Governor General's Award Winners
Since 1936, the Governor General’s Literary Awards (commonly called GGs) have been celebrating some of the very best Canadian books. Initially organized by the Canadian Authors Assocation, the administration of the GGs was transferred to the Canada Council for the Arts in 1959. Such awards tend to reflect the values of their time, so the GG awards have become increasingly inclusive over the years. In the first year, there were only two English-language categories–fiction and non-fiction–but today there are French and English awards in each of eight categories. When he set out to build a GG collection, John H. Meier, Jr. focused on the categories of fiction and poetry in English, working for 24 years with book dealers across Canada and around the world to collect first editions, variants, proofs, and related documentary materials for GG winners in these two key categories (1936-2022). After touring the country as a travelling exhibition (2010-11), this collection found a home at Bruce Peel Special Collections. Highlights of the collection include Hugh MacLennan's Two Solitudes (1945), Gabrielle Roy's The Tin Flute (1947), Alice Munro's Dance of the Happy Shades (1968), Michael Ondaatje's The Collected Works of Billy the Kid (1970), Robertson Davies' The Manticore (1972), Rudy Wiebe's The Temptations of Big Bear (1973), Timothy Findlay's The Wars (1977), Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale (1985), Rohinton Mistry's Such a Long Journey (1991), Carol Shields' The Stone Diaries (1993), George Elliott Clarke's Execution Poems (2001), Thomas King's The Back of the Turtle (2014), and Madeleine Thien's Do Not Say We Have Nothing (2016). The books in this collection are not listed in the University of Alberta Library catalogue, but items in this searchable list can be viewed in Peel's reading room upon request. To learn more about this unique collection of more than 800 items, link to Meier's collection website here.
Collection Formats: 20th Century, 21st Century, Books -- click to see other collections with this format
Two copies of Margaret Laurence's The Diviners (McClelland and Stewart, Toronto)—the publisher's advance proof and the first Canadian edition—with a phonograph record: Songs from the Diviners. 1974 GG award for fiction.
Two copies of George Elliott Clarke's Execution Poems (Gaspereau Press, Kentville, NS), one a signed first edition and the other from third printing of the first edition with the GG award seal. 2001 GG award for poetry.
Two copies of Thomas King's The Back of the Turtle (Harper Collins, Toronto), one a signed first edition and the other an uncorrected proof copy in dust jacket. 2014 GG award for fiction.
Five copies of Hugh MacLennan's Two Solitudes (Duell, Sloan, and Pearce, New York): a first edition with dust jacket, three binding variants, and a signed copy of the first Canadian edition (Collins, Toronto). 1945 GG award for fiction.
First edition of bpNichol's Still Water (Talon Books, Vancouver) inscribed by the author to GG winner Al Purdy. 1970 award for poetry.
Governor General Lord Tweedsmuir, who supported the efforts of the Canadian Authors Association to establish the GG awards in 1936.