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MS Coll 00593 Ms. Lawrence Hill papers Coll. 1915-2008 00593 Author, Journalist, Activist Gift of Lawrence Hill 2008 Includes extensive material related to published books by Lawrence Hill: Any Known Blood; Some Great Thing; The Book of Negroes/Someone Knows My Name [early titles ‘A Likely Wench’ and ‘Migration’]; Black Berry, Sweet Juice; Women of Vision: the Story of the Canadian Women’s Association; Trials and Triumphs: the Story of African Canadians; The Deserter’s Tale: the Story of an Ordinary Soldier Who Walked Away from the War in Iraq; In 2005, the 90-minute film document that Hill wrote, Seeking Salvation: A History of the Black Church in Canada, Travesty Productions, Toronto (2004), won the American Wilbur Award for best national television documentary; “Rainbow Coalition” for City Suites story and script for a CBC television series which was never produced; shorter pieces; journalism with The Globe and Mail, The Winnipeg Free Press, The Toronto Star and others; feature articles for The Walrus; unpublished work; juvenalia; extensive personal and professional correspondence; personal and professional photographs; extensive family history; works by various family members, including material related to Daniel Grafton Hill III and his work as Ombudsman of Ontario, as first director and later chair of the Ontario Human Rights Commission, founding with his wife Donna Hill the Ontario Black History Society; translations; research and personal notes; mentoring notes from his time at the Humber School for Writers; travel related material, appearances, events, awards and prizes; charitable and philanthropic activities; financial and other material related to the life and work of Lawrence Arthur Hill [inclusive dates of material, 1915-2008] Selected correspondents include: Paul Quarrington, Jack Veugelers, Ayanna Black, Michael Enright, Robert Fulford, Leander Jones, Adrienne Shadd, Rosemary Sadlier, father Daniel Grafton Hill III, mother Donna Hill, sister Karen Hill, brother Dan Hill, current wife Miranda Hill, current mother-in-law Sandy Hawkins, ex-wife Joanne Savoie, grandmother May Hill; various other family members and friends, Louis Farrakhan, Iris Tupholme, Denise Bukowski Agency, Paul Lovejoy, Austin Clarke, Donald Smith, Alvin Duncan, Alan Borovoy and many others Extent: 174 boxes and items (28.5 metres) 1 Ms. Lawrence Hill papers Coll. 1915-2008 00593 Author, Journalist, Activist Biographical information [from www.lawrencehill.com]: Lawrence Hill is the son of American immigrants — a black father and a white mother — who came to Canada the day after they married in 1953 in Washington, D.C. On his father's side, Hill's grandfather and great grandfather were university-educated, ordained ministers of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. His mother came from a Republican family in Oak Park, Illinois, graduated from Oberlin College and went on to become a civil rights activist in D.C. The story of how they met, married, left the United States and raised a family in Toronto is described in Hill's bestselling memoir Black Berry, Sweet Juice: On Being Black and White in Canada (HarperCollins Canada, 2001). Growing up in the predominantly white suburb of Don Mills, Ontario in the sixties, Hill was greatly influenced by his parents' work in the human rights movement. Much of Hill's writing touches on issues of identity and belonging. Lawrence Hill's third novel was published as The Book of Negroes in Canada, Great Britain, South Africa and India and as Someone Knows My Name in the USA, Australia and New Zealand. It won the overall Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best Book, the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, the Ontario Library Association’s Evergreen Award and CBC Radio’s Canada Reads. The book was a finalist for the Hurston/Wright LEGACY Award and longlisted for both the Giller Prize and the IMPAC Award. Hill is also the author of the novels Any Known Blood (William Morrow, New York, 1999 and HarperCollins Canada, 1997) and Some Great Thing (Turnstone Press, Winnipeg, 1992). Hill's most recent non-fiction book The Deserter's Tale: the Story of an Ordinary Soldier Who Walked Away from the War in Iraq (written with Joshua Key) was released in the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan and several European countries. Hill won the National Magazine Award for the best essay published in Canada in 2005 for "Is Africa's Pain Black America's Burden?" (The Walrus, February 2005). In 2005, the 90-minute film document that Hill wrote, Seeking Salvation: A History of the Black Church in Canada, Travesty Productions, Toronto (2004), won the American Wilbur Award for best national television documentary. Formerly a reporter with The Globe and Mail and parliamentary correspondent for The Winnipeg Free Press, Hill also speaks French and Spanish. He has lived and worked across Canada, in Baltimore, and in Spain and France. As a volunteer with Canadian Crossroads International, he has traveled to the West African countries Niger, Cameroon and Mali. He has a B.A. in economics from Laval University in Quebec City and an M.A. in writing from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Hill now lives, writes and runs in Hamilton, Ontario. 