Correspondence, 1960-1975.

Davey, Frank (Frankland Wilmot), 1940-

000004702

BVAS ENG

MsC 3.

ca. 1,020 items. 30 cm.

Correspondence alphabetically organized first by author of incoming correspondence; then alphabetically by recipient of Davey (outgoing) correspondence; then alphabetically in Miscellaneous. Clippings and enclosures follow Miscellaneous correspondence.

Frank Davey Papers, 1960-1975.

SPECOL

In the Frank Davey Papers.

Born in Vancouver and raised in Abbotsford, B.C., Frankland Wilmot Davey attended the University of British Columbia, where he attained his B.A. in 1961 and his M.A. in 1963 (Bridge force, Davey's third book of poems, was Davey's M.A. ""thesis""). Davey's Ph.D. (1968) was granted by the University of Southern California. While at U.B.C. Davey was co-founder and the editor of Tish, an inquisitive and leading-edge poetry newsletter that was also a literary exchange vehicle for American poets such as Creeley, Duncan and Olson; a collected reprinting was published in 1975, edited by Davey. Davey won the Macmillan Company of Canada Prize for the best original poem in 1961. In the years prior to his move to Los Angeles to study for his Ph.D. (1966-1968), Davey taught at the Royal Roads Military College in Victoria, B.C. It is here that Davey edited The open letter (first series), an influential poetry journal whose pages were filled for the most part by the writing of the members of its literary and intellectual predecessor, Tish. Following his Ph.D. work, Davey returned briefly to Victoria; he was granted a one-year leave to follow fellow Tish contributor Geroge Bowering as writer-in-residence at Sir George Williams University (now Concordia) in Montreal. Davey's year in Montreal was highly productive, yielding several books: his study of Earle Birney; a paper entitled Five readings of Olson's 'Maximus' (published by George Bowering's Beaver-Kosmos Folios); Weeds (poems); and Four myths for Sam Perry (Published in 1970 as Frank Davey's four myths for Sam Perry, these poems were written in 1967-1968). Davey's move east coincided with the divorce from his first wife, Helen. Rather than return to Victoria after Sir George, Davey sought a position elsewhere, filling a vacancy at York University in Toronto, Ont., beginning in the fall of 1970. Open letter was rejuvenated in the early 1970s, but with a different mandate: to provide a space in which to review the publications of ""non-mainstream"" poetry and literary criticism publishers. Davey has continued to produce a large output of poetic, critical and editorial material throughout the 1970s, to the present. Davey has lived since 1990 in London, Ont., where he holds the Carl F. Klinck Professor of Canadian Literature Chair at the University of Western Ontario. He and Linda McCartney have two children, Michael Gareth (1970) and Sara Geneve (1971).

Acquired by purchase from Frank Davey in 1977.