University of Victoria Special Collections Livesay, Dorothy, 1909-1996 SC068 Title Dorothy Livesay fonds Dates 1938-1974 Extent 70 cm of textual records 6 audio cassettes Biographical Sketch Dorothy Livesay was born in Winnipeg. She taught at the University of Alberta from 1968 to 1971 and served as Visiting Professor at the University of Victoria from 1971 to 1974. Her volumes of poetry include "The Green Pitcher", "Day and Night", "Call My People Home", "The Unquiet Bed", "The Documentaries", and "Collected Poems: The Two Seasons". She has published many critical articles and reviews as well as a book of reminiscence "A Winnipeg Childhood" (1973). She received the Governor-General's Award for Poetry in 1944 and 1947, and an Honorary Doctor of Letters degree from the University of Waterloo in 1973. Scope and Content The fonds consists of Livesay's files on Canadian Literature, 1967-1974; teaching files on Canadian authors used for her Canadian literature courses, 1967-1974; and audio tapes of her interviews with various poets, 1964-1974, including Jean Crawley, Alan Crawley, Michael Crawley and Pierre Coupey, as well as a reading of poems for children by Red (Richard Stanley) Lane. Finding Aids Inventory available with series and file level control Title Source Title based on the contents of the fonds.
INVENTORY OF THE RECORDS OF DOROTHY LIVESAY Prepared by: Anne Maclean University of Victoria Archives February 1991 INTRODUCTION The records of Dorothy Livesay housed at the University of Victoria Archives were acquired in 1976 and 1977, and reflect some of her activities while living and teaching in Victoria. Detailed series and file descriptions follow. Researchers should note that many of Livesay's other records are housed in other Canadian repositories, including the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, the University of Alberta in Edmonton, and Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. The U. Vic. Special Collections has a copy of The Papers of Dorothy Livesay: A Research Tool, published by the University of Manitoba Dept. of Archives and Special Collections (1986), which researchers are welcome to consult (call number: (SC) PS8523 I94Z86 1986). For Livesay holdings at Alberta and Kingston, researchers should consult The Union List of Manuscripts in Canadian Repositories; copies are available in U. Vic. Special Collections.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Dorothy Livesay was born in Winnipeg on 12 October 1909. In 1920 she moved with her family to Toronto, where she went to school and later attended the University of Toronto. Her first volume of poetry, The Green Pitcher, was published in 1928. During a visit to France in the 1930's she developed strong socialist convictions, which led to her becoming a social worker and a member of the Young Communist Party after her return to Canada. She also started writing more committed social poems such as "Day and Night" and "The Outrider". In the late 1930's Livesay married Duncan Macnair and moved to Vancouver, and spent much of the 1940's and 1950's raising her two children, Peter and Marcia, both of whom now live in Victoria. In the late 1950's Dorothy Livesay published "Call My People Home", a long documentary poem about the removal of the Japanese from the West Coast of British Columbia during the Second World War. After her husband died in 1959 Livesay spent some years in Zambia, returning to Canada in the early 1960's. She became an important part of the women's movement in Canada and abroad in the 1960's and 1970's. Dorothy Livesay won the Governor-General's Award for poetry in 1944 and 1947, the Lorne Pierce Gold Medal and the Royal Society of Canada Medal for Literature, both in 1946, and the Queen's Canada Medal in 1977. She was a founding member of the League of Canadian Poets, Amnesty International (Canada) and the Committee for an Independent Canada, and also started the poetry journal CVII. Her numerous published volumes of poetry include Signpost, Day and Night, Poems for People, Call My People Home, New Poems, Selected Poems, The Unquiet Bed, The Documentaries, Plainsongs, Disasters of the Sun and Feeling the Worlds. Her Collected Poems: The Two Seasons was published in 1972. Livesay has also written many critical articles and reviews, as well as a book of reminiscences, A Winnipeg Childhood, published in 1973. In addition to her work as a socialist, poet, prose writer and reviewer, Livesay has taught at St. John's College, University of Manitoba; from 1968 to 1971 she taught courses in Canadian literature at the University of Alberta, and in the early 1970's she was Visiting Professor at the University of Victoria. She holds a B.A. and an M.Ed., and received an Honourary Doctor of Letters degree from the University of Waterloo in 1973. Dorothy Livesay continues to live on the West Coast and remains active in her writing and publishing.
