Title and statement of responsibility area
Title proper
Rachel Manley fonds
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Level of description
Fonds
Reference code
RC0924
Edition area
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Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)
Dates of creation area
Date(s)
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1978-2017 (Creation)
- Creator
- Manley, Rachel
Physical description area
Physical description
3.05 m of textual records and other material
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Archival description area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Rachel Manley is an author of poetry, non-fiction, and fiction, and member of a prominent Jamaican political family about whom she has written several lauded memoirs. She is the daughter of Michael Manley, a Jamaican politician who served three terms as prime minister (1972-80, 1989-92). Her paternal grandparents are Edna Manley, a sculptor and arts educator, and Norman Manley, co-founder of the Jamaican People’s National Party and the first Premier of Jamaica.
Rachel Manley was born in Cornwall, England in 1947 to Michael Manley and his second wife, Jacqueline Kammelard. At the age of two, she was sent to Jamaica, where she was raised by her paternal grandparents in their home, Drumblair. In 1969, Manley receive a Bachelor of Arts degree in English (Special Honours) from the University of the West Indies.
Throughout the 1970s and 80s, Manley published three volumes of poetry and contributed to several magazines and literary journals, including The Jamaica Journal, Caribbean Quarterly, and Focus. She also worked in a variety of roles, including as a high school teacher and member of the radio advertising department of the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation in Barbados (1980-1986). In 1979, she received the Jamaica Centennial Medal for poetry.
In 1986, Manley immigrated to Canada, where she would eventually settle in Toronto. In 1989, Manley edited a version of her grandmother’s diaries, published by Andre Deutsch under the title Edna Manley: The Diaries.
Manley began writing family memoirs in the 1990s, publishing Drumblair, a book about her childhood with her grandparents, in 1996. The book was critically acclaimed, winning the 1997 Governor General’s Award for English language non-fiction. This volume was the first in a memoir trilogy; it was followed by Slipstream, about Michael Manley (2000), and Horses in Her Hair, about Edna Manley (2008).
These works were followed by two additional novels, The Black Peacock (2017) and The Fellowship (2019). The Black Peacock was shortlisted for the 2018 Amazon First Novel award.
Manley has received many writing fellowships over the years, including the Mary Ingraham Bunting Fellow (Literature) from Radcliffe College, the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center Fellowship; and a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship.
Poetry:
Prisms (1972)
Poems 2 (Coles Printery, 1978)
A Light Left On (Peepal Tree, 1992)
Non-fiction:
Drumblair: Memories of a Jamaican Childhood (Alfred A. Knopf Canada, 1996)
Slipstream: A Daughter Remembers (Alfred A. Knopf Canada, 2000)
In My Father’s Shade (UK version of Slipstream) (BlackAmber Books, 2004)
Horses in Her Hair: A Granddaughter’s Story (Key Porter Books, 2008)
Fiction:
The Black Peacock (Cormorant Books, 2017)
The Fellowship (Cormorant Books, 2019)
Custodial history
Scope and content
The fonds consists of records related to Rachel Manley’s writing career, particularly the period from the late 1990s on when she began writing non-fiction memoirs about her family members.
Series groupings have been supplied by the processing archivist following functional analysis. Principal documentary forms include manuscripts and promotional records related to Manley’s books.
Notes area
Physical condition
Immediate source of acquisition
The first accrual was acquired from Rachel Manley in 2021.
Arrangement
The archive contains one series:
- Manuscripts and related materials (Boxes 1-20)
Language of material
Script of material
Location of originals
Availability of other formats
Restrictions on access
No access restrictions.
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Accruals
Further accruals are expected.
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Dates of creation, revision and deletion
G. Dunks, 2022.