Victoria College, Cobourg

The Bush Garden: Essays on the Canadian Imagination

The collection of essays by Northrop Frye may be read as a record of poetic production in English Canada during one of its crucial periods. He discusses the imaginative legacy bequeathed to present and future Canadian writers by the earlier novelists and poets.

Frye, Northrop

Northrop Frye

House of Anansi Press

1971

Canadian literature—20th century
Painting, Canadian

PR9184.6 .F79

Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature

Margaret Atwood’s major contribution to Canadian literary criticism, intended as a handbook for secondary school teachers, was according recognized as the most influential work of Canadian criticism in the 1970s. It examines the themes of literary alienation from the environment, and the notion of a national obsession with Canadian “self-victimization.”

Atwood, Margaret, 1939–

Canadiana

House of Anansi Press

1972

Canadian literature—20th century—History and criticism

PR9189.6 .A8

The New World Journal of Alexander Graham Dunlop, 1845

David Paul Sinclair (1942–1974) was a librarian and researcher. He was born in Toronto, Ontario. He died in Toronto after a street accident in London, England.

Sinclair received a M.A. and a Bachelor of Library Science from the University of Toronto. From 1968 to his death, he was employed as a librarian at Victoria University, Toronto, working on manuscripts and the Canadiana collection. He also provided accessioning and cataloguing services to the Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, and taught a course in Canadian Fiction in what was then the Victoria College Department of English.

At the time of his death, he was on leave, working on a Ph.D. in Bibliography at the University of London, England, under Arthur Brown. His chosen subject was English-language printing and publishing in the Canada’s in the nineteenth century, with special emphasis on their relationship to the growth of literary activity. His research focused on nineteenth century British and Canadian poetry from which he published articles and reviews. His research interests also included Canadian book history and copyright issues. He edited Nineteenth Century Narrative Poems (1972) for the New Canadian Library. A more detailed biography, with bibliography appears in The New World Journal of Alexander Graham Dunlop, 1845 (1976) which was completed by his colleague, Germaine Warkentin.

The New World Journal of Alexander Graham Dunlop chronicles the travels of Alexander Graham Dunlop (1814–1892) in the United States and the Canadas. Dunlop's father, John Dunlop was a Temperance reformer, while his uncle, William Dunlop, worked with John Galt in developing the land owned by the Canada Company in southwestern Ontario. 

Dunlop's travel journals describes his experiences in New Oreleans and other cities of the U.S. as well as Toronto, Kingston, Montreal, Quebec, Hamilton, and Niagara Falls. 

The publication of the book was made possible by the memorial contributions made to Victoria University Library by the parents, relations, and friends of David Sinclair.

Dunlop, Alexander Graham, 1814–1892, author

Canadiana

Dundurn Press

1976

Canada—Description and travel
United States—Description and travel

Barrett, Elizabeth, artist
Sinclair, David, 1942–1974, editor
Warkentin, Germaine, editor

F1013 .D85

Victoria College, Cobourg

C.C. James

C.C. James Memorial Room

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The White Wampum

Emily Pauline Johnson (1861-1913) also known as Tekahionwake, “double wampum”), was a poet, writer, artist and oratory performer, born on the Six Nations Reserve in Canada West. Her father, George H.M. Johnson, was of British and Mohawk ancestry, and worked as a cultural interpreter and negotiator.

Johnson was an accomplished performance artist, and travelled extensively throughout Canada and the United States on tours. Johnson incorporated traditional Mohawk cultural artifacts in her acts, which she inherited following the death of her father in 1884, such as wampum belts and masks.

The same year, Johnson’s poetic debut appeared in Gems of Poetry, a literary magazine published in New York. Johnson’s major works of poetry include Canadian Born (George N. Morang and Company, 1903) and Flint and Feather (Musson Book Company Limited, 1912).

Her most important short story collections are Legends of Vancouver (privately printed by Saturday Sunset Presses, 1911), The Shagganappi (Ryerson Press, 1913) and The Moccasin Maker (Ryerson Press, 1913).

The White Wampum was published at the peak of Johnson’s career as a performer.

Johnson, E. Pauline, 1861–1913

Canadiana

Copp, Clark Company

1893

Public domain

PR9199.3 .J6 W44

Sowing Seeds in Danny

Nellie Letitia McClung (1873–1951) was an author, teacher social reformer, politician, and suffragist. She earned a teaching certificate and worked until her marriage to a pharmacist, settling in Manitou, Manitoba. 

The move marked the beginning of her activism and she became involved in the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. According to historian Charlotte Gray, McClung's acquaintance with the women in her town and their plight inspired her political involvement. 

As a prohibitionist and suffragist, she was a prominent lecturer and public speaker. Along with Emily Murphy, Henrietta Muir Edwards, Louise Crummy McKinney and Irene Parlby (or the "Famous 5"), McClung petitioned the Supreme Court in an attempt to have women declared as “qualified persons,” eligible for public office as senators. 

McClung's first novel, Sowing Seeds in Danny (William Briggs, 1910), a humourous depiction of a small prairie town, was a bestseller in Canada and the United States. Her other publications include The Second Chance (William Briggs, 1910), Painted Fires (Thomas Allen, 1925), Leaves from Lantern Lane (Thomas Allen, 1936) and many other titles, in addition to magazine articles and short stories. She also contributed two autobiographies, Clearing in the West: My Own Story (Thomas Allen, 1935) and The Stream Runs Fast: My Own Story (Thomas Allen, 1945).

