Title and statement of responsibility area
Title proper
bp Nichol fonds
General material designation
- Textual records
- Photographic materials
Parallel title
Other title information
Title statements of responsibility
Title notes
Level of description
Fonds
Reference code
Edition area
Edition statement
Edition statement of responsibility
Class of material specific details area
Statement of scale (cartographic)
Statement of projection (cartographic)
Statement of coordinates (cartographic)
Statement of scale (architectural)
Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)
Dates of creation area
Date(s)
-
1960-1987 (Creation)
- Creator
- Nichol, bp (Barrie Phillip)
Physical description area
Physical description
19 m of textual records and other material
Publisher's series area
Title proper of publisher's series
Parallel titles of publisher's series
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Statement of responsibility relating to publisher's series
Numbering within publisher's series
Note on publisher's series
Archival description area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Barrie Philip Nichol (September 30, 1944 September 25, 1988), who often went by his lower-case initials and last name, with no spaces (bp Nichol), was a prolific Canadian poet and also a language artist, editor and publisher. He was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, and became widely known for his concrete poetry while living there in the 1960s. He received his elementary teaching certificate from the University of British Columbia in 1963, but he only worked briefly as a teacher before dedicating himself to writing. His best-known published work is probably The Martyrology, a long poem encompassing 9 books in 6 volumes. Nichol also worked in a wide variety of other genres, including musical theatre, children's books, collage/assemblage, pamphlets, spoken word, computer texts, fiction, and television. In 1970, he began to collaborate with fellow poets Rafael Barreto-Rivera, Paul Dutton, and Steve McCaffery, forming the sound-poetry group The Four Horsemen. He was also active with Coach House Press and Open Letter, with his own presses, grOnk and Ganglia, and in the therapeutic community, Therafields, for a number of years. Nicol was married in 1980 to Eleanor Hiebert.
Custodial history
Scope and content
The fonds consists of correspondence, poems (including concrete, experimental and sound poem drafts), manuscripts (including drafts), notebooks, and journals of bp Nichol. Fonds includes records (1964-1987) of Nichol's presses, Ganglia and grOnk, consisting of manuscript files, correspondence files, mockups, business and reference files, computer discs, the authors poetry and comic book collections, photographs, television scripts, etc. Correspondents and contributors include Bill Bissett, Gerry Gilbert, Margaret Avison, Earle Birney, David Harris, David Phillips, David McFadden and others.
Notes area
Physical condition
Immediate source of acquisition
Arrangement
Language of material
Script of material
Location of originals
Availability of other formats
Restrictions on access
Prospective researchers must first query the Nichol Estate, represented by Ellie Nichol, for permission to access the fonds. Please contact scrb@sfu.ca for assistance.
Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication
Finding aids
Printed inventories available with item level descriptions.
Finding aid
Associated materials
Accruals
Alpha-numeric designations
BCAUL control number: SFL--2281
Alternative identifier(s)
Standard number area
Standard number
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
- Nichol, bp (Barrie Phillip) (Subject)
Genre access points
Control area
Description record identifier
Institution identifier
Rules or conventions
Rules for Archival Description
Status
Published
Level of detail
Dates of creation, revision and deletion
Created May 13, 2014 LZ
Language of description
- English