Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1955-2005 (Creation)
Level of description
Manuscript Collection
Extent and medium
37 boxes and 4 items (5.2 metres)
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Richard Daley Outram was born in Oshawa, Ontario, in 1930. From 1949 to 1953, he was enrolled in the Honours B.A., English and Philosophy course at Victoria College in the University of Toronto. After graduation, Outram worked with the CBC as a television stagehand for a year, then he moved to London, England. During those years he began to write poetry. While in London, he met his future wife, the Toronto painter and wood-engraver Barbara Howard. They returned to Toronto to marry in 1957, and Outram went back to work with the CBC. Between 1966 and 2001, Outram wrote ten commercially published collections of poetry. In addition to these, Outram issued over a dozen other collections of poetry and prose under the imprint of The Gauntlet Press, which he founded with his wife in the 1960s. Having lost his wife in 2002, Outram took his own life, dying of hypothermia in Port Hope, Ont., 2005.
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Gift of the Estate of Richard Outram, 2005.
Content and structure area
Scope and content
This collection contains papers and other material pertaining to the work and life of Richard Outram, one of Canada's foremost poets. It includes drafts of poetry, both published and unpublished, and essays, as well as professional and personal correspondence. It also includes numerous broadsheets of Outram's poetry and work by his wife, the artist Barbara Howard.
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