Lunch and Lecture Series: “Montreal Pen and Pencil Club” with Sandra Martin

Sir Andrew Macphail Homestead’s Lunch and Lecture series will run Sundays at 1 pm in July and August. The events feature lunch and Island speakers presenting unique topics such as “Montreal Pen and Pencil Club” with Sandra Martin on July 13.

The Pen and Pencil Club was a bilingual club (1890-1966), was exclusively for men, held in a gentleman’s club, and by invitation only. It fostered friendships between disciplines, specifically writers and artists, where the members had to present a creative item for critique by the group. Sir Andrew Macphail spent his summers on PEI, but in the “cold months” he lived mostly in Montreal where he was an active member of the Pen and Pencil Club, including Stephen Leacock and PEI’s own Robert Harris. Sandra Martin relates the history of the Pen and Pencil Club, which she describes as the open mic event of its era, as the backdrop to the Homestead’s exhibition and sale of art works by local artists.

Sandra Martin, an award-winning journalist and contributing writer for The Globe and Mail, is a great niece of Sir Andrew Macphail and the author or editor of several books, including A Good Death: Making the Most of Our Final Choices, Working the Deadbeat: 50 Lives That Changed Canada, among others. She is a frequent speaker at this series.

 Reservations are required at macphailhomestead.ca or 902-651-2789.