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Title

Fonds consists of

10 lower level description(s)

Arrangement structure

Accession

1. P.K. Page collection [graphic material]
2. P.K. Page collection [graphic material]
3. P.K. Page collection [graphic material] (119-020048-1)
4. P.K. Page collection [graphic material]
5. P.K. Page collection [graphic material]
6. P.K. Page fonds [graphic material] (123-020053-3)
7. P.K. Page fonds [textual records]
8. P.K. Page fonds [textual records] (119-020048-1)
9. P.K. Page fonds [textual records] (123-020053-3)
10. PAGE, P.K
11. PAGE, P.K
12. P. K. (Patricia Kathleen) Page [textual record] (2000-01681-2)
13. Photographs [graphic material]
14. P.K. Page fonds [textual record, graphic material, sound recording] (2007-00184-5)
15. Rose Laura Page by Kathleen Shackleton [graphic material] (2008-00803-7)

Date(s)

1860-2005; predominant 1933-2005

Place of creation

No place, unknown, or undetermined

Extent

Language of material

English

Scope and content

Fonds consists of literary manuscripts, personal papers and photographs documenting the career and personal life of P.K. Page. There are also audio-visual records and other graphic material. The textual records consist of seven series: manuscripts by P.K. Page (including seven sub-series); manuscripts by other authors; correspondence - I (including some graphic material); correspondence - II (including some graphic material); subject files (including some graphic material); personal and family material (including some graphic material); and personal journals. The photographs include snapshots, formal portraits, family photographs, photographs of various events in Page's life, and reproductions of her artwork produced under the name P.K. Irwin. They have been arranged in one series, with the exception of the later records instalments in which photographs remain with the correspondence. Other graphic material includes a drawing sent by Marilyn Bowering to P.K. Page, 1988; cover layout for Winter 1987 issue of West Coast Review with a drawing by Page; Christmas cards sent by James Reaney and Colleen Thibodeau, 1982-1987, and other greeting cards; a sheet, ca. 1943, bearing caricature drawings of Eleanor Roosevelt by Page; and an invitation by Joe Plaskett for his 70th birthday party, 1988. See accession records. Finally, the sound recordings are by or about P.K. Page, 1975-1985, and include three audio reels, 1985, of an interview and reading on the CBC Radio program Anthology which were acquired from CBC in 1985. See accession records. Audio and visual material from the later and final instalments are located in container ** and include sound recordings by and for Page, as well as sound and video recordings relating to the study of Sufism.

Conditions of access

Terms of use

Textual record: The recipient of copies is responsible for determining whether material is subject to copyright and for ascertaining the name of the person or organization holding copyright. The recipient is also responsible for determining whether any use of copyrighted material does or does not constitute an infringement of copyright under the Copyright Act.
Sound recordings: Reproduction and use of any kind requires the written permission of the copyright holders and of P.K. Page.
Graphic material (art): Reproduction and use in any form, during P.K. Page's lifetime, requires her permission. Various copyrights. Materials must be consulted under close supervision for conservation reasons. Physical access to be given through an art archivist.
Graphic material (photos): No reproduction or copies allowed without consent of P. K. Page. Various copyrights on items less than 50 years old. Copyright expired on items more than 50 years old. Credit: Name of photographer / Library and Archives Canada / Copy negative no.

Finding aid

Textual records The finding aid for containers 1 to 56 consists of a file list. MSS1655 90 (Electronic)
http://data2.archives.ca/pdf/pdf001/p000000295.pdf

Sound recordings Description of recordings available in AV documentation file. 90 (Paper)

Photographs Later photographs from accessions from 2001 and after are integrated with textual records in finding aid MSS1655. Electronic PK Page R2411 Finding Aid (A) Electronic PK Page R2411 Finding Aid (B) 90 (Electronic)
http://data2.archives.ca/pdf/pdf001/p000002363.pdf

Creator / Provenance

Page, P.K., , 1916-2010.

Biography / Administrative history

The poet and artist P.K. Page was born in Swanage, England, the daughter of a military officer, Lionel Frank Page, who rose to the rank of Major General in the Canadian army after bringing his family to Canada in 1919. P.K. Page spent most of her youth in Calgary but moved with her family to Rothesay, New Brunswick, in 1935. She went to Saint John in the late 1930s, where she worked as a radio actress and tried to establish a children's theatre with a friend. She moved to Montreal in the early 1940s, where she met poets F.R. Scott and Patrick Anderson and joined them in publishing the little magazine Preview.

Page's first published poem, The Moth, appeared in 1934, and between 1939 and 1942 a number of her poems were published in Canadian Poetry Magazine and Contemporary Verse. After she moved to Montreal, both her poetry and short stories appeared in Preview and in 1944 she published a novel, The Sun and the Moon, under the nom-de-plume Judith Cape. In that same year, Ronald Hambleton included twelve of her poems in his anthology, Unit of Five. Her first collection of poetry, As Ten, As Twenty, was published two years later.

