University of British Columbia Archives | Inventories
University of British Columbia Archives | Inventories
Earle Birney fonds. -- 1948-1952.
19.5 cm of textual records.
Born in Calgary, Alberta, Earle Birney (1904-1995) was educated at Universities of British Columbia, Toronto and California. He lectured in English at the University of Toronto from 1936 to 1941 when he left to serve overseas in World War II. On return, he worked for the CBC in 1945 and in 1946 he joined the Department of English at University of British Columbia, later transferring to the division of Creative Writing. Birney became writer in residence at Scarborough College in 1965. Well known as a poet and writer, Birney published novels, volumes of poetry, short stories, essays and plays. His honours include the Governor General's medal for poetry, the Lorne Pierce gold medal for Literature, the University of Ontario President's medal for poetry and the Stephen Leacock medal for humourous writing.
The fonds consists of the original typescript and proofs of Trial of a City and drafts and page proofs of Turvey. The manuscripts date from 1948 to 1952.
The drafts of Turvey are a combination of the first drafts and revisions; in some cases as many as three drafts are discernable. It was not possible to arrange the sheets as first draft and revised texts because in many cases Birney used the backs of the first draft sheets for his later revisions and many first draft sheets are missing. Therefore they have been arranged as a run of preliminary drafts, the result being a mixture of amended first draft sheets, together with the second and third drafts. This closely approximates the original order in which the manuscripts were received -- presumably the order from which the fourth draft was taken. The fourth draft is self-explanatory, except that there is no Chapter III. Birney's pagination indicates that there was a Chapter II, pages numbering from 3-1-3- to 3-6-36. The material relating to Trial of a City consist of a typescript, galley proof and page proof.
Title based on the contents of the fonds.
Related materials can be found in the Esther Birney fonds.