McClung, Nellie L., 1873–1951

Canadiana

William Briggs

1908

Public domain

PR9199.3 .M3332 S6 1908a

Think of the Earth

Bertram Richard Brooker (1888–1955) was an artist, novelist, poet, journalist, critic, and advertising executive. He was born in Croydon, England and settled in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, in 1905. 

Brooker was the first Canadian artist to exhibit abstracts and and his preferred media were oil, watercolour, pencil, ink and print. His early paintings include Sounds Assembling (1928) and Alleluiah (1929). 

Yearbook of the Arts in Canada, a review of art, poetry, drama and literature was a project originated and edited by Brooker. The first volume was published in 1929, and the second appeared in 1936.

Think of the Earth was awarded the first Governor General's Award. It is set in Poplar Plains, a fictional prairie town based on Portage la Prairie. A scholarly edition, with explanatory notes and a bibliography, was published in 2000 by Brown Bear. 

Brooker, Bertram, 1888–1955

Canadiana

Thomas Nelson & Sons

1936

Public domain

PR9199.3 .B72 T54 1936

A Bibliography of Canadian Poetry (English)

Charles Canniff James (1863–1916) was a book collector, academic, distinguished civil servant, and an authority on Canadian history and literature. James was educated Victoria College, Cobourg, Ontario, where he received a Bachelor of Arts in 1883 and a Master of Arts in 1886.

In 1898, presented a collection of approximately four hundred volumes and pamphlets of Canadian literature to Victoria University Library. At that time, the library was located in the Alumni Hall on the main floor of Victoria College. James was a strong supporter of the library, and he also donated the Alfred Tennyson collection.

The bibliography was issued by the Victoria University Library Committee in a limited edition of two hundred copies.

James, Charles Canniff, 1863–1916

Canadiana

William Briggs

1899

Canadian poetry—Bibliography

Public domain

Z1377 .P7 J3

An Editor's Creed

An Editor's Creed was a lecture delivered before the Book Publisher's Association of Toronto at a luncheon on January 27, 1960, celebrating their Golden Jubilee It was given at the Bailey Memorial Lecture, The Head-of-the-Lake Historical Society, Hamilton October 14, 1960.

Lorne Albert Pierce (1890–1961) was among the most influential book editors and literary critics in twentieth-century Canada. Between 1922 and 1960, he served as the Literary Editor at Ryerson Press, a publishing house of the Methodist Church. Pierce was an ardent patriot devoted to the promotion of Canadian literature, poetry, and history through publishing.

William Kirby, Marjorie Pickthall, Earle Birney, and E.J. Pratt were among the prominet poets and authors published by Ryerson Press under Pierce's editorship. 

Pierce established the Makers of Canadian Literature series, the Ryerson Books of Prose and Verse, the Canadian History Readers, the Canadian Art series, and the Ryerson Poetry Chapbooks. He also created the Lorne Pierce Medal (awarded by the Royal Society of Canada) and the Edith and Lorne Pierce Collection of Canadiana. 

The book is the author's inscribed presentation copy to William Arthur Deacon (1890–1977, a literary critic and editor), with a Christmas greeting card from Ryerson Press and signed by John Webster Grant.

Pierce, Lorne, 1890–1961

Canadiana

Ryerson Press

1960

Publishers and publishing—Canada
Ryerson Press
United Church Publishing House

Z483 .P5

Beautiful Losers

Leonard Norman Cohen (1934–2016) was a poet, novelist, singer, and songwriter.

Beautiful Losers is recognized as a significant contribution to literary Canadian postmodernism, but the novel received mixed reviews upon publication in 1966 due to the sexual nature of the subject matter. 

The copy includes annotations by Northrop Frye.

Cohen, Leonard, 1934–2016

Northrop Frye

McClelland and Stewart Limited

1966

Canadian poetry

Frye annotated no.70

M'n N Canadiana, Books by Canadians or About Canada: A National Wedding Present from Wm. Perkins Bull to His Son Michael Bull and His Bride Noreen Hennessy

William Perkins Bull (1870–1948) was a lawyer, businessman, philanthropist, and historian.

His publications describe the historical, religious, and natural heritage of Peel County, Ontario (presently, Regional Municipality of Peel). They include From Macdonell to Mcguigan: The History of the Growth of the Roman Catholic Church in Upper Canada (Perkins Bull Foundation, 1939), From Medicine Man to Medical Man: A Record of a Century and a Half of Progress in Health and Sanitation As Exemplified by Developments in Peel (Perkins Bull Foundation, 1934), among others. 

Bull was also a collector of rare books, art, photographs, and artifacts. M'n N Canadiana is a bibliography of books presented to his son, Michael Bull, on the occassion of his wedding to Noreen Hennessy on July 27th, 1931, St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Chelsea, London. 

Bull, William Perkins, 1870–1948

1933

Autographs—Canada
Canadian literature—Bibliography—Catalogs
Private libraries—Ontario
Rare books—Ontario
Canada—Bibliography—Catalogs

Bull, Michael, 1906–

Public domain

Z1375 .B8