The Northrop Frye Centre was established in 1988 in Victoria University in the University of Toronto to honour Professor Herman Northrop Frye (1912-1991) one of the twentieth century's pre-eminent English scholars and literary critics and a noted commentator on Canadian society and culture.

The present goals of the Northrop Frye Centre are: to encourage research in the human sciences; to encourage the dissemination of humanist scholarship; to confirm and celebrate the role of Northrop Frye in Canadian scholarship and society.

The Northrop Frye Centre welcomes scholars in the humanities and social sciences who wish to benefit from the unique resources of Victoria University and the University of Toronto and offers a Fellowship Program aimed at both new and established scholars. An annual Academic Program of lectures and seminars is organized each year involving local and visiting scholars. The Centre sponsors a major editorial project, under the general editorship of Dr. Alvin A. Lee, which prepares for publication by the University of Toronto Press the Collected Works of Northrop Frye.

THE FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM OF THE NORTHROP FRYE CENTRE

Applications in all categories should be sent to:

Principal David Cook
Acting Director, NFC
Victoria College
73 Queen's Park Crescent
Toronto, ON M5S 1K7
email : david.cook@utoronto.ca

THE NORTHROP FRYE FELLOWSHIP (NOT OFFERED IN 2002-2003)

In most years the Northrop Frye Centre will offer one post-doctoral Fellowship of approximately $5000. Awards will normally be given to candidates who are within five years of receiving the Ph.D. (Those whose thesis has been examined and accepted without condition, but whose degree has not yet been bestowed, are eligible to apply.) If a suitable candidate is not found in any given year, no Fellow need be appointed, and the money will be carried over to the following year, when two Fellows may be appointed, at the discretion of the Selection Committee.

Fellowships may be awarded in any discipline, but, given a superior graduate record, preference will be given to disciplines connected with Northrop Frye's interests or work. Some consideration will also be given to a candidate's financial support from other fellowships or employment. Fellows will normally be resident in Toronto or within commuting distance, and are expected to spend a significant amount of time at the Centre. A report on work completed during the Fellowship is required within six months afterwards.

Applicants should submit, to the Director, by February 15: an outline of their proposed work, a curriculum vitae (including a graduate transcript), a writing sample of not more than twenty pages, and three letters of recommendation (the latter to be mailed directly to the Director). The decision will be announced by mid-March. The Fellowship will commence in September and be held for one year. Fellowships are not renewable and may be held once only. Applicants may also ask to be considered for Associate status with the Northrop Frye Centre.

The Fellowship will be known as the Northrop Frye Fellowship (of the Northrop Frye Centre). Any publication resulting therefrom should acknowledge the assistance of the Fellowship and the Centre.

VISITING FELLOWS

The Northrop Frye Centre offers the title of Visiting Fellow of the Northrop Frye Centre to established scholars visiting the area, who wish to work at the Centre and at Victoria University. The number of appointments is limited by the space available at the Centre; preference will be given to long-term visitors. The title may be held for up to one year. All Fellows will have access to the libraries and the Centre's facilities, and will be welcome in the academic community of Victoria University. Victoria's E. J. Pratt Library possesses the impressive Northrop Frye Collection, composed of manuscripts, notebooks, typescripts, correspondence and annotated books. The University of Toronto library system has additional resources of more than eight million volumes in all disciplines.

Work proposed should have some connection with the Centre's concerns. Applicants should submit an outline of their proposed work and a curriculum vitae, at least three months in advance of their stay.

ASSOCIATES OF THE NORTHROP FRYE CENTRE

The Centre will also offer the title of Associate of the Northrop Frye Centre, to a maximum of five Associates, for up to one year. This title will be given to junior scholars, at the beginning of their careers, or to non-academic visitors with a strong reason for affiliation with the Centre. All Associates will have access to the libraries and the Centre's facilities, and will be welcome in the academic community of Victoria University. Preference will be given to those with a superior record who would not otherwise have an academic affiliation. Work proposed should have some connection with the Centre's concerns. The appointment carries no remuneration, and is renewable once. Applicants should submit to the Director of the Centre, by February 15: an outline of their proposed work, a curriculum vitae (including, for junior scholars, a graduate transcript), a writing sample of not more than twenty pages, and three letters of recommendation (to be mailed directly to the Director). The decision will be announced by mid-March.

