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Title proper
Charles William Gordon fonds
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Fonds
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Physical description
6.25 m of textual records.
81 photographs.
58 postcards.
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Archival description area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Charles Gordon was born in Glengarry County, Ontario. His father was a Scottish Presbyterian minister who came to Canada to preach to the Scottish settlement near Sherbrook in the Eastern Townships of Quebec. Gordon graduated from the University of Toronto and then attended Knox College. He began his church work as a missionary in Southern Manitoba and was ordained in Calgary in 1890. In 1894, he came to Winnipeg to the pulpit of St. Stephen's where he remained to the end of his ministerial career. Gordon began his writing career in 1896 with a short story for the Presbyterian paper The Westminster Magazine. When he wrote his first book Black Rock: A Tale of the Selkirks, he introduced his pen-name "Ralph Connor". By the time he wrote The Sky Pilot (1899), he had established his name in literary circles. He also wrote The Man From Glengarry (1901), Glengarry School Days (1901), The Prospector (1904), The Life of James Robertson (1908) and The Foreigner (1909). In total, Gordon wrote over thirty novels, five million copies of which were sold around the world.
Custodial history
The fonds was donated to University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collection by the Gordon family in three instalments in 1969, 1987 and 1997.
Scope and content
The fonds contains all of Charles Gordon's known literary manuscripts, his ministry records, his papers, writings and maps as a chaplain in the Canadian army in World War I, his papers as a labour negotiator in many Winnipeg labour disputes before and after the war, and various personal papers including those as Moderator of the Presbyterian Church. His literary papers consist of original manuscripts, publishers' correspondence, and abundant fan mail. The photographs are mainly of Gordon, the family cottage at Lake of the Woods, and some pictures of his ministry.
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- English
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There are no restrictions on this material.
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Finding aids
The finding aid is available in published form, see For God, King, Pen & Country (Winnipeg: The University of Manitoba, 1990). A printed finding aid is also available in the Archives reading room and an on-line finding aid is available at the link below: MSS 56, PC 76 (A.84-42, A.85-15, A.87-06, A.87-58, A.90-54, A.93-16, A.97-48, A.98-72)
Associated materials
Digitized Material: Canadian Wartime Experience