Norman A. Levine (1923-2005), writer, was born in Ottawa and educated at McGill University (B.A., 1948, M.A., 1949) after serving in the RCAF in England during the Second World War. He attended King's College in London with a fellowship from 1949 to 1950, but gave up academics for a career as a writer. Levine lived in England, for most of the time in St Ives, Cornwall, until his return to Toronto, Canada, in 1980. Later he moved to France, and is now living in the north of England. Levine's first two books were poetry collections: Myssium (1948) and The Tight-rope Walker (1950). His war novel, The Angled Road, appeared in 1952. In 1958, his best-known work, the autobiographical Canada Made Me was published in both English and American editions, although the first Canadian edition of this work did not appear until 1979. Levine's other works include: One Way Ticket: Stories (1961); From a Seaside Town (1970); I Don't Want to Know Anyone Too Well, and Other Stories (1971); Selected Stories (1975); I Walk by the Harbor (1976); The Lower Town (1977); Thin Ice (1979); Why Do You Live So Far Away (1984); Champagne Barn (1984); The Beat and the Still (1990), a book about St Ives that he collaborated with the Canadian painter Ron Bolt; and Something Happened Here (1991). He was also the editor of Canadian Winter's Tales (1968). Levine's stories has appeared in both popular and small-circulation magazines in England and Canada; many of them have been broadcast by the CBC and the BBC; and his collections have been widely translated in Holland, Switzerland, Germany, and France.
The fonds consists of: manuscripts (1949-1995) of drafts, typescripts with handwritten corrections and annotations, page proofs, carbon copies, notes on characters and plotting for novels and stories including Canada Made Me, From a Seaside Town, I Don't Want to Know Anyone Too Well and Other Stories, By A Frozen River, A Writer's Story, Hello Mrs. Newman, A Maritime Story, From A Family Album, and corrected typescripts and carbon copies, galley proofs and photocopies of "fair copies" of his poetry, essays, reviews, lectures, and scripts for broadcasts and filmed documentaries; correspondence (1941-1996) between Norman Levine and his family, his friends, other writers, Canadian government departments, universities, publishers, arts councils, professional associations, the BBC, financial institutions, and others; personal files (1944-1995) of Levine's diaries, calendars, notebooks, appointment books, and address books; printed materials (1948-1994) by or about Levine; and audio and visual materials (1952-1987) including photographs of Levine and his family, portraits, book illustrations, paintings, sketches, and tapes of Levine's works produced for the CBC and the BBC programs.
Finding aid available.
Some restrictions apply.
Inventory number: F0345