Showing 855 results

Authority record

Armstrong, Neil

  • RC0934
  • Person

Neil Armstrong is a journalist who has worked in radio, newspaper and television. He was the news director, program director, and host of the literary show, Covered and Bound, at CHRY Radio (105.5 FM) at York University in Toronto from 1995 to 2004. In his capacity as host and a bibliophile, he met and interviewed hundreds of Canadian and international authors — many from the Black, Caribbean and African communities — on the radio show or at events he covered. Neil was also the editor at the Jamaican Weekly Gleaner (North American edition) and the annual Black Pages directory. He was a member of the editorial team of the book, Jamaicans in Canada: When Ackee Meets Codfish, published in 2012.

A strong supporter of initiatives that celebrate Black communities in Canada, Neil is the literary coordinator of the annual Black and Caribbean Book Affair and the monthly Literary Salons organized by Blackhurst Cultural Centre in Toronto, formerly A Different Booklist Cultural Centre.

Cooper, Art

  • RC0942
  • Person
  • 1953-Present

Art Cooper is a comic artist who created original artwork for a variety of McMaster campus publications in the 1970s. He also contributed original artwork to Hamilton comic fandom publications in the 1960s and 1970s.

Cooper graduated from McMaster’s engineering undergraduate program in 1979. Subsequently, he completed an MBA at McMaster in 1980. As a student (1970s), Cooper produced artwork for the Silhouette and Plumbline (Engineering newspaper), posters for the McMaster Film Board, and artwork for special events on campus.

Cooper also participated in the Hamilton comic fandom scene, contributing artwork for Terry Edwards’ ComiCanada in 1967, one of the first Canadian comic-related publications since the demise of Canadian comic publisher Superior Publishers in 1956. Cooper also published his own magazine, Canada’s Best #1, in 1969, and was a founding partner (with Vince Marchesano) of Spectrum Publications, which published 17 mini-comic books in 1971-1973. Finally, Cooper penciled two stories for Orb Magazine (1976), a Canadian science fiction/comic publication.

Russell, Sarah Elizabeth

  • RC0941
  • Person
  • 1947-?

Sarah Elizabeth Russell was a granddaughter of Lord Bertrand Russell, philosopher and peace activist. Her father, John Conrad Russell, was Bertrand Russell’s first son from his marriage to Dora Black. Her mother, Susan Lindsay, was the daughter of American poet Vachel Lindsay.

Sarah was the first daughter born to John and Susan, and the second child in their family (the first child, Anne Russell, was born to Susan Lindsay and adopted by John Russell prior to Sarah’s birth).

Sarah’s family initially lived in a small flat in Cambrian Road, Richmond, but by 1950, they had moved to the main floor of 41 Queen’s Road in Richmond with Bertrand Russell (Monk 316-317). In December 1952, Bertrand Russell married his fourth wife, Edith Finch, and soon after she moved into the Queen’s Road home, Sarah’s parents moved out of it (Monk 355). Sarah’s parents separated in 1954 and divorced by 1955 (Monk 359-360).

Thereafter, Sarah and her sisters became the subjects of a protracted family custody dispute, the result of which was that Bertrand and Edith Russell won full custody of the children in 1961, with their father, John Russell, retaining visitation rights (Monk 400).

Sarah attended Kingsmuir School, a boarding school in Sussex, while the family resided at 41 Queen’s Road (Griffin 503). In 1956, Bertrand and Edith Russell moved the family to Plas Penrhyn, their home in Wales. Following this move, Sarah and her sisters attended Moreton Hall, a private girls’ boarding school in Shropshire (Monk 370; Griffin 503). Near Russell’s home in Wales lived the Cooper-Willis family: mother Susan Williams-Ellis, a renowned potter; father Euan Cooper-Willis, and daughters Siân and Anwyl, who were close friends of Sarah and her sisters.

Sarah left Moreton Hall, possibly as early as 1961, to complete her studies at Dartington Hall, a progressive co-educational boarding school in Devon. In 1966, she commenced a program in English Language and Literature at the University of Reading. She appears to have taken a break in 1970, when she was diagnosed with schizophrenia (Monk 500). Sarah returned to her program in 1977, and in 1979, she was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree in the second division of the second class.

