Category: Fonds

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Fonds

Frank Davey fonds

A reel-to-reel magnetic recording tape case. The left reads, "Sony. Professional recording tape, PR-150. Capture the strength and delicacy of every sound." The right features an outline of a reel-to-reel.

The Frank Davey fonds, donated to the SoundBox Collection in 2014, is made up of 18 cassette and reel-to-reel recordings. The dates of these recordings range from the early 1960s to the late 1980s, with a focus on poetry readings and poetics lectures. Davey was an editor and co-founder of the Canadian poetry newsletter TISH, and many of the recordings reflect this by featuring TISH co-editors and collaborators. Of special interest is a 1970 interview with the donor, Frank Davey, about his then-recently-published book, Weeds.

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Fonds

Fred Wah fonds

A reel-to-reel magnetic tape case. The cover reads, "Magnetic Recording Tape," is overlaid diagonally across the beige cover.

Fred Wah is responsible for many of the recordings we have of West Coast poetry. In May, 2022 Fred Wah donated this fonds, which consisted of 103 reel-to-reel tapes, to the SoundBox Collection. Between 1961 and 1978, Wah made home recordings, as well as creating personal recordings of events and collecting professional recordings related to the West Coast poetry scene in the 1960s through to the 1980s. While all of the items in this collection have much to tell us about TISH and related poetry scenes, this fonds is distinct due to the focus on the 1960s and 1970s. Recordings of note include a ‘wedding gift’ recording of Robert Duncan’s poetry reading, which Duncan gave to Pauline Bunting and Fred Wah at their wedding in 1963, and a lecture on psychedelia made by Charles Olson in Linwood, New York in the same year. The fonds includes the original tapes from the 1963 Vancouver poetry conference. While most of the readings recorded here were made in Vancouver, several are international, ranging from Buffalo, NY to Wisconsin and San Francisco.

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Fonds

Robert Hogg fonds

A reel-to-reel magnetic recording case. In handwriting reads, "Robert Duncan. Poetry reading. October 9th, 1979." The case features a large circular pattern of circles ranging from indigo to orange.

Between 1963 and 2003, Canadian poet and professor Robert Hogg made sound and video recordings pertaining to his life as a poet, teacher, and researcher. His fonds is made up of 34 cassette tapes, 6 reel-to-reels, and 2 video recordings, most of which showcase readings and interviews of himself and his contemporaries. Hogg was a co-editor and affiliated poet of TISH newsletter. He traveled to different areas of Canada and the United States to take part in poetry events and debates that showcase the dynamic changes in the poetry scenes at the time.

Hogg’s collection is unique in that it contains items one would expect to find (such as Robert Hogg reading his work There is No Falling at various events in Vancouver), but also houses reflexive items such as poets discussing the creation of their own literary archives as an aspect of their creative work. Hogg’s recordings span across 40 years and contextualize both his PhD research (a study on the works of Charles Olson) and his collaborations with other members of TISH, making these recordings a valuable resource documenting both the Canadian poetry movement and the poets themselves.

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Fonds

Warren Tallman fonds

A black cassette tape with a beige label. In handwriting reads, "Daphne's 2d (205) ... Friday, October 24, 86."

U.S.American-born Warren Tallman moved to Vancouver in the 1950s to take up a position as a professor at University of British Columbia where he remained until his retirement in 1987. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, he mentored several Canadian poets who made up the TISH movement. The majority of these recordings were made between 1961 and 1986, capturing pertinent poetry events. Made on both reel-to-reel and cassette tapes, these recordings include lectures and poetry readings by, as well as  interviews with poets from Canada, the United States, and England. Several of his recordings and interviews occurred in the home that he shared with his wife, Ellen Tallman, as well as in the classroom at UBC. Among the 40 cassettes and 24 reel-to-reels in the Tallman fonds are in-home recordings, classroom lectures, interviews, and public readings. 

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Fonds

Sharon Thesen fonds

A semi-transparent cassette tape. The label, in handwriting reads, "Sharon Thesen's Reading at Bowerings."

Sharon Thesen is a Canadian-born and B.C.-raised poet. She has studied and taught poetry in Vancouver, as well as working as a professor of Creative Writing at UBC’s Okanagan campus in Kelowna. As the smallest fonds in the Soundbox Collection, the Sharon Thesen fonds is made up of only two cassette tapes. These cassettes contain a home recording of Sharon Thesen reading from her book, Artemis Hates Romance (1980), at George and Angela Bowering’s house in 1980, and two interviews of Sharon Thesen discussing both her work and the Vancouver poetry scene of the 1980s. This fonds is valuable not only for the content it provides, including other notable poets George Bowering and Robin Blaser, but also for its size. How do different poets archive themselves, and why?

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