Literature

Introduction: The Children's Literature Collection represents a diverse range of genres and subject matters (e.g. fables, fairy tales, moral and religious instruction, adventure fiction, natural history, travel, poetry) and houses many fine examples of illustrated works from the late 19^th and early 20^th century, as well as a significant grouping of 19^th century chapbooks.

Sub-Collections: The Children’s and Juvenile Literature Collection incorporates several named collections, including:

• The Sheila R. Bourke Collection
• The Soviet Children’s Collection

Extent: The collection consists of approximately 9,500 items, including the some 2,500 items that make up the Sheila R. Bourke Collection.

Types of material: The collection encompasses a range of formats including picture books, serials, chapbooks, interactive/moveable books, classroom primers and textbooks, and penny-dreadfuls. There is also reference material including bibliographies and booksellers’ catalogues.

Highlights: The Sheila R. Bourke Collection is notable for housing fine press editions of works illustrated by Walter Crane, Edmund Dulac, Kate Greenaway, and others associated with the period referred to as the Golden Age of Illustration. The Bourke Collection also houses some 950 chapbooks, many illustrated and approximately 135 of which are hand-coloured. Elsewhere, there are rare Christian catechisms and non-fiction works on history and natural history. The collection is also notable for housing numerous rare interactive/moveable books, as well as many small-format books from Whitman Publishing Company’s Better Little Books series. There is a near-complete run of books by G.A. Henty, many published by Blackie & Son.

Date range: The bulk of the collection dates from the 19th and early 20th centuries, though there is considerable material from earlier and later periods.

Language/s: Primarily English, with some French and German. The Soviet Children’s Collection contains books in various East Slavic, Baltic, and Turkic languages, including Ukrainian, Georgian, Armenian, Tatar, and others.

Geographic coverage: The majority of the collection comes from Canada, Britain, and the United States, although there is consider material from elsewhere (the most notable exception is the several hundred books published in the Soviet Union between the 1920s and 1940s).

Provenance: Portions of the collection came to Rare Books and Special Collections via other McGill libraries and departments, including the former Education and Library and Information Studies libraries. The Sheila R. Bourke Collection is comprised of books donated by Sheila Bourke, a contemporary Montreal collector and book historian.

Access: A majority of the collection is catalogued and findable via WorldCat. Requests for specific material can be made via the catalogue or by contacting the librarian or visiting the Rare Books and Special Collections reading room. Digital collection and exhibit pages, which provide access to digital surrogates, have been created around several parts of the collection, including chapbooks, the Soviet Children's Collection, as well as fables and fairy tales from the Sheila R. Bourke Collection.

Librarian: Jacquelyn Sundberg, email: jacquelyn.sundberg [at] mcgill.ca

Librarian: unassigned. Contact rarebooks.library [at] mcgill.ca for more information. 

Extent, highlights, language/s, provenance: The first accession of the library of the Canadian poet and lawyer F.R. Scott (1899-1985) came in 1988, the gift of Mrs. Marian Scott. The library contains volumes of Canadian (English and French), American and English poetry from the 1920s to the 1980s, and much fiction, belles-lettres, non-Canadian literature, and books on political and social issues. The second accession of books, mainly on English literature and politics, was received in 1994. Included are Marianne Moore's Poems (1921, her first book), many titles by T.S. Eliot, W.H. Auden, Edith Sitwell, and a run of the 1930s Paris review Transition. The library demonstrates the breadth of Scott's intellectual, political and literary interests. There are about 3,000 titles.

Access to the collection: Records for about half the titles are in the McGill Library catalogue.

Description: Bruce Whiteman,"The F.R. Scott Library", Fontanus II (1989), 97-101.

Librarian: Christopher Lyons, Head Librarian (e-mail: christopher.lyons [at] mcgill.ca, telephone: 514-398-4708)

Access to the collection: The totality of the collection is available through the McGill Library catalogue.