In 1975, Sarah’s younger sister Lucy died by self-immolation (Monk 501-502). This event had a significant impact on Sarah and is addressed in her diaries (see Series 2).

Little is known of the later period of Sarah’s life, though Ray Monk, biographer of Bertrand Russell, writes that Sarah spent much of her life in psychiatric care (500).

Russell, John Conrad

  • RC0940
  • Person
  • 1921-1987

John Conrad Russell was the eldest son of Lord Bertrand Russell, philosopher and peace activist, and Dora Russell (neé Black), author and social campaigner.

Born in 1921, John was educated at Dartington Hall School, a progressive co-educational boarding school in Dartington, England. He went on to graduate cum laude from Harvard University, where he completed a B.A. thesis in 1943 entitled “An Analysis of the Principal Occasions and Causes of Failure of Democracy.”

In 1943, John returned to England and enlisted in the Royal Naval Reserve. He married Susan Doniphan Lindsay, daughter of the American poet Vachel Lindsay, in 1946. Soon after their marriage, he adopted her child from another relationship, Felicity Anne. In 1946 and 1948, the couple’s daughters Sarah Elizabeth and Lucy Catherine were born. By 1955, John and Susan had divorced, and in the same year, John experienced his first mental health crisis requiring hospitalization. He was eventually diagnosed with schizophrenia. In 1961, he lost custody rights to his children, who remained in the care of Bertrand Russell and his wife, Edith.

When Bertrand Russell passed away in 1970, John inherited his father’s hereditary peerage, becoming the fourth Earl Russell and a member of the House of Lords.

John passed away in 1987, and his title passed to his half-brother, Conrad Sebastian Robert Russell, who became the fifth Earl Russell.

Russell, Felicity Anne

  • RC0939
  • Person
  • 1945-?

Felicity Anne Russell (hereafter, Anne) was a granddaughter of Lord Bertrand Russell, philosopher and peace activist, by adoption. Her adoptive father, John Conrad Russell, was Bertrand Russell’s first son from his marriage to Dora Black. Her mother, Susan Doniphan Lindsay, was the daughter of American poet Vachel Lindsay.

Anne was the child of Susan Lindsay and an unidentified father. Susan Lindsay met John Russell when Anne was an infant in 1945; in August 1946, John and Susan married, and by 1947, John had formally adopted Anne.

Anne’s family initially lived in several locations in England after her parents’ marriage, including Kilburn (with Dora Russell), St. John’s Wood in North London (with Griffin Barry, a former romantic partner of Dora Russell and the father of two of her children), a flat on Cambrian Road in Richmond, and, by 1950, the main floor of Bertrand Russell’s home in Richmond (Monk 315-317). After this last move, Anne Russell began attending Kingsmuir School, a boarding school in Sussex (Griffin 503).

In December 1952, Bertrand Russell married his fourth wife, Edith Finch, and soon after she moved into the Queen’s Road home, Anne’s parents moved out of it (Monk 355). Anne’s parents separated in 1954 and divorced by 1955 (Monk 359-360).

Thereafter, Anne and her sisters became the subjects of a protracted family custody dispute, the result of which was that Bertrand and Edith Russell won full custody of the children in 1961, with their father, John Russell, retaining visitation rights (Monk 400).

1956, Bertrand and Edith Russell moved the family to Plas Penrhyn, their home in Wales. Following this move, Anne and her sisters attended Moreton Hall, a private girls’ boarding school in Shropshire (Monk 370; Griffin 503). Near Russell’s home in Wales lived the Cooper-Willis family: mother Susan Williams-Ellis, a renowned potter; father Euan Cooper-Willis, and daughters Siân and Anwyl, who were close friends of Anne and her sisters.

Anne left Moreton Hall in 1962 (Monk 485). It is likely that she went on to complete her studies at Dartington Hall, a progressive co-educational boarding school in Devon, as her sisters Sarah and Lucy did this as well.

Little documentary evidence exists in the Russell archive about Anne’s adult life, though Ray Monk notes that she moved to New Mexico in 1975, where she has lived ever since (500).