2 Ms. Lawrence Hill papers Coll. 1915-2008 00593 Author, Journalist, Activist Any Known Blood materials, including early notes, extensive research, various drafts and promotional and review material Boxes 1-19 Box 1 Any Known Blood 16 folders research early holograph notebooks potential marketing ideas Folder 1 A Lecture Series in Honor of Edward Franklin Frazier, March 13-15, 1962 Howard University, Washington signed Folder 2 100 Amazing Facts About the Negro with complete proof, by J.A. Rogers, 1970 edition L. Hill holograph note on cover, “offbeat research Any Known Blood” Folder 3 Any Known Blood Background research Folder 4 Any Known Blood Baltimore research Folder 5 ‘Howard Songs and Yells’ Any Known Blood research Copy Folder 6 ‘Catalogue of the Officers and Students of Lincoln University, 1865-66’ Any Known Blood research Copy Folder 7 Any Known Blood Research on rats [copies], with holograph notes Folders 8-9 Any Known Blood Research Folders 10-12 Any Known Blood 3 Ms. Lawrence Hill papers Coll. 1915-2008 00593 Author, Journalist, Activist Potential marketing ideas/people Folder 13 Any Known Blood 1994 holograph notebook Sheldon Taylor interview Folder 14 Any Known Blood Holograph notebook ‘To do as of May 1994’ Folder 15 Any Known Blood Holograph notebook 1992 notes re: father Daniel Grafton Hill in preparation for novel Folder 16 Any Known Blood personal holograph notepad, ca. 1990 Box 2 Any Known Blood 20 folders early notebooks family history: Hill, Flateau research questions and plans promotional appearances Folder 1 Any Known Blood Family history research in United States re: Hill Folder 2 Any Known Blood Family history [copies of letters] Re: Vic Metoyer, first cousin of Daniel G. Hill Folder 3 Any Known Blood Family history [copies of letters] Flateau letters – Jeanne and Sidney Flateau to Daniel and Donna Hill, 1950s-1960s Folder 4 Any Known Blood 1994 family research – Baltimore Black History research holograph notebook 4 Ms. Lawrence Hill papers Coll. 1915-2008 00593 Author, Journalist, Activist Folder 5 Any Known Blood Interview with Daniel Grafton Hill III, Alvin Duncan, Lorne Joyce and Grace Pell holograph notebook Folder 6 Any Known Blood Bert Simpson notes on novel (friend and fellow member of writing group – L. Hill) Fax and copy with holograph notes Folder 7 Any Known Blood Research questions Folder 8 Any Known Blood Plans August 1, 1995 for final rollout Folder 9 Any Known Blood Appearances/promotional Folder 10 ‘Publicizing Your Commercially Published Novel’ by Terry McMillan [copy] Folder 11 ‘Lawrence Hill’s Any Known Blood tour schedule as of October 8, 1997’, word processed Folder 12 ‘Lawrence Hill’s Any Known Blood tour schedule as of October 30, 1997’, word processed Folder 13 Mailing addresses acquired during 1997 promotion for Any Known Blood and Austin Clarke literary tribute Folder 14 Any Known Blood Reviews sent by Iris Tupholme, HarperCollins Canada Folder 15 Any Known Blood Communications about marketing novel with Jane Rowland and Dore Potter of HarperCollins Canada Folders 16-17 Any Known Blood Appearances/promotional 5 Ms. Lawrence Hill papers Coll. 1915-2008 00593 Author, Journalist, Activist Folder 18 Any Known Blood Book launch speech September 21, 1997, Oakville Folder 19 Any Known Blood Cover and promotional designs Folder 20 Any Known Blood Appearances and other Box 3 Any Known Blood 11 notebooks in box Holograph notebooks 1990s Any Known Blood Mali personal, 1989 Box 4 Any Known Blood 8 items in box 7 holograph notebooks re: family history Bender: the family, Some Related Families, Some Descendants, re: family of Donna Bender Hill, mother of L. Hill, 1 cerlox- bound volume Box 5 Any Known Blood 6 items in box Holograph notebooks, interviews [cassette tape transcriptions] with father, Daniel G. Hill III, May, June, August, December 1990 and notes re: family letters First draft of opening chapters in holograph notebook Box 6 Any Known Blood 24 folders Research materials & some Mali trip 1989 Folder 1 Report to Canadian Crossroads International re: trip to Mali 1989 Folder 2 Letters home to friends from Mali, 1989 Holograph carbons in notepad Folder 3 Daniel Hill to May Hill, 1 August 1918 Copy, paternal grandparents of L. Hill Folder 4 Holograph notebook re: Any Known Blood 6 Ms. Lawrence Hill papers Coll. 1915-2008 00593 Author, Journalist, Activist Folder 5 ‘Oakville
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