NORTHROP FRYE VISITING LECTURESHIP

In collaboration with Victoria and Emmanuel Colleges, the Board may appoint a visiting lecturer at its discretion.

Former holders of this title include Emeritus Professor Goldwin S. French (History), Emeritus Professor Heinz O. Guenther (Religion), Emeritus Professor Ernest G. Clarke (Near Eastern Studies), Emeritus Professor Donald E. Evans (Philosophy), and Independent Scholar Albert Moritz (Creative Writing).

THE ACADEMIC PROGRAM OF THE NORTHROP FRYE CENTRE

An annual program of lectures and seminars in the human sciences is organized for each academic year. Topics cover a broad range of fields including subjects deriving from the writing and thinking of Northrop Frye.

THE COLLECTED WORKS OF NORTHROP FRYE

The Collected Works of Northrop Frye are being published by the University of Toronto Press, under the general editorship of Dr. Alvin A. Lee, in thirty-one volumes. Using the large collection of Frye's papers in the Pratt Library of Victoria University, this scholarly edition includes an extensive body of Frye works not published during his lifetime: correspondence (private and professional), essays written by him as a student, diaries, speeches, interviews, fiction, and extensive notebooks. The last of these open a startling new window on the mind of Frye, allowing us to see his intellectual and spiritual aspirations, his mind at work day by day, drafts of his books and other writings, and a large overview of his life's work. In addition to the previously unpublished texts, the collected edition brings together Frye's extensive previously published work in thematic groups. Important Frye scholars annotate the primary texts and write in-depth contextual introductions. Each volume is indexed. Volume 31 will be an overall index of the complete edition.

As of the summer 2003, twelve volumes are published: The Correspondence of Northrop Frye and Helen Kemp, 1932-1939 (2 volumes, 1996); Northrop Frye's Student Essays, 1932-1938 (1997); Northrop Frye on Religion (2000); Northrop Frye's Late Notebooks, 1982-1990: Architecture of the Spiritual World (2 volumes, 2000); Northrop Frye's Writings on Education (2001); The Diaries of Northrop Frye, 1942-1955 (2001); The "Third Book" Notebooks of Northrop Frye, 1964-1972: The Critical Comedy (2002); Northrop Frye on Literature and Society(2002); Northrop Frye on Modern Culture (2003); and Northrop Frye on Canada (2003). These volumes may be ordered directly from the University of Toronto Press by phone at 1-800-565-9523 or by fax at 1-800-21-9985. More information on each volume and instructions for ordering by e-mail are available at the Press's website, www.utpress.utoronto.ca.

The editorial committee overseeing the project has these members: Alvin A. Lee (McMaster University, general editor), Jean O'Grady (Victoria University, associate editor), Joseph Adamson (McMaster University), Robert D. Denham (Roanoke College, Virginia), Michael Dolzani (Baldwin-Wallace College, Ohio), A.C. Hamilton (Queen's University), and David Staines (University of Ottawa). The project has two editorial assistants, Margaret Burgess and Ward McBurney.

A more detailed description of the project, as well as an overview of Frye's ideas, may be found at www.jeanogrady.ca.

RESOURCES

Victoria University generously provides workspace and academic privileges to its visitors, including access to the E.J. Pratt (Victoria College) and Emmanuel College Libraries. Access to the Frye archives requires permission of the Victoria College Librarian. Visitors also have access to the rest of the University of Toronto Library System, including the John P. Robarts Library.

The establishment of the Northrop Frye Centre was made possible thanks to an initial donation to Victoria University for such a purpose; however, the Centre relies for its ongoing growth and support on the generosity of individuals, corporations and foundations concerned with both the perpetuation of the Frye legacy and the promotion of excellence in humanities research.