Vellacott, Patience Josephine Ruth (Jo)

  • RC0935
  • Person
  • 1922-2019

Jo Vellacott was a British-Canadian historian, professor, feminist, Quaker, and peace activist. She was born in Plymouth, England on 20 April 1922 to Harold F. Vellacott, a surgeon, and Josephine Sempill. She attended the University of Oxford and, after pausing her studies to work as an aircraft mechanic during the Second World War, graduated with a Master of Arts in 1947. She would then move to South Africa, where she met and married Peter Newberry in 1950. In South Africa she had two children, Mary and Douglas, before returning to the United Kingdom, where they had their daughter Susan. The family emigrated to Canada in 1955, where Peter would join the Air Force and Jo worked as a schoolteacher. She then attended the University of Toronto, where she received a Master of Arts in History in 1965, and McMaster University, where she received her PhD in 1975.

Vellacott and Peter would separate in 1976, and divorce in 1979. She took Fellowships in the United Kingdom for several years, before becoming the Scholar-in-Residence at Queen’s University in Kingston, where she then became Assistant to the Dean of Women. Following her departure from Queen’s, she worked for several years at the Simone de Beauvoir Institute at Concordia University in Montreal, retiring in 1987, and becoming an independent scholar.

Vellacott focused much of her career on women’s history, feminism, pacifism, and Quakerism. A Quaker since her 40s, she was active in the Thousand Islands Monthly Meeting near Kingston, and was a longtime peace activist. She wrote several books and dozens of articles on topics including pacifism, Bertrand Russell, women and politics, and more. She moved to Toronto, where she died in 2019.

Scarlett, Mose

  • RC0870
  • Person
  • 1946-2019

Moseley Stephen Scarlett was a Toronto-based musician who specialized in jazz, blues, ragtime, and swing music from the early 20th century. Scarlett was a known entity in the industry, and frequently collaborated and recorded with musicians such as Jackie Washington, Ken Whiteley, Bruce Cockburn, Marg Stowe, and others.

Scarlett was born in Peterborough, Ontario to an electrical engineer and schoolteacher. At the age of 10 his family moved to Ohio, with Scarlett returning to Canada at the age of 18. Scarlett would marry Anne Tener, with whom he had two daughters, Jessica and Gaelyn. Scarlett and Tener eventually divorced, and Scarlett found a long-time partner in Tina Cohen.

Scarlett routinely played at music events across Canada, and the world. He undertook several tours of the United Kingdom, Australia, and Germany, and frequented music festivals such as Summerfolk and Northern Lights. Scarlett died in Toronto on 30 May 2019 of leukemia.

Russell, Lucy Catherine

  • RC0933
  • Person
  • 1948-1975

Lucy Catherine Russell was a granddaughter of Lord Bertrand Russell, philosopher and peace activist. Her father, John Conrad Russell, was Bertrand Russell’s first son from his marriage to Dora Black. Her mother, Susan Lindsay, was the daughter of American poet Vachel Lindsay.

Lucy was the third daughter of John and Susan. By the time of Lucy’s birth in July 1948, her parents’ relationship had already begun to deteriorate. Lucy’s family initially lived in a small flat in Cambrian Road, Richmond, but by 1950, they had moved to the main floor of 41 Queen’s Road in Richmond with Bertrand Russell (Monk 316-317). In December 1952, Bertrand Russell married his fourth wife, Edith Finch, and soon after she moved into the Queen’s Road home, Lucy’s parents moved out of it (Monk 355).

By the time she was five years old, Lucy and her sisters had become the subjects of a bitter family custody dispute. Bertrand and Edith Russell, with whom the children still lived, initially desired to have the girls made wards of the court on the basis of parental neglect, an initiative which was strongly opposed by Dora Russell (née Black), their grandmother (Monk 356). By 1954, Lucy’s parents had separated, and John, her father, had been hospitalized following a schizophrenic breakdown (Monk 359-360). Subsequently, John Russell moved into his mother Dora’s home, Carn Voel in Cornwall, where he would remain for much of his life.