Page moved to Ottawa in 1946 to work as a scriptwriter for the National Film Board. In 1950, she married National Film Board Commissioner W.A. Irwin, who later joined the diplomatic service. She subsequently spent nearly a decade away from Canada, travelling with her husband on diplomatic postings to Australia 1953-1956, Brazil 1956-1959, and Mexico 1960-1964. They returned to Canada in 1964 and settled in Victoria, British Columbia.

P.K. Page won the Governor-General's Award for her poetry collection The Metal and the Flower in 1954. Cry Ararat! was published in 1967 and a fourth collection, Poems Selected and New, in 1974. Evening Dance of the Grey Flies appeared in 1981 and included a futuristic/allegorical short story called Unless the Eye Catch Fire.... Another selection of poems, The Glass Air, was published in 1985 and excerpts from Page's travel diaries were published as Brazilian Journal (1987). In 1994, Hologram was published, in which Page pays homage to fourteen other poets through the poetic convention of glosas. In 1997, all the poems appearing in her previous titles were re-published in the two-volume collected works, The Hidden Room, edited by Stan Dragland. Rosa dei Venti/Compass Rose, Italian translations of Page's poetry by Francesca Valente, was published by Longo Editore in 1998. A collaboration between P.K. Page and Philip Stratford on a renga poem resulted in And Once More Saw the Stars (2001). In 2002 Page was short-listed for the Griffin Prize for a new book of poetry, Planet Earth, and her first U.S. publication, Cosmologies: Poems Selected and New, followed in 2003. An autobiographical poem, Hand Luggage: A Memoir in Verse, was published in 2006 and in 2007, Page's second collection of short stories, Up on the Roof, was published as was The Filled Pen: Selected Non-Fiction, a collection of essays, edited by Zailig Pollock. The final two works to be published during Page's lifetime are the poetry collections "Coal and Roses" (2009; shortlisted for the 2010 Griffin Poetry Prize) and "The Golden Lilies, poems by P.K. Page" (2009). Page has also written children's books, including A Flask of Sea Water (1989), The Travelling Musicians (1991), The Goat that Flew (1994), A Grain of Sand (2003), A Brazilian Alphabet for the Young Reader (2005), and Jake the Baker Makes a Cake (2008). In 1995 Page collaborated with Harry Somers on A Children's Hymn to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the United Nations and in 2001 she wrote the lyrics for A Children's Millennium Song (music by Oscar Peterson) for the ceremonial opening of the Trans Canada Trail.

As well as being a poet, P.K. Page is a well-known artist, painting under the name P.K. Irwin. Her work illustrates Cry Ararat! and Brazilian Journal and is represented in the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Canada. A film about P.K. Page was produced in 1991 by the National Film Board of Canada. In 2001 her poem Planet Earth was selected to be read on international grounds (Mount Everest, West Philippines Sea, Antarctica and the United Nations) as part of the United Nations' Dialogue Among Civilizations Through Poetry program, and in 2002 Trent University hosted a symposium, Extraordinary Presence: The Worlds of P.K. Page. Page is recipient of honorary degrees from University of Victoria (1985), Calgary (1989), Guelph (1990), Simon Fraser (1990), Toronto (1998), Winnipeg (2001) and Trent (2004) and the University of British Columbia (2005). She was appointed Companion of the Order of Canada in 1999.

Additional information

Subject heading

1. Poets, Canadian, 1877-1983
2. "As Ten, As Twenty", 1946-1981.
3. Publishers - Canada, 1877-1983
4. "The Metal and the Flower", 1946-1981.
5. Authors, Canadian, 1877-1983
6. "Cry Ararat", 1946-1981.
7. Women authors, Canadian, 1877-1983
8. "Evening Dance of the Grey Flies", 1946-1981.
9. Painters, Canadian, 1877-1983
10. National Film Board of Canada, 1877-1983.
11. Women painters - Canada, 1877-1983
12. Florence Bird, 1877-1983.
13. Poetry - Collections, 1877-1983
14. John H. Charnock, 1877-1983.
15. Poetry - Women authors, 1877-1983
16. Gail Fox, 1877-1983.
17. Maureen Harris, 1877-1983.
18. Jay Macpherson, 1877-1983.
19. Richard Chadbourne, 1877-1983.

Source

Private

Other system control no.

MAINS16291

Related control no.

1. 1984/0003 MSS
2. 1985-0170 MISA
3. 1985-0222 MISA
4. 1985-089 NPC
5. 1985-284 NPC
6. 1986-080 PIC
7. 1986-144 NPC
8. 1992-503 DAP
9. 1996-173 DAP
10. 119-020048-1
11. 123-020053-3
12. 2000-01681-2
13. 2007-00184-5
14. 2008-00803-7
15. MG30-D311

MIKAN no.

98377