SERIES DESCRIPTIONS I FILES ON CANADIAN LITERATURE, 1967-1974 Accession 76-24, Box 1; Box 2, File 1. 35 cm. Arranged chronologically. Clippings collected by Livesay on literature and the arts in Canada, the teaching of Canadian literature at the University of Victoria, and reviews of Canadian books; copies of student essays and theses; broadsides and press releases; notes; correspondence. II TEACHING FILES ON CANADIAN AUTHORS, 1938-1974 [many dates are approximate] Accession 76-24, Box 2, Files 2-49. 28 cm. Arranged alphabetically by author's surname. Files used by Livesay re. 48 Canadian authors, used for her Canadian literature courses. Includes notes; clippings; course handouts and lists of seminar discussion topics; copies of student essays; copies of poems and other works; copies of articles about and interviews with these authors. Authors include Margaret Atwood, Leonard Cohen, Margaret Laurence, Irving Layton, Malcolm Lowry and Mordecai Richler. III AUDIO TAPES, 1964-1974 Accession 77-24, Box 1 6 1/2 track stereo tapes, 7 1/2 ips, 3 3/4 ips. Arranged chronologically. Tapes of conversations and interviews with Dorothy Livesay, Jean and Alan Crawley, and Michael Crawley; includes a CBC radio programme featuring Alan Crawley, 1968, and a master tape of all interview collected by Livesay and given to Special Collections, 1974.
Accession 76-24 Box 1 1.1 Clippings - reviews of Canadian books, 1968-1974. 1.2 Clippings on Canadian publishing, 1970, 1973, n.d. 1.3 Clippings on Canadian writers, 1970-1974. 1.4 Clippings on U. Vic. controversy over Gary Geddes and Canadian literature. 1.5 Clippings on Canadian literature - general, 1967-1975. 1.6 Clippings on the arts in Canada, 1970-1974. 1.7 Clippings on Canadian nationalism, 1970, n.d. 1.8 Clippings on Native peoples - the North, 1970-1973. 1.9 Clippings on politics, social welfare, 1970-1974. 1.10 Clippings on Canadian universities, 1970-1973. 1.11 Clippings - various subjects, 1970-1973. 1.12 Clippings on Dorothy Livesay, 1971-1973. 1.13 Notes by Livesay - hols. and tss., 1970, 1973, n.d. 1.14 Livesay correspondence; drafts of poems, 1970-1972. 1.15 Gregory P. Schultz, M.A. thesis on periodical poetry, University of Western Ontario, 1957. Photocopy, n.p. 1.16 Gregory P. Schultz, M.A. thesis, Appendix. Photocopy. 1.17 Hector de Saint-Denys-Garneau. M.A. thesis by Bryan Dobbs, University of Wisconsin, 1969. Photocopy. 1.18 Christopher X. Ringrose, M.A. thesis, Preview: Anatomy of a Group, University of Alberta, 1969. Photocopy, 150 p. 1.19 Course, West Coast Poetics 410. Hol. notes, course handouts, student poems. 1.20 Press releases, catalogues, announcements, broadsides, 1970-1973. 1.21 Press releases, catalogues, announcements, broadsides, 1972-1974. 1.22 Copies of poems by other poets, some annotated. ca. early 1970's. 1.23 Essay on the poetry of Red Lane; photocopies of poems; hol. notes. 1967. 1.24 Folk songs. Hol. notes; photocopies of Canadian folk songs, 12 p.; copies of Australian folk songs, 7 p. 1.25 "The Machine in Canadian Poetry: Operative Concepts", essay by Troy Reid. Mimeograph ts., corrected by Livesay, 36 leaves. 1.26 "Mythopoeic Poetry"; "The Mythopoeic Tradition in the Work of Five Canadian Poets". Essays by Shirley Swartz, English 590, U. of Alberta, taught by Livesay, January 1969. 1.27 New Brunswick poets - photocopies of poems from The Fiddlehead, p. 8-19, n.d. 1.28 "Cerberus - poems by Louis Dudek, Irving Layton, Raymond Souster". Toronto: Contact Press, [n.d.]. Photocopied pages.
Accession 76-24 Box 2 2.1 Clipping announcing poetry reading by Livesay and others; notes; correspondence. 1972. 2.2 Milton Acorn. Hol. notes and essay by Livesay on Acorn's poetry; copies of Acorn's poems. 2.3 Patrick Anderson. Copy of student essay on Anderson's poetry for English 590, taught by Livesay, January 1969. 2.4 Margaret Atwood. Copies of Atwood's poems (tss.); clippings; notes; student essay on Atwood for English 590. 1972, n.d. 2.5 Margaret Avison. Hol. notes by Livesay; copies of Avison's poems; copy of student essay on Avison for English 590, March 1970. 2.6 Earle Birney. Copies of articles about Birney; copies of Birney's poems, 1940, n.d. 2.7 Marie Claire Blais. Clippings, 1973, n.d. 2.8 Arthur Bourinot. Copy of student essay on Bourinot for English 590, 19 February 1970. 2.9 George Bowering. Clippings; copies of Bowering's poems. 1973-1974, n.d. 2.10 Elizabeth Brewster. Clippings; copies of Brewster poems; student essay for English 590. 2.11 Bliss Carman. Notes (hols. and tss.); clippings; copies of poems and articles. n.d. 2.12 Leonard Cohen. Student essays on Cohen for English 448; clippings; hol. notes by Livesay. 1973, n.d. 2.13 Robertson Davies. Photocopied pages from The Manticore, p. 206-209. 2.14 Louis Dudek. Copies of articles, poems. n.d. 2.15 John Hunter Duvar. Copy of biographical sketch, 4 leaves. n.d. 2.16 Northrop Frye. Copy of article; clipping of interview with Frye in unidentified magazine. n.d. 2.17 Frederick P. Grove. Photocopied pages from unidentified books; clippings; ts. notes and list of discussion questions on Settlers of the Marsh. 2.18 Charles Heavysege. Photocopied pages from books: article on Heavysege; poems by Heavysege. 2.19 Pauline Johnson. Clipping; copy of student essay, Spring 1969, with grade assigned by Livesay. 2.20 A.M. Klein. Student essay for English 590, University of Alberta, February 1971; copies of poems; clippings. 2.21 Raymond Knister. M.A. thesis proposal and progress report, supervised by Livesay. 1969-1970.
