Gwethalyn Graham was a Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 writer, whose 1944 novel Earth and High Heaven

Earth and High Heaven

Earth and High Heaven was a 1944 novel by Gwethalyn Graham. It was the first Canadian novel to reach number one on The New York Times bestseller list and stayed on the list for 37 weeks, selling 125 000 copies in the United States that year....

was the first Canadian book to reach number one on the New York Times Best Seller list

New York Times Best Seller list

The New York Times Best Seller list is widely considered the preeminent list of best-selling books in the United States. It is published weekly in The New York Times Book Review magazine, which is published in the Sunday edition of The New York Times and as a stand-alone publication...

. Graham won the Governor General's Award

Governor General's Award

The Governor General's Awards are a collection of awards presented by the Governor General of Canada, marking distinction in a number of academic, artistic and social fields. The first was conceived in 1937 by Lord Tweedsmuir, a prolific author of fiction and non-fiction who created the Governor...

 twice, for her first novel Swiss Sonata in 1938, and for Earth and High Heaven in 1944.

She was born Gwethalyn Graham Erichsen-Brown, to wealthy Toronto parents. Her father was a lawyer. At 19, she was a student at Smith College

Smith College

Smith College is a private, independent women's liberal arts college located in Northampton, Massachusetts. It is the largest member of the Seven Sisters...

 in Massachusetts

Massachusetts

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

, but dropped out and eloped with John McNaught

John McNaught

John Charles Kirkpatrick McNaught was a Canadian radio broadcaster and writer. He was an announcer for CBC Radio and a host on CBC Television in the 1950s and 1960s...

, the son of her father's business partner. They later divorced, and Graham moved to the city of Westmount, on the Island of Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

 where she became a close friend and associate of Hugh MacLennan

Hugh MacLennan

John Hugh MacLennan, CC, CQ was a Canadian author and professor of English at McGill University. He won five Governor General's Awards and a Royal Bank Award.-Family and childhood:...

, F. R. Scott

F. R. Scott

Francis Reginald Scott, CC commonly known as Frank Scott or F.R. Scott, was a Canadian poet, intellectual and constitutional expert. He helped found the first Canadian social democratic party, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, and its successor, the New Democratic Party...

, Thérèse Casgrain

Thérèse Casgrain

Marie Thérèse Forget Casgrain, was a feminist, reformer, politician and senator in Quebec, Canada.Thérèse Casgrain was raised in a wealthy family, the daughter of Lady Blanche MacDonald and Sir Rodolphe Forget...

 and Pierre Trudeau

Pierre Trudeau

Joseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau, , usually known as Pierre Trudeau or Pierre Elliott Trudeau, was the 15th Prime Minister of Canada from April 20, 1968 to June 4, 1979, and again from March 3, 1980 to June 30, 1984.Trudeau began his political career campaigning for socialist ideals,...

. Graham subsequently married David Yalden-Thomson, a philosophy

Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

 professor at McGill University

McGill University

Mohammed Fathy is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university bears the name of James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant from Glasgow, Scotland, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university...

; they subsequently also divorced.

Graham was also an outspoken activist against anti-Semitism

Anti-Semitism

Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...

 and anti-French Canadian

French Canadian

French Canadian or Francophone Canadian, , generally refers to the descendents of French colonists who arrived in New France in the 17th and 18th centuries...

 discrimination; Earth and High Heaven depicted an interfaith

Interfaith

The term interfaith dialogue refers to cooperative, constructive and positive interaction between people of different religious traditions and/or spiritual or humanistic beliefs, at both the individual and institutional levels...

 romance between a Protestant woman from Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

 and a Jewish man from Northern Ontario

Northern Ontario

Northern Ontario is a region of the Canadian province of Ontario which lies north of Lake Huron , the French River and Lake Nipissing. The region has a land area of 802,000 km2 and constitutes 87% of the land area of Ontario, although it contains only about 6% of the population...

. The novel was optioned by Samuel Goldwyn

Samuel Goldwyn

Samuel Goldwyn was an American film producer, and founding contributor executive of several motion picture studios.-Biography:...

 for a film that was to star Katharine Hepburn

Katharine Hepburn

Katharine Houghton Hepburn was an American actress of film, stage, and television. In a career that spanned 62 years as a leading lady, she was best known for playing strong-willed, sophisticated women in both dramas and comedies...

; however, the film was never made.

Graham died in 1965 of an undiagnosed brain tumour, aged 52.

Graham's sister, Isabel LeBourdais

Isabel LeBourdais

Isabel LeBourdais, née Erichsen-Brown was a Canadian journalist and author. She is best known as the author of the 1966 book The Trial of Steven Truscott, the first major work to argue that Steven Truscott had been wrongfully convicted of murder.Educated at Havergal College and the University of...

, was a journalist whose 1966 book The Trial of Steven Truscott

The Trial of Steven Truscott

The Trial of Steven Truscott is a book written by Isabel LeBourdais, published in 1966, on the trial and conviction of Steven Truscott for the murder of Lynne Harper in 1959...

played a key role in disputing the evidence that led to Steven Truscott

Steven Truscott

Steven Murray Truscott is a Canadian man who was sentenced to death in 1959, when he was a 14-year old student, for the murder of classmate Lynne Harper...

's controversial murder conviction.

Both Swiss Sonata and Earth and High Heaven were reissued by Cormorant Books

Cormorant Books

Cormorant Books Inc is a Canadian book publishing company.Cormorant Books specializes in fiction by new and emerging Canadian writers, reissues of out-of-print classics of Canadian literature, and English translations of works by Quebec writers.- History :...

in 2003.

Graham is the subject of a biography Gwethalyn Graham: a Liberated Woman in a Conventional Age by Barbara Meadowcroft (Toronto: Women's Press, 2008).