Author.
Born at Winnipeg on 9 December 1890, daughter of Icelandic immigrants Larus Thorgeir Gudmundson and Ingibjorg Gudmundsdottir, she grew up in a family which spoke only Icelandic. She spent her early working years as an itinerate nurse, dance hostess, factory worker, and maid, before marrying and settling in Winnipeg.
On 16 July 1913, she married George Salverson (1886-1979) at Winnipeg and they had a son, broadcaster George Salverson (1916-2005). A few years later, she joined her husband on a homestead north of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, later moving to Regina. She turned to writing with the encouragement of Austin Bothwell, and published The Viking Heart (1923). She subsequently produced eight more novels, including Johann Lind (?), Lord of the Silver Dragon (1927), The Dove (1933), Dark Weaver (1937, which won the Governor-General’s Award for fiction), Black Lace (1938), and Immortal Rock (1955, which won the Ryerson Press Fiction Award).
She served for many years as President of the Winnipeg branch of the Canadian Authors’ Association. She also published poetry and a highly-acclaimed autobiography, The Confessions of an Immigrant’s Daughter (1939), which won the Governor General’s Award for non-fiction. She was the first editor-in-chief for The Icelandic Canadian (1941).
She died at Toronto, Ontario on 13 July 1970 and was buried in the Mount Pleasant Cemetery.
Marriage registration [Laura Goodmanson, George Salverson], Manitoba Vital Statistics.
“Laura Goodman Salverson,” Winnipeg Free Press, 17 July 1970, page 21.
“Salverson dies in Toronto,” Winnipeg Tribune, 14 July 1970.
Dictionary of Manitoba Biography by John M. “Jack” Bumsted, Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, December 1999, 288 pages.
George Salverson (1916-2005), History of Canadian Broadcasting.
Laura Goodman Salverson, FindAGrave.
We thank Oliver Bernuetz (Legislative Library of Manitoba) for providing additional information used here.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 20 November 2025
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