John Ball
These four volumes are part of a series of inventories describing the literary archives of the University of Calgary. The general editor for the series is Charles Steele and the editors for these volumes are Jean Tener, University Archivist, and Apollonia Steele, Special Collections Librarian at the University of Calgary. Others who have assisted with compilation include Marlys Chevrefils, Sandra Mortensen and Jean Moore.
Jean Tener in the Archival Introduction to each volume explains the purpose of the listings as follows: 'Each inventory is primarily a control tool designed to identify the contents of a single acquisition and maintain their physical relationships.' She adds, 'The inventories will be most useful when used in conjunction with the documents themselves.' An explanation of the contents of each inventory and its arrangement is also given.
The volumes will be of use to theatre historians and researchers in a variety of ways, some to a greater and some to a lesser extent. The W.O. Mitchell volume covers a period pre-dating his birth up to 1977. It includes listings of family papers and photographs, scrapbooks, research notes, manuscripts, productions scripts, programmes and reviews, and business and personal correspondence. It covers radio, television and stage drama. A note on p xxxvii directs the researcher to the papers of Morris Surdin the composer, to be published as no 17 of the series. Morris Surdin composed accompanying music for Jake and the Kid as well as many other CBC plays, and his archive includes many sound recordings.
Each volume in the series includes a biocritical essay, in the case of W.O. Mitchell by Catherine McLay. There is also in the Mitchell volume a list of titles, a list of titles by genre, alphabetical and chronological listings of outgoing letters and an index.
The Rudy Wiebe Papers cover the period 1953-1975. A second consignment of his papers acquired in 1983 will be dealt with in a future volume. There is a biocritical essay by J.M. Kertzer and the listing includes research drafts, galleys, reviews and correspondence. The chief interest for theatre historians in this volume is the teleplay Someday soon before tomorrow. There is a large amount of correspondence as well as material on his novels and short stories.
The Joanna Glass volume covers principally the period 1967-1977, with some biographical material before 1960. The focus is on the stage plays Santacqua (1969) and The Last Chalice (1977). It also covers film, radio and television scripts and includes sound cassettes of Canadian Gothic and American Modern. The earlier material includes scrapbooks, photos and mementos of her career as an actress and model in the 1950s, including the period she spent at Workshop 14 with Betty Mitchell. The biocritical essay is by Diane Bessai.
The fullest and richest volume amongst these four for Canadian theatre historians is The Gwen Pharis Ringwood Papers. It includes three separate accessions of Ringwood papers from 1980, 1984 and 1986 and covers the years 1913-1986. The earliest play is Dragons of Kent (1936) and the latest Prisoners (1984). Scripts, sound cassettes, correspondence and manuscripts are included. There is a section on creative arts education, including workshop notes and adjudication notes prepared by Ringwood. The biocritical essay in this instance is by Geraldine Anthony. A list of titles, a list of titles by genre and a list of works on Ringwood are also included.
Forthcoming publications in the series which will be of interest to the theatre historian include inventories of the papers of Sharon Pollock, George Ryga, John Murrell, Michael Cook, Patricia Joudry, Donald Jack, Lois Kerr and Len Peterson.
The Calgary Archive is an invaluable source for research in Canadian Studies and this series of inventories is an extremely useful guide to what is held, always bearing in mind that their greatest use is to be found at the Archive itself. The series is produced by a text editor from computer-stored data, and as a result the volumes have something of a repetitive look. The Mitchell volume has some illustrations although more would have been preferable. The other volumes do not have illustrations except on end papers or covers. One can only presume that cost precluded their inclusion. The series publication and preparation have been aided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Council Strategic Grants-Research Tools Program.
The University of Calgary is to be commended for collecting these papers and for making their contents known to a wide audience through this inventory series.