Librarian: Christopher Lyons, Head Librarian (e-mail: christopher.lyons [at] mcgill.ca, telephone: 514-398-4708)

Introduction and extent: The collection was formed in 1946 from Stephen Leacock's bequest of his literary manuscripts and a gift of Leacock books from the Montreal book collector Norman H. Friedman. It comprises 265 monographs; 53 portraits and drawings; 2.1 linear metres of literary manuscripts. The collection includes first, variant and signed editions of Leacock's works; periodical articles by Leacock; books about Leacock; books owned by Leacock, photographs and portraits. The manuscripts include drafts of many of his books and articles as well as some correspondence both to and from Leacock.

Access to the collection: The totality of the collection is available through the McGill Library catalogue.

Description: Bruce Whiteman, "Leacock Remains at McGill", Fontanus VII (1994), 11-14. The manuscripts are described under Canadian Literature in the Manuscript section.

Librarian: unassigned. Contact rarebooks.library [at] mcgill.ca for more information. 

Introduction and date range: The collection constitutes part of the personal library of the Canadian poet Ralph Gustafson (1909-1995). He began to collect seriously during the Second World War as part of his work on an anthology, the Penguin Book of Canadian Verse. The collection was acquired in 1991 and has been kept as a unit. It consists of volumes of Canadian poetry covering the century, or so, from roughly 1880 to 1980. It is rich in presentation and association copies and contains most of the rarest books of Canadian verse since the time of the Confederation poets.

Extent: There are some 2,000 titles.

Highlights: The rarities include W.W.E. Ross' Sonnets and Laconics, Dorothy Livesay's Green Pitcher, and virtually complete runs of the books by F.R. Scott, John Glassco, Louis Dudek, Irving Layton and others.

Access to the collection: The totality of the collection is available through the McGill Library catalogue.

Librarian: Ann Marie Holland, Liaison Librarian (e-mail: ann.holland [at] mcgill.ca, telephone: 514-398-4707)

Librarian: Ann Marie Holland, Liaison Librarian (e-mail: ann.holland [at] mcgill.ca, telephone: 514-398-4707)

Librarian & curator: unassigned. Contact rarebooks.library [at] mcgill.ca for more information. 

Librarian & curator: unassigned. Contact rarebooks.library [at] mcgill.ca for more information. 

Provenance: The nucleus of the collection was given to the library in 1946 by the Montreal book collector Norman H. Friedman. To this was added the library's holdings of Kipling and subsequent purchases.

Extent and highlights: The collection of some 1,541 items includes first, early, variant and collected editions of Kipling's works. As well, single issues of periodicals containing articles and stories by Kipling are in the collection. Other material includes scrapbooks of clippings by and about Kipling, some secondary works including bibliographies; a manuscript Traffics and Discoveries (1904) and autograph letters.

Librarian: Christopher Lyons, Head Librarian (e-mail: christopher.lyons [at] mcgill.ca, telephone: 514-398-4708)

Introduction: The Hannah More collection includes many early and later editions of this English religious writer's more important works on education and morals as well as many of the minor items such as plays and poetry.

Highlights: There is a run of 35 of the first printing of Cheap Repository Tracts, 16 of which are by More (1745-1833) as well as a prospectus for the Tracts and later printings of the Tracts. Other holdings include a copy of Elizabeth Montagu, An Essay on the Writings and Genius of Shakespear fifth edition (1785) with a presentation inscription from the author to Hannah More in More's hand.

Related RBSC collections: Autograph letters by More and her sisters are held in the Manuscript Collection.

Access to the collection: The totality of the collection is available through the McGill Library catalogue.

Librarian: Ann Marie Holland, Liaison Librarian (e-mail: ann.holland [at] mcgill.ca, telephone: 514-398-4707)

Provenance: The collection was established in 1953, the nucleus being the 250 items donated by Dr. Lawrence Lande. It has been added to regularly.

Highlights: The collection includes first, early and variant editions of William Blake's literary works and his illustrations for books by Blair (The Grave), Young (Night Thoughts) and others. As well, there are facsimiles of Blake's coloured works; original engravings by Blake and his school; and editions of works by his friends and followers such as Fuseli, Palmer and Calvert. There is also modern criticism of Blake.

Extent and types of material: There are some 1,601 books and serials, 1,173 slides, 53 engravings, 21 drawings; 36 reproductions, etc.