MANAGEMENT

Regular activities of the Northrop Frye Centre are governed by a Director and Management Board. A Honorary Board provides general support to the Centre.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF NORTHROP FRYE

Northrop Frye, C.C., B.A., M.A. (Oxon), LL.D., D.D., D.Litt., D. de l'U, L.H.D., D.C.L., F.R.S.C., was born on 14 July 1912, in Sherbrooke, Quebec, and raised in Moncton, New Brunswick. He entered Victoria College in the University of Toronto in 1929, graduating in Honours Philosophy and English in 1933; he then completed the theological course at Emmanuel College, and was ordained in the United Church of Canada in 1936. He attended Merton College, Oxford, receiving his Oxford M.A. in 1940. In 1939, he joined the Department of English at Victoria College in the University of Toronto, and remained there for the rest of his life. He died in Toronto on 23 January 1991.

His honours were many. He was a Companion of the Order of Canada. He was elected to the Royal Society of Canada in 1951, receiving the Society's Lorne Pierce medal in 1958 and its Pierre Chauveau medal in 1970. In 1967 the University of Toronto named him University Professor; in the same year he received the Canada Council medal. In 1971 he was awarded the Canada Council Molson Prize, and in1978 he received the Royal Bank Award. In 1987 he was given the Governor General's Literary Award and the Toronto Arts Lifetime Achievement Award. He was an Honorary Fellow or Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1969), Merton College, Oxford (1974), the British Academy (1975), the American Philosophical Society (1976), and the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters (1981). He held thirty-eight honorary doctorates from universities around the world.

His chief publications are: Fearful Symmetry: A Study of William Blake, 1947; Anatomy of Criticism, 1957; The Well-Tempered Critic, 1963; The Educated Imagination, 1963; T. S. Eliot, 1963; Fables of Identity, 1963; A Natural Perspective, 1965; The Return of Eden, 1965; Fools of Time, 1967; The Modern Century, 1967; A Study of English Romanticism, 1968; The Stubborn Structure, 1970; The Bush Garden, 1971; The Critical Path, 1971; The Secular Scripture, 1976; Spiritus Mundi, 1976; Northrop Frye on Culture and Literature, 1978; Creation and Recreation, 1980; The Great Code, 1982; Divisions on a Ground, 1982; The Myth of Deliverance: Reflections on Shakespeare's Comedies, 1983; No Uncertain Sounds, 1988; On Education, 1988; Myth and Metaphor: Selected Essays, 1974-1988, 1990; Words with Power, 1990; Reading the World: Selected Writings, 1935-1976, 1990; The Double Vision, 1991; The Eternal Act of Creation: Essays by Northrop Frye 1979-1990 (forthcoming). He edited fifteen books, contributed essays and chapters to over sixty books, and his articles and reviews in learned journals number over one hundred. From 1950 to 1960 he wrote the annual critical and bibliographical survey of Canadian poetry for Letters in Canada, University of Toronto Quarterly.

There are many critical discussions of Frye's work, including the following: Murray Krieger, ed., Northrop Frye in Modern Criticism, 1966; Robert D. Denham, Northrop Frye and Critical Method, 1974; Eleanor Cook et al., eds., Centre and Labyrinth, 1985; Ian Balfour, Northrop Frye, 1988; Agostino Lombardo, ed., Ritratto di Northrop Frye, 1989; A. C. Hamilton, Northrop Frye: An Anatomy of His Criticism, 1990; Robert D. Denham & Thomas Willard, eds., Visionary Poetics: Essays on Northrop Frye's Criticism, 1991; David Cayley, Northrop Frye in Conversation, 1992; Jonathan Hart, Northrop Frye: The Theoretical Imagination, 1994; Alvin A. Lee & Robert D. Denham, eds., The Legacy of Northrop Frye, 1994; David Boyd and Imre Salusinszky, ed., Rereading Frye: the Published and Unpublished Works (1999); Caterina Nella Cotrupi, Northrop Frye and the Poetics of Process (2000).

There is a full-length biography of Frye by John Ayre, Northrop Frye: A Biography, 1989, and a shorter, critical biography by Joseph Adamson, Northrop Frye: A Visionary Life, 1993. An extensive bibliography is provided by Robert D. Denham in Northrop Frye: An Annotated Bibliography of Primary and Secondary Sources, 1987, and in the ongoing Northrop Frye Newsletter.