Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1916-2015 (Creation)
Level of description
Extent and medium
31 boxes (4.75 metres)
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Elizabeth Brady (known professionally as Liz Brady) was born 3 June 1945 in Toronto and was the daughter of James Anderson Brady and Dorothy O’Connell. She attended Burlington High School and later the University of Western Ontario for both her B.A (Hons) (1967) and her M.A (1969). Brady received her Ph.D at the University College of London, England on
Virginia Woolf in 1972.
Brady was an active writer, both academic and fiction, and editor. She wrote book reviews between 1974 and 1978 and was an editorial member of the Fireweed collective from 1978-1980 and the managing editor of Canadian Woman Studies from 1984-1989, 1991-1992. She was the author of Tintype (Fiddlehead Poetry Books, 1977), Marian Engel and Her Works (ECW Press, 1987) and the Jane Yeats mystery series: Sudden Blow (1998), Bad Date (2001), and See Jane Run! (2004, Second Story Press). Sudden Blow received the Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Novel in 1999. Elizabeth Brady died in 2017.
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Gift of Lisa and Rachel Brandeis.
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Includes the personal and professional records of Elizabeth Brady (written as ‘EB’ throughout the finding aid). Personal material contains correspondence with friends and family spanning her childhood and young adulthood, as well as records pertaining to her education, notably yearbooks, transcripts, degrees and notes. Also includes correspondence with notable Canadian writers, including Anne Cameron (also known as Barbara Cameron/Cam Hubert) and Marian Engel.
Her professional records encompass her career as an editor, with Fireweed and Canadian Woman Studies, as well as a free-lance writer and novelist. There is material relating to all major writing projects, both published and unpublished, including poetry, articles, reviews, academic writing and novels. There are numerous drafts and revisions for two unpublished novels – Blue Notes and Present Fears, as well as two academic books – Barfly and Women and Solitude. Brady’s three published mystery novels are also well documented including notes, early drafts, research and correspondence.
Contains series:
Series 1: Personal records and correspondence
Series 2: Professional writing and career
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Material may be requested in person at the Fisher Library Reference Desk, or in advance using our online stack retrieval request form: https://aeon.library.utoronto.ca