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TURNBULL, GAEL, 1928-
LMS-0202

Gael Turnbull fonds. - 1952-1985. - 13 cm of textual record.

Biographical Sketch

Doctor and poet, Gael Turnbull was born in Scotland in 1928 and was raised and educated in Winnipeg, Manitoba; Cambridge, England and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He received a B.A. from the University of Cambridge in 1948, and his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1951. Turnbull practised medicine in Canada, the United States and England until 1989 before retiring to Scotland. While in Canada during the early 50s, Turnbull became part of a group of poets clustered around Contact Press. His first publication was in 1954 as one third of Trio (1954) with Phyllis Webb and Eli Mandel. The next year, while living in Iroquois Falls, Ontario, he published translations with Jean Beaupré of Quebec poets Hector de Saint Denys-Garneau, Roland Giguère, Gilles Hénault and Paul-Marie Lapointe. Turnbull returned to England where, in 1957, he founded Migrant Press, one of the pioneer small presses in Britain. Turnbull's contribution to Canadian poetry was celebrated in 1992 with the appearance of While Breath Persist (1992) a collection of his poems.

Scope and Content

The Gael Turnbull fonds, acquired as a donation from the author in 1993, consists of correspondence from Canadian writers received by Turnbull. The letters date from the early 50s but represent only those letters Turnbull managed to save. Correspondence with Louis Dudek, John Sutherland, Raymond Souster and Doug Jones are the most significant, although letters concerning literary translation are also of considerable interest.

Immediate Source of Acquisition: acquired from Gael Turnbull in 1993. [1993-05]

Language: material in the fonds is in English.

Restrictions: none.

Finding Aid: list of correspondence available.

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