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Gordon Burles fonds

https://archives.whyte.org/en/permalink/descriptions118
Part Of
Gordon Burles fonds
Scope & Content
Fonds consists mainly of poems by Gordon Burles, 1970-2017. Manuscripts contain about twenty-seven hundred poems, mainly in free verse, some with revisions. Poems are numbered in chronological order. About 2016 Burles stopped numbering each poem. The year of creation is indicated with each poem.…
Date Range
1970-2017, 2022
Reference Code
M196 / V103
Description Level
1 / Fonds
GMD
Photograph
Negative
Photograph print
Textual record
Machine-readable data file
Private record
  1 Electronic Resource  
Part Of
Gordon Burles fonds
Description Level
1 / Fonds
Fonds Number
M 196
V 103
Sous-Fonds
M 196
V 103
Accession Number
1199, 1367, 1414, 1674, 2061, 2212, 2239, 2890, 3233, 3769, 3874, 5526, 5689, 5903, 6347, 6487, 6927,7215, 7483, 7486, 7612
Reference Code
M196 / V103
GMD
Photograph
Negative
Photograph print
Textual record
Machine-readable data file
Private record
Date Range
1970-2017, 2022
Physical Description
ca. 36.5 cm textual records + 9 CD-R (textual records). -- 7 photographs : prints, negatives.
History / Biographical
James Gordon Burles, b.1949, is a poet, surveyor and civil servant at Banff, Alberta, Canada. A native of Banff, Burles is a student of the Canadian Rockies. In Burles' own words, much of his poetry is inspired by four environments: the life and history of Banff National Park, the town of Banff, the Okanagan Valley, and Calgary.
Scope & Content
Fonds consists mainly of poems by Gordon Burles, 1970-2017. Manuscripts contain about twenty-seven hundred poems, mainly in free verse, some with revisions. Poems are numbered in chronological order. About 2016 Burles stopped numbering each poem. The year of creation is indicated with each poem. Some poems pertain to mountain personalities such as Bill Peyto, Norman Sanson, Margaret Stone, Walter D. Wilcox, Walter J. Phillips, Conrad Kain, and Georgia Engelhard. Many are surrealist or nonsense poems and many deal with the Cemetery Tea House, an imaginary teahouse frequented by various characters.
Fonds consists of three series: I : Poetry Manuscripts; II : Prose and research; III: Digital typeset copies of published poems
Some poems deal with Burle's parents and family. The collection also holds fifty-three books and booklets, self-published by the author from 1984 to 2017. The books published from 2003 to 2017 contain all the poems which the author considers worth preserving. Some in one book have been revised in a later book. Some poems were revised more than once. The three books published in 1984, 1986, and 1990 are considered by the author as early works. Only the poems in those books that the author considered worth publishing have been republished in the 2003-2017 books. Names in the poem titles are usually made up.
Some titles are tongue-in-cheek. There were so many poems that the author resorted to names like "Portrait for Bertrand Clerihew-Guggenheim" to make it easier. Some titles, of course, are obviously connected to the content of the poem. Many titles were long enough to preclude the difficulty of getting the graphic designer to centre the title over the poem! Also included are manuscripts, research materials, articles, and notes etc. regarding Bill Peyto, the Copper Mountain Mine, Banff National Park museum, logging roads in the Johnson Lake area, and the Sanson-Bethune connection.
Photographs pertain to remains of hay rake and wagon in the Third Vermilion Lake area (1975) and remains of the Queen of the Hills Mine, above Silver City (1977).
CD-ROMS's contain typeset copies of manuscripts by Gordon Burles in Pagemaker, In Design and .pdf file formats. Manuscripts include "The Jagged Harmony," 2005, "An Avenue Without End," 2005, "That Perfect Elsewhere," n.d., "Much Like A Dream," 2004, "All the Universe of Sight," 2006, "Those Grand Poplars," 2004, "Lords of Many Orchards: Selected Best Poems of Gordon Burles," 2003, "That trellis of tombs: Further Selected Poems of Gordon Burles," 2004, "The Closing of Many Doors: More Poems by Gordon Burles," 2006.
II : Prose and research includes "Life story of James Gordon Burles," 2022
Notes
Books of poetry published by Gordon Burles are located in the Whyte Museum Archives Library 05.1/B92. In 2018 Gordon Burles compiled a listing of the original poems that were edited and re-published. This list is in the M196 document file, and is also a PDF attached to the fonds level record
Name Access
Burles, Gordon
Subject Access
Arts
Access Restrictions
No restrictions on access
Copyright, privacy, commercial use and other restrictions may apply
Language
Language is English
Finding Aid
Finding aids and reference tools: file level descriptions with inventory
Creator
Burles, Gordon
Category
Arts
Title Source
Title based on contents of fonds
Processing Status
Processed
Electronic Resources

05.1_b92_burles_poems_original_finalversions.pdf

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