BARBARA M. FREEMAN explains, in Kit`s Kingdom: the Journalism of Kathleen Blake Coleman (Carleton University Press, 198 pages, $14.95 paper), that 11 given the limitations of the biographical material on her, this is not the story of Kathleen Blake Coleman, but an account of her public persona, Kit." Kathleen Coleman was an Irish immigrant who began writing for the Toronto Daily Mail in 1889. Despite three marriages, she had to work to support her two children and continued to grind Out newspaper copy until her death in 1915. Though eminently successful as a journalist, she dreamed of becoming a "leading literary figure" and suffered from depression. To her readers, "Kit" Coleman was a feisty, outspoken adventurer with a strong maternal instinct who "walked a creative tightrope between what was acceptable for a nineteenth-century woman to write and what was too daring." And there`s the rub, not only in Kathleen/Kit`s life but also in this book, which originated as an academic thesis. Freeman has turned her fascinating subject into a case study in cultural history, measuring every action and opinion by feminist criteria. Some valid points are made, but the zest of "Kit`s Kingdom" itself is sadly missing.