Accession 76-24 Box 2 2.22 Archibald Lampman. Photocopied pages from book on Lampman; notes; copies of poems and course hand-outs for English 438. 2.23 Margaret Laurence. Copy of article on Laurence in unidentified journal; hol. notes; clippings. 1974, n.d. 2.24 Irving Layton. Clippings; copies of articles. 1957, 1972-1974. 2.25 Malcolm Lowry. Clipping; copy of poems by Lowry, n.d. 2.26 Daphne Buckle (Marlatt). Hol. notes; carbon copies of Marlatt's poems. 2.27 Anne Marriott. Copies of student essay for English 590; copies of poems. 1970, n.d. 2.28 Nellie McClung. Course handout for English 438; photocopied pages from Clearing in the West and Over My Shoulder. 2.29 Gwendolyn MacEwen. Tss. of MacEwen's poems. 2.30 Thomas D'Arcy McGee. Photocopied pages from thesis by Kathleen O'Donnell, Carleton University (Ottawa, Ont.). 2.31 Louis MacKay (J. Smalacombe). Photocopied pages from Viper's Bugloss, chapbook, 1938. 2.32 Charles Mair. Course handout for English 438; photocopied pages from The Book of Canadian Poetry, with Mair's poems, p. 116-124. 2.33 Eli Mandel. Course handouts for English 590; copies of student essays on Mandel's poetry. 2.34 Susannah Moodie; J.W.D. Moodie. Hol. notes; photocopied pages from magazines; student seminar paper, July 1972. 2.35 John Newlove. Hol. and tss. notes; clippings; photocopies of poems. 2.36 Alden Nowlan. Hol. notes; copies of poems. 2.37 P.K. Page. Hol. notes; clippings; copies of poems; copy of student essay. 1974, n.d. 2.38 E.J. Pratt. Clipping; course handout for English 436; hol. notes; copies of poems; copies of student essays. 1970, n.d. 2.39 Al Purdy. Copies of poems; copy of student essay on Purdy by Leona Gom, 1970; draft of essay on Purdy by Livesay; clippings, 1965, n.d.; photograph of Purdy, 1970. 2.40 James Reaney. Clippings, 1967, 1973; copies of poems. 2.41 Mordecai Richler. Hol. notes; magazine clipping, 1974; photocopy of ts. of unidentified essay. 2.42 Charles G.D. Roberts. Course handout; student papers. Ca. early 1970's. 2.43 Duncan Campbell Scott. Student essays, University of Alberta, 1971-1972; copies of poems; photocopied pages from books and journals.
Accession 76-24 Box 2 2.44 A.J.M. Smith. Copies of poems; copies of essays. 2.45 Raymond Souster. Copies of essays; copies of poems; clippings; hol. notes. 1957, n.d. 2.46 John Sutherland. Copy of student papers; hol. notes. 2.47 Miriam Waddington. Clipping, 1973; copies of poems; hol. notes. 2.48 Anne Wilkinson. Copy of student assignment, February 1969; photocopied pages from the Oxford Book of Canadian Verse, p. 282-287. 2.49 Gordon Williams. Photocopies of poems.
Accession 77-24 Box 1 Audio Tapes - 1/2 track stereo, 7 1/2 ips 1.1 Conversations with Jean and Alan Crawley, Michael Crawley and Dorothy Livesay; Dorothy Livesay reading poems. 1964 1.2 Alan Crawley and Dorothy Livesay discussing recent Canadian literature and books; Pierre Coupey discusses Poesie Concrete. 1965. 1.3 Excerpt of conversation between Livesay and Crawley. 1966. 1.4 Alan Crawley discussing poetry in music; further conversations with Livesay. 1967. 1.5 CBC programme - Alan Crawley, editor of the Magazine Contemporary Verse. 30 November 1968. 1.6 Master tape of all interviews collected by Livesay and given to Special Collections; master tape made in 1974.