John and Susan formally divorced in 1955, and John Russell retained custody of the children. However, the children remained in the care of Bertrand and Edith Russell (Monk 361), with much tension ensuing in subsequent years over parental visitation rights.

Lucy attended Kingsmuir School, a boarding school in Sussex, while the family resided at 41 Queen’s Road (Griffin 503). In 1956, when Lucy was eight years old, Bertrand and Edith Russell moved the family to Plas Penrhyn, their home in Wales. Following this move, Lucy and her sisters were sent to Moreton Hall, a private girls’ boarding school in Shropshire (Monk 370; Griffin 503). Near Russell’s home in Wales lived the Cooper-Willis family: mother Susan Williams-Ellis, a renowned potter; father Euan Cooper-Willis, and daughters Sian and Anwyl, who were close friends of Lucy and her sisters. Sian Cooper-Willis would later become a custodian of Lucy Russell’s papers.

In 1960, Bertrand and Edith Russell sought to further secure the girls’ situation by seeking legal custody of them (Monk 394). A protracted custody battle ensued, and in the end, Bertrand and Edith won full custody (1961), with John Russell retaining visitation rights (Monk 400).

Lucy excelled in her studies at Moreton Hall, demonstrating interest in mathematics (Monk 493). In the summer of 1962, at the age of fourteen, she left Moreton Hall to continue her studies at Dartington Hall, a progressive co-educational boarding school in Dartington, Devon. Lucy began to experience academic difficulties at this point, though her instructors noted her aptitude for languages (Monk 493). Lucy’s papers reveal her nascent interest in poetry, literature, and art as well.

In the summer of 1965, Lucy had withdrawn from Dartington Hall, focusing her efforts instead on private mathematics coaching and passing her A-level exams (Monk 493). In subsequent years, Lucy made several failed attempts to pass her A-level examinations and her entrance examinations to Oxford and Cambridge. It was not until 1970 that she was accepted on a course in anthropology and politics at the University of Kent (Monk 501).

Bertrand Russell passed away in February 1970, when Lucy was twenty years old. By 1972, Lucy had abandoned her latest round of university studies, and after a peripatetic period, she was hospitalized and diagnosed with schizophrenia (Monk 501; Moorehead 551). Following her release from hospital, she returned briefly to stay with Dora Russell and her father in Cornwall. On 11 April 1975, Lucy travelled by bus to a graveyard in the village of St. Buryan (Cornwall), where she died by self-immolation. She was, at the time of her death, twenty-six years old (Monk 501-502).

Lee, Alvin A.

  • RC0009
  • Person
  • 1930-

Alvin Lee was born in Woodville, Ontario. He attended the University of Toronto where he received his Bachelors of Arts, a Master of Arts in English and a Ph.D in English in 1961. Lee began a teaching career at McMaster University as Assistant Professor of English in 1960 and progressed to Associate Professor, Assistant Dean, School of Graduate Studies, Dean of Graduate Studies, Vice-President, Academic and President and Vice-Chancellor from 1980 to 1990. Alvin Lee is the author of several books and articles on Old English literature and is a specialist in Middle English literature. He is currently Professor Emeritus, Department of English, at McMaster University. He served as General Editor of the 30-volume Collected Works of Northrop Frye, published by the University of Toronto Press between 1996 and 2012.

Dr. Lee was elected a Member of the Royal Commonwealth Society (England) in 1962. He was appointed Honorary Professor of English, University of Science and Technology, Beijing and Honorary Professor at Peking University in 1993. He was recognized by the Hamilton Gallery of Distinction in 1996 and achieved the City of Hamilton Award for Lifetime Distinction in Support of the Arts in 2015. He is also the Governor of the Lee Academy (a private elementary school in Lynden, Ontario); and served as Vice-Chair of the McMaster Museum of Art (1998-2005).

