Governor General’s
Literary Award Collection
The Collection
Since 1999 John H. Meier, Jr. has devoted himself to collecting and documenting the Governor General’s Literary Award for fiction and poetry. The collection comprise all of the first Canadian, American, British and Australian editions. These include fine copies of rare signed first editions, author copies, association copies, dedication copies. binding variants, uncorrected proofs, galleys, author letters, vintage photographs of the authors, original art, sound recordings and ephemera.
The collection now totals over 800 items. Highlights from the fiction collection were exhibited at both the University of Alberta and the University of Toronto for the 75th anniversary of the awards.
By choosing to specialize, and collect the winners of the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction, their first edition variants, proofs, and related documents, John H. Meier, Jr. has succeeded in amassing a collection of national significance, unmatched in depth and completeness even by Canada’s national library collection.”
Ernie Ingles, Vice-Provost & Chief Librarian of the Bruce Peel Special Collections Library, University of Alberta
John Meier, Jr. talks about his collection at the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library
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