McGill Library
McLennan Library Building3459 rue McTavish
Montreal, Quebec
H3A 0C9
Harold Gershorn Files Fonds
Fonds
2.5 m of textual records and audio tapes
A Bostonian, Harold Files received his B.A. (1915), M.A. (1916) and Ph.D. (1923) from Harvard. In 1923 he joined the English Department at McGill, where he taught until his retirement in 1964. In the late 1940s he established a programme whereby candidates for the M.A. might submit a novel in place of a thesis. Files also served as head of the Humanities Group from 1946 to 1956, and chairman of the English Department from 1947 to 1952.
The Files papers document his activities as administrator of the Humanities Group and the English Department (ca 1946-1956, with some earlier material) and as a teacher. Administrative materials comprise about 1.5 m of information and correspondence files concerning the business of Senate, the Faculties of Arts and Science and Graduate Studies, the Humanities Group of the Arts Faculty, and the English Department. English Department material forms the largest part of the papers with files on honours and graduate students (including sessional registration forms), reading lists, examinations, awards, job applications, examination of theses, the administration of Moyse Hall, freshman orientation, and personal as well as general correspondence. There are also files pertaining to Files' work for the Montreal branch of the Humanities Association of Canada. Teaching materials consist of a large number of student essays, stories, examination papers and poems, including some by Louis Dudek and Irving Layton, ca 1937-1950. From Files' student days come lecture notes on the history of English language, 1921. There are also approximately 25 reprints of articles by Files' acquaintances and colleagues and copies of some journal and newspaper articles by and about Files.
Originals, printed materials, audio tapes