John Newlove fonds: MSS 70, PC 81, TC 51 (A.86-24, A.86-25, A.86-27, A.86-29, A.86-32, A.86-37, A.86-40, A.86-43, A.88-12)

Inventory prepared by Heinz Kattenfeld
University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections
331 Elizabeth Dafoe Library, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3T 2N2
(1991)

Finding aid encoded by Brett Lougheed (June 2006)
Finding aid written in English.

Collection Summary

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Biography of John Newlove

John Newlove was born in Regina on June 13, 1938. His father, Thomas Harold Newlove, was a lawyer and his mother, Mary Constant (Monteith) Newlove, was a teacher. John Newlove grew up in a number of small towns in Saskatchewan, including Ituna, Yellowgrass, Lloydminster, Grenfell, Veregin, and from 1949 to 1956, in Kamsack. He graduated from the Kamsack Collegiate Institute in 1956 and spent the following year at the University of Saskatchewan.

While enrolled at university John Newlove began writing poetry and he continued his writing while employed at a variety of jobs. He worked as a high school teacher in Birtle, Manitoba, a social worker in Yorkton and in radio in Weyburn, Regina, and Swift Current. He also held numerous jobs in British Columbia and on the Prairies.

From 1960 to 1967 he lived in Vancouver from which he made many hitch-hiking trips to the prairies, Toronto, Montreal, and Chicago. He was married in 1966 to Susan Mary Phillips and had two step-children, Jeremy and Tamsin. He spent most of 1967 in eastern California and Portugese Cove, Halifax, and Wolfville, Nova Scotia. He lived in Prince George and Terrace, British Columbia, until 1970, when he moved to Toronto. The following years were spent in Quebec, Ontario and Saskatchewan in writer-in-residence appointments. In 1982 he moved to Nelson, British Columbia, and taught at the David Thompson University Centre. He lived in Ottawa in his later years.

John Newlove was the senior trade editor for McClelland and Stewart from 1970 to 1974, where he was involved in editing, budget, design and production control. He edited a variety of books, including verse, fiction, non-fiction, picture books and calendars. Books of verse by Ralph Gustafson and F.R. Scott and a novel by Rudy Weibe edited by John Newlove received Governor General Awards.

He has also consulted and/or edited on a freelance basis for McClelland and Stewart, Jonathon Jones Books, Hurtig Publishers, Thistledown Press, the Governor General's Awards Committee, the Canada Council, the Manitoba Arts Council and the Saskatchewan Arts Board.

He was the writer-in-residence at Loyola College, Montreal (1974-1975), where he consulted with students and taught two credit classes in Creative Writing. In the summer of 1975 he worked as a writer in the Communications Branch of the Office of the Prime Minister. He was the writer-in-residence at the University of Western Ontario (1975-1976), Massey College, University of Toronto, (1976-1977) and the Regina Public Library (1979-1980). All of these residencies included personal consultations, seminars, workshops, public and private readings and lectures.

From 1982-1983 he was an instructor at the David Thompson University Centre giving creative writing workshops for first, second and third year students. John Newlove also read and lectured at many universities, and literary societies throughout North America. As a freelance editor, writer, researcher in Ottawa, he did extensive work for the Office of the Commissioners of Official Languages and contracted with the Complaints Commission of the RCMP, the National Library and the Debates Branch of the Senate.

John Newlove received a Koerner Foundation Grant (1964), several Canada Council grants, the Governor General's Award (1972), The Founder's Award of the Saskatchewan Writers' Guild in 1984, the Literary Press Group Award (1988) and the Archibald Lampman Award (1993).

His poems have been published in numerous magazines and anthologies in Canada, the United States, Mexico, Chile, England, France, Belgium, Germany, Romania, India, Australia, Italy, the former Yugoslavia and Hungary.

