The Alden Nowlan Papers: An Inventory of the Archive at the University of Calgary Libraries

Description

585 pages
Contains Photos, Illustrations, Index
$34.95
ISBN 1-895176-15-8
DDC 016.811'54

Year

1992

Contributor

Edited by Compiled by Jean M. Moore and edited by Apollonia Steele and Jean F. Tener
Reviewed by R. Gordon Moyles

R.G. Moyles is a professor of English at the University of Alberta.

Review

“Through his many readings and through his weekly and monthly columns,
Nowlan became widely known and loved as a writer. Within the community
closer to him, he was loved as a man.” So writes Roberts Gibbs in the
“biocritical” introduction to this excellent inventory of Nowlan’s
literary archives. And Gibbs, though obviously loyal, is absolutely
right. Nowlan was loved and read, and the fact that the bulk of his
papers and manuscripts now resides in Calgary, so far from his beloved
Maritimes, means only that his reputation was not narrowly confined. He
was loved and read across Canada.

There is, then, no reason to deplore this Prairie repository for an
Atlantic writer but rather much to be thankful for. Nowlan’s papers
are now housed, along with those of a dozen other Canadian writers, in
one of the best literary archives in the country, cared for by experts
who are aware of the need both to preserve and to make public such
valuable documents. This inventory, like all others in the series,
allows accessibility and lucidity to govern arrangement and citation.
The whole is divided into four categories—correspondence, poetry,
prose, and published works— and the individual citations constitute a
package of items (e.g., letters to and from Gibbs) arranged
alphabetically and designated by the manuscript number. It is an
admirable publication, enhanced by two superb introductions and some
appropriate illustrations.

Citation

“The Alden Nowlan Papers: An Inventory of the Archive at the University of Calgary Libraries,” Canadian Book Review Annual Online, accessed March 28, 2024, https://cbra.library.utoronto.ca/items/show/12168.