 am, I was there on time and I waited for close to two hours before someone informed me that we could not take off because there were icing conditions along the route, Instead they had arranged an interview for me with the president of the' company. Just think. I could have stayed In bed fitr an- other couple of hours. VR she said. Mrs. Staebler had many similar experr ences while she worked on this particu- lar article but they were not the whole reason for her disliking the assignment “My greatest love IS writing about people." sand Mrs Staebler "Anyone I have written about has become my friend." The article on F,astern Provmcral Air ways was interesting but it did not centre aroundthepeopleinvolved. - A _ - From then on, most of her articles were about people and their communities, She wrote about the inhabitants of Miquelon. a French island on the East Coast of Canada and she lived with a Hutterite community and a miner's family irrWawa, Ontario. In 1966. Mrs. Staebler spent a week with an Old Order Mennonite family hear St. Jacobs. She had always been inter- ested in learning about their lifestyle and beliefs and had thought about doing an article many times. But she didn't quite know how to go about it, When Macleans suggested that she do one, she decided to give it a try. "I went to the Mennonite family and told them that I wanted to do the article." she said. "I explained that there were rumours circulating regarding their be- liefs and customs. When I asked them if they didn't think it would be a good idea to bring the truth out into the open, they agreed." m the article. Mrs. Staebler described tkMennonites' daily routine, their food, the way it was prepared and their reli- gious beliefs and how they are carried “I won ‘the Canadian Women's Press Club Award for the article," said Mrs. Staebler. She explained that this award is pre- sented annually to the woman author who produces the best piece of Journalism. In the years that followed that article, Mrs. Staebler was kept busy working on assignments for Macleans and the Toron- toStar. "Once you are an established writer they are always after you," she said. Mrs. Staebler has not written a maga- zine article for the past six years. She has become more involved with her books and reading the works of other au- thors. . "I do so much reading that I hardly get my own work done," she said. “I have to Keep up with the work of people, I koow."_ “I read it again and I thought. Oh no! It was so old-fashioned. preachy and over- written," she said. “I still like the people in them and the way she writes the country dialect. I guess in this way she did influence me. .. Early in her career, the local author was influenced by the works of Mary Webb. When she was questioned at a lecture about her greatest literary in- fluence, she came home and re-read some of Webb's work. _ Mrs. Staebler started writing her first book in 1948. While she was working on the swordfishing article in Cape Breton she became intrigued by the little fishing village and its people. After numerous trips to the east coast, she finished Cape Breton Harbour in 1972, 'twoke up one morning while I was there and suddenly decided to write a book. I started right away," she said. "The Pennsylvania Dutch Craft Shop wanted to do something special for Cen- tenmal year," said Mrs. Staebler "They asked me to write a book about the Men- nonites but I thought enough had been done already. Then they suggested that some of my already published articles on the Mennonites and Kitchener-Water- loo be published together in a book and we all agreed that it was a great idea, .. Although Cape Breton Harbour was the first book Mrs. Staebler started to write, Sauerkraut and Enterprise was the first one to be published. The Pennsylvania Dutch Craft Shop pub- lished the book in I966 A few years later, The idea of writing the book came from her publishing company. McClelland and Stewart. They knew that she spent a great deal of time with the Mennonites and that she was interested in their family recipes. They believed that other people would be as well. Edna Steamer, a local author. caddies the kitten she calls Wilmot. Mrs. Steel)- Ier is well known for her books. Food That Really Schmecks, Sauerkraut and Enterprise and Cape Breton Harbour. again and there were 10,000 copies sold. - In I968. her cookbook, Food That Really Schmecks could be found in bookstores as far away as New Zealand. .. Mis. Staebler was not completely hap- py at the thought of being known as the author of a cookbook. t McClelland and Stewart published it _Mrs. gambler -enjoys leer ..rfe .as “It took me two' years to complete the book," said Mrs. Staebler. “I had to sam- ple everything that went into it and some of the recipes were so vague that I had to try them three or four times. " "I have always thought of myself as be- ing a writer. not a cook," she_said. “I tried to make it a cookbook which had a little personal feeling in it," said Mrs. Staebler. The author found that like everything else. being an author of such a book has its good points and its bad ones. One of the bad points is that many people are afraid to invite her to dinner because they dort't think they can match her cooking ability. Mrs, Staebler spends a fair amount of time in the kitchen but she finds that most of her sampling is done when she is entertaining. “Che good aspect of all this is that I make up all sorts of stuff on my own." she said. “I know it IS not considered proper to serve your guests something you haven't tried before." she said with a smile, "but when you live alone you can't pos- sibly make all that food and eat it your- self," t'utsrhto.ctt"t'dts+trisi?.A-t lt. mumps have come up to me and told me I should be writing novels. They believe I have the proper writing style for it. .. writer. Through her membership in the Canadian Writers Union. she has met and become close friends with such Ca- natian authors " Margaret Lawrence. Sylvia Fraser, Sheila Burritord and Harold Horwood, At the present time Mrs. Staebler is working on another cookbook and a lie- tion novel. "This will be the first time for me to write fiction," she said. "So many people Mrs. Staebler did not have any formal training in Journalism. She received-her Bachelor of Arts Degree from the Uni- versity of Toronto. Her first job was work- ing at the Kitchener-Waterloo Record in the circulation department. Because she was very poor in mathematics, she left this job and took a position at Wa- terloo Trust, now Canada Trust. A few years later she taught high school. What advice would she give young writers? When she was young, Mrs. Staebler wrote in a diary every day and wrote nu- merous letters. She advises other people interested in writing to do the same thing. The author believes another prerequisite for a writer should be an interest and curiosity about life. "They must have a zest for life and be interested in everything. I have always found things interesting and exciting and I have wanted to write about them rather than just snuff them out," she said, "They should keep on writing of course." she said. "Some people think they can become writers without ever writing anything. "You develop your own unique writing style out of doing this. .. she said.