Series 8 - Manuscripts and Publications

1.25 m of textual and graphic records, publications
435 digital files (42 MB)

Professor Bliss wrote over 11 scholarly books, edited or wrote a half dozen book texts and editions, penned over 80 scholarly articles and chapters of books, three major and numerous minor book reviews in scholarly journals, and about 500 articles and book reviews in Canadian newspapers and magazines. He also wrote, partly to hone his writing skills and to amuse his family and members of the Arts and Letters Club, short stories, plays and skits that were not published, though material from the family-oriented pieces were used in his autobiography, Writing history: a professor’s life. This series contains much of the unpublished material mentioned above, and published books and articles from about 1990, along with associated correspondence, drafts, book reviews and related material. Many of his early published writings can be found in earlier accessions. Drafts of his books on Frederick Banting and the discovery of insulin have been deposited in the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections in the Thomas Fisher Library. The articles focus on his thoughts on insulin, Banting, the history of medicine, health care generally, and on aspects of Professor Bliss’ last four books, William Osler: a life in medicine (1999), Harvey Cushing: a life in surgery (2005); and The Making of Modern Medicine: Turning points in the treatment of disease and his autobiography, both published in 2011.

Digital files include drafts of his writings for newspapers and magazines; draft of a play about Frederick Banting; writings for the Dictionary of Canadian Biography; a commemorative book about the 50th anniversary of the Order of Canada; a book about Lucy Palmer of Hazeldean, Prince Edward Island; and the foreword to a new Volume I of The Journals of L.M. Montgomery (2012).

The arrangement of the textual records in this series is chronological, except for the “memories” writings about his family that are grouped together.

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