Manuscript Collection MS COLL 00435 - J.S. Will Collection

Identity area

Reference code

CA OTUTF MS COLL 00435

Title

J.S. Will Collection

Date(s)

  • 1961-1962 (Creation)

Level of description

Manuscript Collection

Extent and medium

2 oversize boxes

Context area

Name of creator

(1874-1964)

Biographical history

Joseph Stanley Will was born in 1874 in Newmarket, Ontario, the son of Rev. P.D. Will and Caroline Anne Collins, who married in 1866. He attended University College at the University of Toronto from 1894 to 1897 where he received his Bachelor of Arts degree. He studied for his doctorate at Columbia University in New York where his thesis was on Protestantism in France and received his degree in 1921. Before joining the University of Toronto, he taught at Manitoba College, Winnipeg and Dartmouth College, Hanover N.H. In August, 1938 at the age of 64 he married Esther Margaret Berry, another U of T alumnus (BA 1932, MA 1935), and they had two children, Richard Drake, and Joseph Jr. He retired as professor emeritus in 1945. He died in Toronto on June 1, 1964.

He was appointed Lecturer in the Department of French at the University of Toronto in 1910. Two years later he was promoted to Associate Professor and by 1916 he had attained the position of Professor. In 1921 he took a 15 month leave of absence to study in Paris and returned to Toronto in 1922. As a result of this sabbatical Prof. Will gave interviews and lectures on his research as well as his impressions of France. In 1933 he gave a series of ten lectures on 19th Century French Literature at University College. The Varsity reported on October 12, 1933 that Prof. Will did not chose the topic of the lectures. Instead it “has been a request of the college as part of the regular lecture programme – and a permanent air is given to the whole series of lectures”.

Prof. Will was best known for his book Protestantism in France Volume 2 (1598-1629) published by the University of Toronto Press in 1921. It was based on his doctoral thesis and was intended as a multi-volume series. As he states in the Preface to Protestantism in France, “Volume I of this study…deals with the sixteenth century, volume II with the reigns of Henry IV and Louis XIII, volume III with the attempt of Louis XIV to establish religious unity and the results of that attempt in the eighteenth century”. Other publications included “Comparative literature; its meaning and scope” reprinted from the University of Toronto Quarterly, Vol. VIII, No. 2, January 1939, and a review of “The reconstruction of the original Chanson de Roland” by Frederick Bliss Luquiens in 1910.

Archival history

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer

Content and structure area

Scope and content

The collection consists of purchase records for Will's book collection.

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://fisher.library.utoronto.ca/stack-retrieval-request

Conditions governing reproduction

Language of material

  • English

Script of material

Language and script notes

Physical characteristics and technical requirements

Finding aids

Allied materials area

Existence and location of originals

Existence and location of copies

Related units of description

Related descriptions

Notes area

Alternative identifier(s)

Access points

Subject access points

Place access points

Name access points

Genre access points

Description control area

Description identifier

Institution identifier

Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto

Rules and/or conventions used

Dates of creation revision deletion

Language(s)

Script(s)

Sources

Accession area

Related subjects

Related people and organizations

Related genres

Related places