Seventeen volumes belonging to Dr. Bliss were received along with the collection. Ten volumes were of Bliss Carman's works, including #197 of the 2-volume deluxe edition set published by L.C. Page in 1904 of "Poems" by Bliss Carman; several are inscribed. The other volumes are books about Carman, New Brunswick literature, and history. They are located in: Hath T 4a-9. A baby bonnet, said to be that of Bliss Carman, has been moved to end of box 4.
Isabel St. John Bliss was born in Fredericton in 1895, the younger daughter of Fred St. John Bliss (1863-1916) and Sophie Plant. She received much of her schooling in Fredericton, attending Charlotte St. School and Fredericton High School. Miss Bliss entered UNB in 1913, graduating with a B.A. (double first class honours) in 1917. She became a teacher, first at St. Stephen High School (1917-18) and then in Wilkie,
Saskatchewan (1918-20). She returned home to teach at Fredericton High School from 1920-21. During that period she also earned an M.A. from UNB (1921).
Beginning post-graduate study in the Dept. of English at the University of Chicago, she studied for a second master's degree (1922) and received a Ph.D. in 1931. Her doctoral dissertation was entitled "The background of Young's Night Thoughts." Between 1922 and 1927, Miss Bliss taught English and was Director of Studies at St. Mary's Hall in Faribault, Minn. Joining the Western College for Women in Oxford, Ohio in 1928, she became an English instructor and went on to become Professor and Head of the Dept. of English Literature and Language there. She was the author of a critical work on the 18th century English poet, Edward Young, published in 1969 (Edward Young. NY: Twayne Publishers, 1969.) Upon her retirement from Western College, Dr. Bliss was made Professor Emeritus [sic]. She received an honorary LL.D. from UNB at the 1962 Encaenia. She died in February 1989 in Brooklyn, New York.
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Title based on contents.
Fonds includes 39.5 cm of textual records, 3 scrapbooks, 1 artifact, and 47 photographs 22.5 x 17 cm or smaller.
The collection consists of primary materials, such as correspondence, privately printed poems, and photographs and secondary materials gathered by Isabel St. John Bliss in preparation for her planned work on Bliss Carman. It is unknown when she acquired and began to organise her research materials.
Material received 29 April 1994 from Carman St. John Hunter.
Further accruals are expected.
Associated material may be found at Queen's University. (Kingston, Ont.). Douglas Library. Special Collections - Carman material within Edith and Lorne Pierce Collection; Smith College (Norhthampton, Ma.). Neilson Library. Ganong Collection. For an extensive listing of locations of Carman correspondence, see "Appendix A: Notes on the major Carman collections", pp. 371-375 in Letters of Bliss Carman. H. Pearson Gundy, ed. Kingston & Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1981.
Related material may be found in Francis Joseph Sherman fonds (MG L 4); Sir Charles G.D. Roberts fonds (microform - original correspondence, 1869-1943) (MG L 10); Roberts Poetry Project fonds (1860-1942) (MG L 24); Roberts Letters Project fonds (MG L 26); Lloyd Roberts fonds (MG L 5) - Box 1 - 1892-1949; Bliss Carman - 12-page letter to Fred M. Hopkins (1895) re. "book loving as a malady" (BC-MS); Rufus H. Hathaway Collection (1880-1933) (RA)
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