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Wilfred Watson Fonds
UAA Fonds 0430 · Fonds · 1946 - 1998

The Wilfred Watson fonds span a period of over fifty years, and provide a wonderful record of the creative processes of a noted Canadian poet, playwright, teacher and literary theorist. Wilfred Watson was a writer brimming with ideas and his papers provide evidence of his creative endeavors; his numerous notebooks are filled with drafts of plays and poems, ideas for further development, excerpts from his own reading and study, sketches, and jottings about his daily activities. In addition to his notebooks, there are files of his writing drafts (encompassing the many genre he wrote in), very complete correspondence files, drawing files and sketchbooks, and supplemental material including sound recordings and photographs. The records arrived at the University of Alberta Archives in three separate deposits (the last deposit of records made after Wilfred Watson's death), with excellent listings and descriptions attached. The archivist brought the records in each of the three deposits together physically and intellectually, while retaining many of the original groupings adhered to in the first listings. The notebooks, for example, were kept chronologically by Wilfred Watson, so the notebooks from all three deposits have been pulled together and arranged in their original date order. Likewise, the correspondence in each deposit was arranged alphabetically by correspondent and in the comprehensive finding aid, all of the correspondence is together and arranged in alphabetical order. The series designations include the following eight series, and were arrived at by considering the contents of the records. Watson's notebooks are of particular research value as they provide so much information about Wilfred Watson's creative thought processes, as well as information about his teaching plans, readings, Department of English activities, and even a daily weather observation from his study window. The notebooks also held loose sheets of paper, and these have been removed for conservation purposes and placed in a separate file following the notebook they were retrieved from. The series of literary drafts and writing files is also very significant; often several different versions of a particular poem or even an entire play are present in the files. The writing files take on added significance since they provide evidence of, as Wilfred Watson was once described, "a prolific poet who publishes little." As Diane Bessai noted, Watson's plays, while given lively reviews in the daily press at the times of their first performances, "have not been widely produced since". His writing, particularly his later writing, was often considered controversial and experimetnal, and was not readily published or produced, so it is important that his work is preserved in his own archive. The correspondence files, particularly the letters between Wilfred Watson and Sheila Watson, provide another fascinating glimpse into these writers' minds. The Watsons, due to work and schooling circumstances, lived apart off and on over the years and their letters became their main link. Their letters, written regularly to one another, usually go beyond the ordinary to explore mutual ideas about writing, writers, literature, and projects they are working on in their own studies. A detailed series and file list follows, with further information provided about each of the eight series in the Wilfred Watson fonds. A subject/name index is included at the end of the inventory to assist in locating specific files.

Watson, Wilfred
UAA-1999-034
UAA-1999-034 · Accession · [1950-2000]
Part of Wilfred Watson Fonds

Correspondence, notes, videos, posters, silver award medallions, sketches, poetry and other items

Watson, Wilfred