Access to the collection: The totality of the collection is available through the McGill Library catalogue.

Description: A Catalogue of the Lawrence Lande William Blake Collection in the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections of the McGill University Libraries. Montreal: McLennan Library, 1983.

Librarian: Jennifer Garland, Assistant Head Librarian (e-mail:jennifer.garland [at] mcgill.ca"> jennifer.garland [at] mcgill.ca, telephone: 514-398-4785)

Extent, highlights, types of material: The collection was purchased in 1954 and includes over 400 books on Shakespeare, his plays and the Elizabethan theatre; and some 200 pamphlets, reviews, transcripts of lectures, magazine articles and brochures, for the years between 1850 and 1950 from Chamber's library. There is the Jahrbuch der Deutschen Shakespeare-Gesellschaft (1865-1929) and the 15 facsimiles of the Shakespeare Association (1931-1938). The collection is complemented and supplemented by the Rare Books holdings of Shakespearean material including copies of the second and fourth folios, and numerous 18th and 19th century editions of the plays, many from the 19th century Montreal collector and dealer in antiquities T.D. King. There are also various facsimile editions of plays including the 147 volumes of the Old English Drama Students Facsimile Edition (1907-1914).

Librarian: Ann Marie Holland, Liaison Librarian (e-mail: ann.holland [at] mcgill.ca, telephone: 514-398-4707)

Extent: The 52 titles in this collection include many first and early editions of Burton's works. A number of the volumes have the bookplate of the Canadian financier Sir George Stephen, Bart (Lord Mount Stephen, 1829-1921). Other titles and editions of Burton's works are in the general rare book collection.

Access to the collection: The totality of the collection is available through the McGill Library catalogue.

Librarian: Ann Marie Holland, Liaison Librarian (e-mail: ann.holland [at] mcgill.ca, telephone: 514-398-4707)

Provenance: In 1991 Rare Books acquired this Thomas Chatterton Collection containing books by and about the English poet Thomas Chatterton (1752-1770).

Extent, highlights, types of material: The collection of 49 items includes first editions of The Auction: A Poem (1770), The Execution of Sir Charles Bawdin (1772) and The Revenge (1795); and a copy of the second edition of the Poems, Supposed to Have Been Written at Bristol, By Thomas Rowley (1778 — the first and third were already among holdings of Rare Books). As well, there is a copy of Sir Herbert Croft's scarce novel Love and Madness (3rd ed., 1780) which prints some of Chatterton's letters; several books and pamphlets on the Rowley controversy; and many later editions of Chatterton's poems, as well as biographical and critical works.

Access to the collection: The totality of the collection is available through the McGill Library catalogue.

Librarian: Ann Marie Holland, Liaison Librarian (e-mail: ann.holland [at] mcgill.ca, telephone: 514-398-4707)

Introduction: The collection was acquired in 1992 from an American family that had been friends of Walter de la Mare (1873-1956). The collection includes most of Walter de la Mare's published writings, often in multiple editions; in many cases the dust jacket is present. Many of the volumes are author's presentation copies.

Extent and types of material: The collection includes 135 titles, 89 letters from de la Mare, 3 photographic portraits and numerous off-prints.

Access to the collection: The totality of the collection is available through the McGill Library catalogue.

Librarian: Ann Marie Holland, Liaison Librarian (e-mail: ann.holland [at] mcgill.ca, telephone: 514-398-4707)

Introduction and extent: The William Butler Yeats collection is composed of first, early and variant editions of most his writings, some 86 volumes in all. There is some criticism and a few books by his son Jack Butler Yeats.

Related RBSC collections: The Yeats material is complemented by a selection of material in the Colgate History of Printing Collection published by the Cuala Press. This includes a complete run of A Broadside (1908-1915), early works by Yeats and others and some of their more recent works dealing with the Celtic Twilight.

Librarian: Ann Marie Holland, Liaison Librarian (e-mail: ann.holland [at] mcgill.ca, telephone: 514-398-4707)

Introduction and extent: The C.P. Snow collection was given to the library in 1987 by its creator Brian Coleman of Vancouver. The collection of some 67 volumes includes both first and later editions of Snow, both fiction and non-fiction. There is an uncorrected proof copy of The Malcontents and a number of autographed copies. Eighty percent have their dust jackets.

