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.…
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
Fonds consists of interviews, research notes,manuscripts, printed and digital photographs, and other materials produced and collected by Chic Scott between 1982 and 2021. Content pertains to Chic's various publications and research projects, the Canadian Himalayan Foundation, the Canadian '82 Evere…
Sound recordings: 224 audio tape cassettes, 7 audio tape reels. -- 78 CD-ROM. with digital files -- Moving images: 148 videocassettes: 133 Hi8, 15 VHS. ; 149 DVDs -- 4.2 m textual records
History / Biographical
Charles (Chic) C. Scott, b.1945, is a mountaineer, mountain guide and writer based in Banff, Alberta, Canada. Scott climbed extensively in the western Canada and the Himalayas until the mid-1970s. He guided extensively in the European Alps for five seasons, ca.1970, and worked as a climber for "The Eiger Sanction," a Hollywood movie starring Clint Eastwood. Scott resumed climbing in 1988, after a period working at the University of Calgary. His publications include "Alpinism," editor, "Ski Trails in the Canadian Rockies," "The History of the Calgary Mountain Club", "Summits and Icefields", "Pushing the Limits: the Story of Canadian Mountaineering", "Powder Pioneers : Ski Stories from the Canadian Rockies and Columbia Mountains", and "Deep Powder and Steep Rock : the Life of Mountain Guide Hans Gmoser".
Scope & Content
Fonds consists of interviews, research notes,manuscripts, printed and digital photographs, and other materials produced and collected by Chic Scott between 1982 and 2021. Content pertains to Chic's various publications and research projects, the Canadian Himalayan Foundation, the Canadian '82 Everest Expedition, and collected and personal materials. Items in fonds are arranged mostly by individual projects/areas of research.
Notes
Fonds consists of 15 series:
Series I : Pushing the Limits
Series II : Mountain Romantics
Series III : Summits and Icefields
Series IV : Powder Pioneers
Series V : Deep Powder and Steep Rock
Series VI : Ski Trails of the Canadian Rockies
Series VII : Hans Gmoser Film Collection
Series VIII : The Canadian Himalayan Foundation
Series IX : The Book of Mortimer
Series X : Tommy and Lawrence
Series XI : The Yam
Series XII :Calgary Mountain Club
Series XIII : Young at Heart
Series XIV : Chic Scott personal records
Series XV : A LIFE IN THE WILD: The Story of Mountain Explorer John Baldwin
Access to interviews limited to VHS reference compilations.