The Collection
The aim of the 19th century private collectors who began the Harris Collection was to acquire all American and Canadian poetry, plays, and music, and this is still the guiding principle of the collection today. It is the largest collection of Canadian poetry and drama outside Canada, and is much larger than collections in most Canadian research libraries.
The collection includes a number of great rarities, of which the foremost is Marc Lescarbot’s Les muses de la Nouvelle France, a masque performed in Nova Scotia in 1606 and published in Paris in 1609. This is not only the earliest Canadian title, but the earliest title in the entire Harris Collection.
In addition, there are extensive collections of major French-Canadian writers of the 19th and 20th centuries, including: Anne Hebert, Francois-Xavier Garneau, Louis Frechette, Emile Nelligan, Gaston Miron, Hector de Saint-Denys Garneau, Gratien Gelinas, Marcel Dube, Marie-Claire Blais, Michel Tremblay, Felix-Antoine Savard, Alain Grandbois, Roland Giguere, Gilles Vigneault, Nicole Brossard, among many others. The collection includes extensive holdings of vocal music and hymnals, anthologies, and literary periodicals. There are also considerable holdings of Canadian poetry broadsides.
See also:
Related Collections
The John Carter Brown Library at Brown University is an internationally renowned, constantly growing collection of primary historical sources pertaining to the Americas, both North and South, before ca. 1825. It includes an extensive collection of Canadiana.
Related Internet Resources
- Literature and culture of francophone Africa and the diaspora
A bilingual database which features selected Internet resources on primarily Francophone African and Diasporic cultural expression. Brown University Library. - Literary Press Group of Canada
- Canadian Poetry
literary journal - Canadian Poetry Association
- Canadian Poets
University of Toronto - Representative Poetry Online
University of Toronto Libraries - Guide to Canadian Literary Magazines and Journals
- Electronic Poetry Center
University of Pennsylvania - League of Canadian Poets
- University of Toronto Libraries: Canadian Poetry Online
Essential References
Amtmann, Willy
Music in Canada, 1600-1800.
Cambridge, Ont.: Habitex Books; distributed by Collier-Macmillan Canada, c1975.
The Annotated bibliography of Canada’s major authors / edited by Robert Lecker and Jack David
Downsview, Canada: ECW Press; Boston: distributed by G. K. Hall, 1979-1994.
Ball, John Leslie
A bibliography of Canadian theatre history, 1583-1975. / John Ball, Richard Plant; general editor, Anton Wagner
Toronto: Playwrights Co-op, c1976.
Ball, John Leslie
The bibliography of Canadian theatre history : supplement, 1975-1976
Toronto: Playwrights Co-op, 1979.
Canadian vocal music, available for perusal from the library of the Canadian Music Centre.
Toronto: Canadian Music Centre, 1967.
Canadian writers, 1890-1920 : edited by W.H. New
Detroit : Gale Research, c1990.
Canadian writers, 1920-1959. First series / edited by W.H. New
Detroit: Gale Research Co., c1988.
Canadian writers, 1920-1959. Second series / edited by W. H. New
Detroit : Gale Research, c1989
Canadian writers before 1890 / edited by W.H. New
Detroit: Gale Research, c1990.
Canadian writers since 1960. Second series / edited by W.H. New
Detroit: Gale Research Co., c1987.
Cass-Beggs, Barbara
A reference list on Canadian folk music / prepared for the Canadian Folk Music Society by Barbara Cass-Beggs and Edith Fowke
Revised and updated.
[Montreal?] : Canadian Folk Music Society, 1973.
Coppens, Patrick
Litterature quebecoise contemporaine / Patrick Coppens ; preface de Gaston Miron
Quebec: Gouvernement du Quebec, Ministere de l’education, Direction generale des moyens d’enseignement : Centrale des bibliotheques ; La Pocatiere, Quebec : Diffusion exclusive, Societe du stage en bibliotheconomie de La Pocatiere, 1982.
Directory of Canadian plays and playwrights / editor, Jane Cunningham
10th anniversary edition
Toronto: Playwrights Canada, c1981.
Doucette, Leonard E.
Theatre in French Canada : laying the foundations, 1606-1867
Toronto; Buffalo: University of Toronto Press, c1984.
ECW’s biographical guide to Canadian poets.
Toronto, Ont. : ECW Press, c1993
Encyclopedia of music in Canada / edited by Helmut Kallmann, Gilles Potvin, Kenneth Winters
2nd edition
Toronto; Buffalo: University of Toronto Press, c1992.
Fraser, Ian Forbes
Bibliography of French-Canadian poetry.
New York: Columbia University, 1935.
Geddes, James
Bibliographical outline of French-Canadian literature
Chicago: 1914.
Jackson, Rick
Encyclopedia of Canadian rock, pop & folk music.
Kingston, Ont.: Quarry Press, c1994.
Johnston, Richard
Folk songs of Canada; Edith Fulton Fowke, literary editor, Richard Johnston, music editor. Illus. by Elizabeth Wilkes Hoey
Waterloo, Ont., Waterloo Music Co., 1955.
Kallman, Helmut
A history of music in Canada, 1534-1914
Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1960.
Kandiuk, Mary
French-Canadian authors : a bibliography of their works and of English-language criticism
Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow Press, 1990.
Laforte, Conrad
Le Catalogue de la chanson folklorique francaise / par Conrad Laforte ; preface de Luc Lacourciere
Quebec: Presses universitaires Laval, 1958.
Legare, Yves
Dictionnaire des ecrivains quebecois contemporains
Montreal: Diffusion, Hachette Canada, c1983.
Livesay, Dorothy, comp.
40 women poets of Canada; edited by Dorothy Livesay, with the assistance of Seymour Mayne
Montreal: Ingluvin Publications, 1971.
Morey, Carl
Music in Canada: a research and information guide.
New York: Garland Pub., 1997.
Nos livres
Montreal, Office des communications sociales.
Brown has: v.8-19; 1977-1988;
The Oxford companion to Canadian literature / general editors, Eugene Benson & William Toye
2nd edition Toronto; New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.
» See also Online Edition
Platnick, Phyllis
Canadian poetry: index to criticisms (1970-1979) = Poòsie canadienne : index.
Ottawa: Canadian Library Association, c1985.
Poetry by Canadian women / edited by Rosemary Sullivan.
Don Mills, Ont.: Oxford University Press Canada, 1989.
Robert, Lucie
L’institution du litteraire au Quebec
Quebec: Presses de l’Universite Laval, 1989.
A check list of printed materials relating to French Canadian literature. Liste de reference d’imprimes relatifs à la litterature canadienne-francaise. [By] Gerard Tougas
Vancouver: University of British Columbia Library, 1958.
Who’s who in the League of Canadian Poets : directory of members 1999/2000 [compiled by Edita Petrauskaite]
Toronto: League of Canadian Poets, c1999.