Access to the collection: The totality of the collection is available through the McGill Library catalogue.

Librarian: Ann Marie Holland, Liaison Librarian (e-mail: ann.holland [at] mcgill.ca, telephone: 514-398-4707)

Highlights and date range: The collection's holdings of English literary papers are diverse. The earliest item is four leaves from a 15th century copy of John Lydgate's translation of Boccaccio's The Fall of Princes. The rest of the material is of a much later date, primarily of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. Poetry, including some anonymous collectanea, is especially well represented. For example, there is an interesting early 18th century manuscript containing a version of Yarico to Inkle: An Epistle attributed to Edward Moore. As well, there are authors' manuscripts of plays, novels and short stories, and some correspondence. The following names are representative of the collection's holdings: Rudyard Kipling, John Ruskin, Robert Southey, Hannah More, Charles Dealtry Locock, Jane Porter, Arnold Bennett, Wilkie Collins, Robert Nichols, Charles Kingsley, Martin Hume, Edgar Jepson (on Ernest Dowson), Samuel Butler and William Henry Wills.

Librarian: Ann Marie Holland, Liaison Librarian (e-mail: ann.holland [at] mcgill.ca, telephone: 514-398-4707)

Introduction: The collection was purchased in 1970 from the collector Thomas Judson Jackson of Carbondale, Illinois. It includes early and variant editions of Malcolm Lowry's published works and translations of Under the Volcano. As well, there are books and periodicals containing contributions by Lowry; books by his wife and books and periodicals mentioning him or containing reviews and criticism. There is correspondence between the Canadian poet Earle Birney and Thomas J. Jackson concerning the preparation of a bibliography (unpublished) of Lowry's work (1966-1970).

Extent: There are some 360 items in the collection.

Librarian: Ann Marie Holland, Liaison Librarian (e-mail: ann.holland [at] mcgill.ca, telephone: 514-398-4707)

Introduction and highlights: The collection of Crébillon fils (1701-1777) was acquired from a private collector in 1995. To this were added some titles and editions already held by Rare Books. The collection includes over 60 editions of Crébillon's various books, many of which are quite scarce. The collection is particularly rich in variants. For example, Le Sopha is present in three distinct issues of the first edition of 1742 as well as a separate edition of the same year. There is also an unrecorded 1782 edition of Le Sopha. Other works are also present in multiple 18th century editions and variants. Sixty-seven titles are present and there is one 18th century English translation.

Access to the collection: The totality of the collection is available through the McGill Library catalogue.

Description: "Crébillon fils", Coranto, No. 19 (Autumn 1995), 3.

Librarian: Ann Marie Holland, Liaison Librarian (e-mail: ann.holland [at] mcgill.ca, telephone: 514-398-4707)

Introduction: Philosopher and homme de lettres of Swiss origin, Rousseau was an original thinker, largely at odds with the prevailing opinions of the times. His works provoked debate across Europe and as a result, were readily printed. His ideas are still at the core of teaching curricula and used in classes and research papers. Noteworthy for its depth of contemporary editions and numerous editions of his collected works, the McGill collection is a comprehensive and carefully curated collection of fine editions making it a prime resource in North America.

Extent: There are more than 250 writings by Rousseau, some of which are first or early editions (including counterfeits), or variant states of any one edition. There are translations (predominantly into English), adaptations, and abridgments which afford further dimensions for study.

Types of material: Rousseau is noted for the rich diversity of his oeuvre: essays, fiction, political treatises, compendiums of botany, a dictionary of music and an opera, printed in books and collected sets of his works, while many pamphlets attest to his controversial ideas.

Date range: 18th century contemporary imprints and 19th century republications.

Language/s: Predominantly French and English, with many European language translations.

Geographic coverage: Europe

Provenance: Formed in the 1950s and developed substantially in the 1980s and 1990s.

