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Archival description
Dorothy Duncan fonds
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Dorothy Duncan fonds

  • CA RBD MSG 698
  • Fonds
  • 1907-1972, predominant 1930-1957

The fonds documents Dorothy Duncan’s personal and professional activities as an American-born Canadian writer and painter, primarily between 1930 and her death in 1957. Duncan’s career as a writer is represented by scrapbooks, clippings, and photographs related to her published works, two unpublished manuscripts, and contracts and correspondence with publishers and her literary agent in New York. Her activities as a painter are documented in clippings, lists of paintings, and contracts with art galleries. The fonds also contains personal correspondence, including letters from friends, family, fans, and a significant number of letters from her husband, Hugh MacLennan. Duncan’s notebooks and diaries also attest to her personal and professional activities. They document her early adulthood in Illinois and her later life in Montreal, and include notes, agendas, and a ledger. The fonds also contains two albums of personal photographs.

Duncan, Dorothy

Correspondence

The series consists of Dorothy Duncan’s personal and professional correspondence. The personal correspondence includes a significant number of letters from Duncan’s husband, Hugh MacLennan, as well as letters from family and friends. The professional correspondence is comprised of fan mail, exchanges with Duncan’s publishers, sample contracts, newsletters, and letters from other writers. Duncan’s correspondents included Stephen Leacock, Lorne Pierce, Robert J.C. Stead, Bruce Hutchinson, Gwethalyn Graham, David Walker, and C.P. Snow. This series also contains a file about graphology which is made up of reference material and several handwriting assessments by Robert H. Simmons.