Fonds F0493 - Cameron family fonds

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Title proper

Cameron family fonds

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  • Textual record
  • Sound recording

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Fonds

Reference code

F0493

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Physical description

0.04 metres of textual records
9 audio discs : 78 rpm

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Biographical history

As Margaret Laurence prepared to leave Elm Cottage in Penn, Buckinghamshire, to begin a year as Writer in Residence at the University of Toronto's Massey College, she enlisted the aid of author Dave Godfrey to locate a young Canadian couple who could look after the cottage and provide company for her children, Jocelyn and David. Ian Cameron was a graduate student at York University studying with Professor Clara Thomas, and his wife Sandy was a don at York. They were in England while Ian completed his M.A. thesis on D.H. Laurence, as well as working on his own fiction. The Camerons moved into Elm Cottage in 1969, and developed a close friendship with Laurence that lasted until her death in 1987.

Custodial history

Scope and content

Fonds consists of more than 60 letters, newsletters, poems, and greeting cards written by Margaret Laurence to Ian and Sandy Cameron, as well as a copy of Laurence's will. The correspondence discusses Laurence's work as a writing instructor and speaker at the University of Toronto, her relationship with other Canadian writers and Clara Thomas, her move from Toronto to Lakefield, and her involvement with the Writers' Union of Canada conference in Ottawa in November 1973. Laurence comments extensively on her own works and her efforts to encourage other writers (including Ian Cameron), her efforts to produce a recording of songs with her lyrics and Cameron's musical score to accompany "The diviners," the film contract based on this novel, and her elation at winning the Molson Prize in 1975. The correspondence also discusses her divorce from Jack Laurence, her relationship with her children, and her views on social and generational change. The correspondence is accompanied by nine vinyl recordings given by Laurence to the Camerons that feature European classical music, African palm wine music, and Ghanian highlife music. The fonds also contains five letters from John Ruskin, the Victorian writer and art critic, to Kate Towney and Arbuthnot Cameron, 1865-1867, regarding Towney's marriage and financial affairs, mineral collecting, and ideas from Ruskin's book, "Modern painters." These letters are accompanied by notes and transcripts, as well as a letter written in 1907 regarding the Ruskin correspondence.

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Physical condition

Immediate source of acquisition

This fonds was acquired from Angus Cameron (the brother of Ian Cameron) and his two sons, Peter and Andrew.

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Restrictions on access

No restrictions on access.

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Accruals

The fonds comprises the following accessions: 2005-049, 2005-050. No further accruals are expected.

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Status

Final

Level of detail

Full

Dates of creation, revision and deletion

2006/01/05 Sean Smith:. (Creation)
2006/01/05 Awaiting review by the Data Collection Archivist
2008/12/17 Michael Moir. Tidying up loose ends
2010/03/09 Dubeau. URL for online finding aid added.
2014/07/22 Migrated to AtoM.
2018/07/04 KCP. Added GMD, fixed extent and dates, published description, and generated finding aid.
2020/03/29 KCP. Added access point(s).

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