Weaver, John

  • RC0932
  • Person
  • ca. 1948-

John Charles Weaver received his B.A. from Queen’s University in 1969. He studied at Duke University as a James B. Duke Commonwealth Scholar and completed his Ph.D. in 1973. A member of the Department of History since 1974, he was made an Associate Member of the Geography Department in 1988. In 1991 and 1993, he was a Visiting Research Fellow in the Research School of Social Sciences at Australian National University. He served as chair of the McMaster History Department from 1988 to 1993, and Dean of Graduate Studies from 1994 to 1999. Weaver’s research interests have included urban government, housing and suburbanization, criminal justice and, most recently, land policy on nineteenth-century settlement frontiers. He is the author of The Great Land Rush and the Making of the Modern World, 1650-1900 (Montreal: McGill-Queen's Press, 2003) and Sorrows of the Century: Interpreting Suicide in New Zealand, 1900-2000 (Montreal: McGill-Queen's Press, 2013). The Great Land Rush received the Albion Award of the North American Conference on British Studies and the Ferguson Prize from the Canadian Historical Association. A prior book, Crimes, Constables and Courts, deals with the Ontario criminal justice system from the early 1800s to the 1970s. With Michael Doucet, he wrote Housing the North American City (1991). From 1987 to 1993, he edited the Urban History Review.

Anderson, Ho Che

  • RC0931
  • Person
  • 1969-

Ho Che Anderson is a Toronto-based cartoonist who has created numerous graphic novels, including King: A Comics Biography of the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr.; Godhead, a science fiction action-adventure; and Sand & Fury, a horror thriller. Active since the 1990s, Anderson has published with Fantagraphics, DC, Dark Horse, and Marvel, among others.

Anderson was born in London, England and was named after the Vietnamese and Cuban revolutionaries Ho Chi Minh and Che Guevara. Anderson began producing comics in the mid-1980s, training with Vortex Comics (Toronto, ON) and then moving on to publication with Fantagraphics (Seattle, WA). Anderson has also worked as a reporter for The Toronto Star, commercial/editorial artist, and filmmaker. Anderson studied film production at the Toronto Film School and Sheridan College. He has directed an animated short, “Governance,” for the National Film Board of Canada.

Waterlow, Sydney

  • RC0535
  • Person
  • 1878-1944

Sir Sydney Philip Perigal Waterlow, born 12 October 1878 in Barnet, England, was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge. After a short period as part of the diplomatic service, Waterlow returned to Cambridge to resume his studies in 1905. It was during this period that Waterlow attached himself to the Bloomsbury group, a group he kept in close contact until his death. After his second marriage to Margery Eckhard, Waterlow resumed work in the diplomatic service. From 1919 through 1929, Waterlow held the positions of acting First Secretary at the Paris Peace Conference, Director of the Foreign Division of the Department for Overseas Trade, and as Minister at Bangkok and Addis Ababa. In the decade following, Waterlow served as British Minister in Athens until 1939. Sir Sydney Waterlow died on 4 December 1944.

Brandis, Marianne

  • RC0895
  • Person
  • 1938-

Born in the Netherlands in 1938, Marianne Brandis (full last name: “Brender à Brandis”) immigrated with her family in 1947 to Terrace, BC and currently lives in Stratford, Ontario. She was educated at UBC, St. Francis Xavier University, and McMaster University from which she graduated with a BA in 1960 and MA in 1964.

Brandis worked for a time as a copywriter for CKOC in Hamilton and CBC in Toronto in the 1960s. She also taught creative writing and English literature at Ryerson Polytechnical Institute (Ryerson University) from 1967 until she resigned in 1989 at the age of 50 after which she pursued writing full-time. She continues to teach creative writing and memoir writing workshops.

Brandis’ writings contain diverse topics and include historical fiction, creative non-fiction, memoir, and biography genres. In her historical works, she deals with significant events and the private and daily lives of individuals. Perhaps best known are Brandis’ historical books for younger readers which were published in the 1980s and 1990s, and out of these, The Tinderbox (1982), The Quarter-Pie Window (1985), The Sign of the Scales (1990), Fire Ship (1992), and Rebellion (1996) received various awards and commendations. Brandis’ most recent projects have been creative non-fiction and other life-writing works. Brandis has collaborated extensively with her brother Gerard Brender à Brandis, the wood engraver and bookwright, and whose fonds is also at McMaster.

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