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This fonds contains 20 manuscript love letters written by modernist writer Katherine Mansfield to her lover Garnet Trowell, September-November 1908, and 1 letter from Mansfield’s close friend Ida Baker to Trowell. Mansfield’s letters are breathless and passionate, regretting their time apart and looking forward to a future together. These are the only Mansfield letters known to have survived from this period of her life.

The fonds contains original typescripts of 1 letter and 5 poems (2 of which are poem cycles) authored by Raymond Knister. The 2 poem cycles, “Seven Poems,” and “A Row of Stalls” were published during his lifetime, in 1922 and 1925 respectively. The rest were published posthumously with “March Wind” in 1983, and “To One Lost” and “Still Young,” under the title “Until, Still Young,” in 2003. The poems are largely about relationships and emotions, with “A Row of Stalls” covering rural life which Knister is known for. The letter was written in 1931 to a regular correspondent known only as E.F. and covers topics including writing, specifically commenting on the Canadian writing scene, his father’s death, and his family life.

23 personal letters received by George Philpot. 22 of them were written by Irene R. [surname unknown], containing personal news, romantic hopes and feelings, and occasionally strife within their long-distance relationship. Irene’s news touches on aspects of her rural social life, the progress of her Normal School studies, news and advice from mutual friends and previous graduates of the Normal School, applying for rural school positions in competition with friends and acquaintances, physical conditions and amenities in one- and two-room rural schools, gender inequities in hiring and salary practices for teachers, the challenges of rural school fairs and timetabling as a multi-grade teacher, interactions with rural school trustees, and the prevalence of gossip about young women and schoolteachers in rural communities. 1 letter is from Betty Smith, who thanks George Philpot for his assistance in securing her a position at the Fuller Brush Company.