author

Anna K. (Anna Kelsey) Howard

Best known for a classic guide to speaking and recitation, this little-documented Canadian author helped turn elocution into something students could study and practice on their own. Her surviving work still carries the feel of a practical teacher’s handbook.

1 Audiobook

The Canadian Elocutionist Designed for the Use of Colleges, Schools and Self Instruction, Together with a Copious Selection in Prose and Poetry of Pieces Adapted for Reading, Recitation and Practice

The Canadian Elocutionist Designed for the Use of Colleges, Schools and Self Instruction, Together with a Copious Selection in Prose and Poetry of Pieces Adapted for Reading, Recitation and Practice

by Anna K. (Anna Kelsey) Howard

About the author

Anna K. Howard, also published as Anna Kelsey Howard, is known for The Canadian Elocutionist, a book issued in 1885 by Rose Publishing Co. and later preserved by Project Gutenberg and the Internet Archive. The book was designed for colleges, schools, and self-instruction, and its long subtitle makes its purpose clear: it combines guidance on reading and recitation with a broad selection of prose and poetry for practice.

The available digitized text identifies her as "Anna K. Howard, LL.B." and describes her as a teacher of elocution. Beyond that, reliable biographical details are scarce in the sources I could confirm, so it is safest to remember her through the work itself rather than through a full personal history.

That work suggests a writer deeply interested in clear speech, expressive reading, and confident public delivery. Even now, The Canadian Elocutionist offers a glimpse of how voice training and spoken performance were taught in late nineteenth-century Canada.