Highlights: Rousseau first gained widespread attention with a prize essay on the arts and sciences published in June 1751 as Discours sur les Arts et les Sciences, followed by Discours sur l'origine et les fondemens de l'inégalité parmi les hommes (1755). The collection houses these pivotal works along with the numerous pamphlets and rejoinders which raged in print over decades. McGill also collects comprehensively on the most famous titles upon which Rousseau worked simultaneously: La Nouvelle Heloise (1761), Emile (1762), and the Contrat Social (1762). Rousseau had wide impact in Britain. Translations into English add significant scholarly reflection of his oeuvre. Many contemporary commentaries and criticisms on his works, such as the numerous rejoinders published in pamphlets and books in response to his Lettre a d’Alembert (1758), which ended in an irreparable discord among the encyclopédistes.

Rousseau’s Dictionnaire de musique (1764), and his lessons on botany are highly present and scarce, including Lettres elementaires sur la botanique (1771). He also shaped the autobiographical genre in interesting ways, and used it to explain and defend his own writings in the posthumously published Confessions and the Reveries d’un promeneur solitaire. Notable examples at McGill of Rousseau’s collected works included an early set published in Geneva in 1756, and the Oeuvres de Rousseau published in Amsterdam in 1770 by Rousseau’s exclusive publisher Marc-Michel Rey. Rousseau’s editions are the most embellished editions of all the subsequent editions of the philosophes in the 19th century, making them highly collectible.

In terms of manuscripts, there is also a contemporary manuscript copy of “Jean Jacques Rousseau… a Christophe de Beaumont,” dated 1763, representing Rousseau’s response to Archbishop Beaumont about the latter’s condemnation of Emile. In addition, there are examples of Rousseau apocrypha, such as the Letters of an Italian Nun.

Access to the collection: The totality of the collection is available through the McGill Library catalogue.

Related RBSC collections (bibliographic): McGill is a major destination for Enlightenment studies. The Rousseau collection is a fundamental part of McGill’s holdings specialized in the French Enlightenment. It is an interesting counterpoint to the J. Patrick Lee Voltaire Collection, and contributes to writings by the encyclopédistes and many French Enlightenment authors: Crébillion fils, Louis-Sebastien Mercier, and Retif de La Bretonne and female writers such as Madame de Graffigny. It also relates to scope of the library’s material on the French Revolution and on Napoleon. The collection has specific connections to British philosophy of the period, including that of Scottish philosopher David Hume, and has broader rapport with the extensive holdings in 18th century intellectual history.

Librarian: Ann Marie Holland, Liaison Librarian (e-mail: ann.holland [at] mcgill.ca, telephone: 514-398-4707)

Librarian: Ann Marie Holland, Liaison Librarian (e-mail: ann.holland [at] mcgill.ca, telephone: 514-398-4707)

Introduction: Rare Books has significant holdings of 18th century French literature including 37 original and later editions of many of the works by Nicolas-Edme Restif de la Bretonne. For Louis Sébastien Mercier there are four 18th and early 19th century editions of L'an deux mille quatre cent quarante as well as two English translations from the same period and other works. Other authors represented include Crébillon Père (1674-1762), Jean-Baptiste Rousseau, Bernard de Fontenelle, Mme. de Graffigny (Lettres d'une peruvienne) and Jean Henri Maubert de Gouvest (Lettres iroquoises). There are copies of Charles Garnier's Voyages imaginaires... (1787-1789), Charles Mayer's Le cabinet des fées et autres contes merveilleux (1785-1789) and a long run of Bibliothèque universelle des romans (1775-1781). There are also important holdings of many of the minor risqué works of the century such as Le Parnasse libertin, ou, Recueil de poésies libres (1775), Contes des fées nouvelles...le tout dédie à la volupté (1776) or Les Gaillardises du Frère Maurice, de l'ordre hospitalier des Moines Débauchés (1785).

Related RBSC collections: All of this material is complemented by and complements the Jean-Jacques Rousseau Collection.

