Jane Urquhart's diary on display at UW Library

WATERLOO, Ont. -- A marriage license, exotic and colourful wine labels, tiny photographs of French graveyards, restaurant menus and postcards are among the fascinating items included in the pages of writer Jane Urquhart's diary.

The diary, recently donated to the University of Waterloo library, is now on display in the Doris Lewis Rare Book Room.

The 258-page diary covers the period from 1974 to 1979 -- a time that Urquhart describes as preceding her writing career. Urquhart is the winner of the 1997 Governor General's Award for her novel The Underpainter.

Susan Saunders Bellingham, head of the library's special collections, said the author's diary is of great interest to both students in literature and women's studies. It is also "a fine complement to the papers of Urquhart's husband, artist Tony Urquhart, which are already housed in the Doris Lewis Rare Book Room."

Jane Urquhart describes this diary -- which also served as a sketchbook, journal and trip diary -- as her "best one" in that it shows her collaborative work with her husband who is a UW fine arts professor.

The many sketches and drawings by Tony Urquhart make this diary not unlike his series of "idea books" which form one of the most important portions of his personal papers and archives, also housed in the room.

The complementary nature of her diary with her husband's series of idea books prompted Urquhart to feel that this particular volume was well-suited to be added to the existing research collections.

Urquhart also said it was important to her to have a portion of her original materials there because "without the UW Library I couldn't have written the books I have; I really feel at home there."

Her desire to have the diary preserved and housed in a suitable repository had to be reconciled with the sadness donors sometimes feel when they decide to part with a treasured family possession.

Therefore, the library arranged to have a facsimile version made as a part of the preservation process carried out on the diary under the auspices of the Ontario University Libraries Co-operative Preservation Program operated by McMaster University Library.

In the process, McMaster's preservation specialist, John Winch, separated the signatures from the deteriorated spine of the original, inserted protective tissue guards where needed to prevent damage to particularly fragile items that were pasted in, and carried out certain other conservation tasks that were required.

A separate case was made for the now-disbound original signatures and a preservation facsimile was made for the Urquhart family. This facsimile, bound in black buckram, now closely resembles the original journal.

Contact: Susan Saunders Bellingham, (519) 888-4567, ext. 3122

E-mail: sbelling@library.uwaterloo.ca

From the UW News Bureau, (519) 888-4444

Release no. 9 -- January 15, 1999