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Finding Aid - Index

Engel, Marian

Marian Engel fonds. -- 1949-1985. -- 6.78 m of textual records. -- 10 photographs.

Marian Engel, novelist, was born Marian Searle in Toronto on 24 May 1933. She was educated at McMaster University and then McGill University where she wrote her M.A. thesis, under Hugh MacLennan's supervision, on the English-Canadian novel in 1957. After teaching briefly in Montreal and at the University of Montana, she travelled in Europe, marrying fellow McMaster graduate and author, Howard Engel, in 1962. She spent a year in Cyprus and finally returned to Canada where her twin children were born. Her first published novel, No Clouds of Glory appeared in 1968 and was followed by The Honeyman Festival (1970), Monodromos (1973) and Bear (1976), for which she received the Governor General's Award for Literature. She also wrote short stories and children's books. Her last published novel was Lunatic Villas (1981). Engel died in Toronto on 16 February 1985.

There have been eight accruals. The first is arranged into the following series: Correspondence:Personal and General; Juvenilia and Unpublished Manuscripts; Notebooks; Published Novels; Other Books; Children's Books; Short Stories; Plays and Scripts; Column for the Toronto Star; Books Reviews by Engel; Non-Fiction Pieces: Articles, Speeches, etc.; Poetry; Business;Photographs, Articles about and Material Received by Engel; Copies of Published Work:Reviews and Articles. The second accrual is arranged into the following series: Correspondence;Lecture Tours and Conferences; Non-Fiction; Pieces about Marian Engel; Short Stories; Book Reviews; Published Books; Articles and Speeches; Notebooks; Elizabeth and the Golden City (unpublished novel); Embargoed material. The third, fourth, fifth and sixth accruals consist chiefly of single items. They have been integrated into the second accrual. The seventh accrual consists of correspondence only. The eighth accrual consists of correspondence and news clippings.

Title based on content of fonds.
The first accrual was acquired from Engel in 1982. The second accrual was acquired from the estate of Engel in 1992. The third accrual was acquired from James P. Carley in August 1995. The fourth accrual was acquired from Alphabet Bookshop, Port Colborne, Ontario in August 1996. The fifth accrual was also acquired from Alphabet Bookshop in April 1997. The sixth accrual was acquired from Ruth Grogan in May 2000. The seventh accrual was acquired in April 2001 from Sara Sutcliffe, who purchased Engel's house after her death in 1985. The eighth accrual (01-2005) was acquired from Bob and Barbara Beardsley in February 2005.
Finding aid available in hard copy and electronically.
The finding aid to the first accrual is also published in Library Research News 8, no. 2 (Fall 1984).
The following materials in the first accrual are closed until 11 November 2007: correspondence with publishers, Anansi, Clarke, Irwin, General, Hamish Hamilton, McClelland and Stewart,and Seal books; correspondence with literary agents, Russell and Volkening; correspondence with Pauline McGibbon. Box 35 in the second accrual is closed until 12 July 2017. There is no listing of the contents of Box 35.
Further accruals are not expected.

Contact: archives@mcmaster.ca
Last Reviewed: July 25, 2006
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