John Newlove had thirteen chapbooks and published books: Grave Sirs (Vancouver: Robert Reid and Takao Tanabe, 1962); Elephants, Mothers & Others (Vancouver: Periwinkle Press, 1963. 31 pp.); Moving in Alone (Toronto: Contact, 1965. 83 pp.) 2nd edition (Lantzvelle, British Columbia: Oolichan Books, 1977. 88 pp.); Notebook Pages (Portfolio, Toronto: Charles Pachter, 1966); What They Say (Kitchener: Weed/Flower, 1967. 23 pp.) 2nd printing, 1968; Black Night Window (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1968. 112 pp.); The Cave (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1970. 85 pp.); 7 Disaster, 3 Theses, and Welcome Home, Click . (Vancouver: Very Stone House, 1971); Lies (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1973. 96 pp.); The Fat Man: Selected Poems, 1962-1972 (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1971. 127 pp.); Canadian Poetry: The Modern Era (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1977). editor & contributor; The Green Plain (Lantzville, British Columbia: Oolichan Books, 1981); and The Night the Dog Smiled (Toronto: ECW Press, 1986. 78 pp.)

Newlove's poetry was most popular in the 1960s and 1970s when he and Eli Mandel were considered to be among the dominant voices of Canadian prairie poetry. John Newlove died suddenly in Ottawa on December 23, 2003. He was 65.

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Scope and Contents of the Collection

This fonds includes manuscripts of several of John Newlove's poetry books and short stories. Of his twelve publications, this fonds contains literary manuscripts of nine of them along with the related correspondence. Typescripts of publications included are Grave Sirs (1962), Moving in Alone (1965), The Cave (1968), Lies (1972), and The Night the Dog Smiled (1986). An unpublished manuscript is also included. Most of the collection is comprised of journals, correspondence, manuscripts and notes from the mid-1960s to 1986.

There is a large amount of correspondence, both private and business. The private correspondence includes letters to and from Newlove's family, friends and writers. The correspondence includes substantial communications between Newlove and other writers such as Earle Birney, Irving Layton, Al Purdy, John Metcalf, Alden Nowlan, Bernie Childs, Patrick Lane, and others. The business correspondence deals with publishers, universities, various magazines and organizations. The correspondence is essential in understanding how the Canadian literary and publishing scenes "work".

John Newlove's literary essays are also included as are a number of others about Newlove. Also included are John Newlove's opinions and reports and manuscripts and their authors which he edited or was asked to advise on.

Most of this fonds deals with the literary and personal development of John Newlove as reflected in the journals, manuscripts, edited revisions, reviews, reports, essays and correspondence.

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Arrangement of the Papers

This collection is arranged into sixteen series: Diaries and Journals; Poetry; Published Works and Manuscripts; Foreign Anthologies and Periodicals; Foreign Periodicals; Periodicals and Journals; Manuscripts Edited by Newlove; Manuscripts Sent to John Newlove for Comments and Advice; Correspondence with Family and Friends; General Correspondence; Correspondence Relating to Institutions; Correspondence: Reading, Employment, Publishers; Financial and Housekeeping Records; Works Written on Newlove; Photograph Collection (PC 81); and Tape Collection (TC 51)

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Restrictions on Use

The fonds is open to all users. Copyright must be respected and permission to publish any findings must be granted by the University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections.

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Related Materials

Unprocessed material (A.86-27, A.98-68). The Thomas Fisher Library of the University of Toronto acquired a portion of Newlove's earlier works several years ago. These holdings include drafts of poems; typescripts and proofs of Grave Sirs , Moving in Alone , Elephants, Mothers & Others , and Black Night Window ; and correspondence with publishers and other Canadian authors. There is a box of materials at the University of Texas, Humanities Research Center. These holdings include page proofs, etc., for Newlove's contributions to el caorno emplumado/the plumed horn (Mexico City), No. 13 (January 1965), No. 17 (January 1966), and No. 19 (July 1966), and eleven letters from Newlove to el caorno emplumado/the plumed horn (Mexico City) dated 1964-1965.

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Custodial History

The material in this fonds was donated to Archives & Special Collections in nine different accessions between 1986 and 1988.

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Detailed Description of the Collection

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