Librarian: Ann Marie Holland, Liaison Librarian (e-mail: ann.holland [at] mcgill.ca, telephone: 514-398-4707)

Librarian: Ann Marie Holland, Liaison Librarian (e-mail: ann.holland [at] mcgill.ca, telephone: 514-398-4707)

Introduction and highlights: The collection contains a variety of materials documenting French history and literature. There are a number of fragments of early French literary texts including two leaves from a copy of the Chevalier du Cygne dated c. 1300. There is a copy dated c. 1660 of the Receul [sic] des actes de tous les Sinodes Nationnaux...au Royaume de France, 1559-1660. There are also six volumes of Extracts concernant les Antiquités Françaises by Jean Baptiste de la Curne de Sainte Palaye (1768) and a copy of Henri de Boulainvillier's Essay de metaphysique dans le principe de B*** de Spinosa (c. 1700). As well, there is a variety of documents concerning the Revolution and more particularly Napoleon. Note should also be made of the letters of Julie de Vietinghoff, Baronne de Krudener, of Juliette Lamber Adam and of Ernest Renan.

Librarian: Ann Marie Holland, Liaison Librarian (e-mail: ann.holland [at] mcgill.ca, telephone: 514-398-4707)

Extent, date range, language/s: The Rilke collection was formed in the late 1950s. The collection comprises some 300 titles and includes fiction, drama, poetry, letters and other prose pieces by the Austrian poet (1875-1926). There are many first and limited editions, as well as later and collected editions. Many of Rilke's works appear in translations, primarily in English and French, although there are Italian, Japanese and Chinese translations of some of the works. A number of bilingual editions (German/English; German/French) are also present. A significant part of the collection consists of critical works on the poet. Most of the material dates from before 1960.

Librarian: Lauren Williams, Liaison Librarian (email: lauren.williams [at] mcgill.ca, telephone: 514-398-1364)

Introduction and types of material: The collection was donated to the library in 1981 by the family of the collector, the late Joe Fishstein of New York City. It is composed primarily of 20th century Yiddish belles-lettres, poetry and criticism. While there are many standard works in the collection, there are, as well, many rare pre-World War II East European imprints. There are also scrapbooks of photographs and postcards.

Extent: The collection includes some 2,500 monographs and 200 serials. Most of the volumes have mac-tac bindings made by Fishstein.

Access to the collection: The totality of the collection is available through the McGill Library catalogue.

Description: "Fishstein Collection of Yiddish Poetry", Coranto, No. 16 (Spring 1994), 3.

Goldie Sigal, A garment worker's legacy: the Joe Fishstein Collection of Yiddish Poetry the catalogue. Montréal: McGill University Libraries, 1998.

Goldie Sigal, A garment worker's legacy: the Joe Fishstein Collection of Yiddish Poetry: an online catalogue & exhibit. [Montréal]: Digital Program, McGill University, c2001.

Librarian & Curator: unassigned. Contact rarebooks.library [at] mcgill.ca for more information. 

Librarian & Curator: unassigned. Contact rarebooks.library [at] mcgill.ca for more information. 

Introduction: The Western and Cowboy Fiction Collection is a significant genre-based collection, housing many books not commonly found outside of the United States, as well as rare British editions. The collection includes notable runs of works by B.M. Bower (Bertha Muzzy Sinclair), Max Brand (Frederick Faust), Zane Grey, and William MacLeod Raine.

Extent: The collection consists of approximately 1,010 items.

Types of material: Books; one musical score.

Highlights: Original dust jackets are found on more than half the books in the collection. The collection is also notable for its inclusion of Canadian titles such as Blood on the Yukon Trail as well as “Piccadilly westerns” (British works of western fiction), including first editions of works by Oliver Strange.

Date range: The bulk of the collection dates from the early to mid-20th century.

Language/s: English.

Geographic coverage: United States, Britain, and Canada.

Provenance: Books forming the collection were purchased by faculty in the McGill Comparative Literature programme in 1976.

Access to the collection: The collection is fully catalogued. Researchers are able to search and request catalogued material via the McGill Library catalogue. Requests can also be made by contacting the librarian or visiting the Rare Books and Special Collections reading room.

Librarian & Curator: unassigned. Contact rarebooks.library [at] mcgill.ca for more information. 

Librarian & Curator: unassigned. Contact rarebooks.library [at] mcgill.ca for more information.