Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1930-1980 (Creation)
Level of description
Extent and medium
274 boxes (75 metres)
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Mark Gayn was born Mark Julius Ginsbourg in 1909 at Barim on the Manchurian-Mongolian border. He moved frequently throughout his childhood. He moved to the U.S to study at Pomona College in California in 1929. Upon graduating, he went to Columbia University to study journalism. He graduated in 1934 and went to Shanghai to work as a special correspondent for the Washington Post. During the Second World War - also the period when he changed his name to Gayn - he worked for a variety of publications, including Time and Newsweek. He emigrated to Canada in 1953, eventually joining the staff of the Toronto Daily Star. During his 22 years at the Star, he made frequent trips to the Soviet Union and China, eventually becoming the Asian bureau chief in 1966. He died in Toronto in 1981.
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Material in Series 1-21 was donated to the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library by Mark and Suzanne Gayn in 1981. Material in Series 22 was donated by the estate of Mark and Suzanne Gayn in 2020.
Content and structure area
Scope and content
The collection consists of notebooks, diaries, drafts for writings, lectures, broadcasts, correspondence, pamphlets, newspapers clippings, films and photographs related to the journalistic career of Gayn.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Contains series:
- Biographical and Personal
- Correspondence
- Diaries
- Notebooks
- Subject Files
- Lectures
- Conferences, Seminars
- Books
- Articles
- Book Reviews
- Translations
- Literary Agent Activities
- Broadcast Media
- Audio-Visual Recordings
- Press and Information Kits
- Posters
- Ephemera
- Artifacts
- Material from Suzanne Gayn, Philip Jaffe, and Bertram Wolfe
- Photographs
- Slides
- 2020 donation
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
Conditions governing reproduction
Language of material
English