Northrop Frye

1912-1991

H. (“Norrie”) Northrop Frye CC, BA, MA, LLD, DD, DLitt, D de l’U, LHD, DCL, FRSC was born on 14 July 1912 in Sherbrooke, Quebec.  In 1919, the Frye family moved to Moncton, New Brunswick.  Frye’s early formal education included Victoria School and later at Aberdeen High. Frye graduated from Aberdeen High School in 1927.  He had a scholarship to Moncton’s Success Business College. In September 1929, he enrolled at the University of Toronto’s Victoria College in an undergraduate liberal arts program and graduated with honours in Philosophy and English. Frye next studied theology for three years at Emmanuel College (an adjunct of Victoria College) and was ordained in the United Church of Canada in 1936. In 1938, Frye set off for Oxford where he earned an MA at Merton College in 1940 (his thesis was on William Blake). He joined the Department of English at Victoria College in 1939 where he remained for the rest of his professional life. He published Fearful Symmetry in 1947 and Anatomy of Criticism in 1957. Other works include Anatomy, Spiritus Mundi (1976), The Great Code (1982), Words With Power (1990), and The Double Vision (1991). He delivered the Charles Eliot Norton lectures at Harvard in 1974–1975. His lectures were published as The Secular Scripture: A Study of the Structure of Romance. Frye returned to Moncton during the city’s Centennial Year in 1990. He lectured at l’Université de Moncton and was made an honorary citizen. The annual Frye Festival has brought several thousand scholars, academics, and writers to Moncton. He died 23 January 1991.

Predominant New Brunswick Residences:

Moncton, Newcastle

Archival Material

• Northrop Frye fonds
  ⌄
  Location

  Victoria University Library at the University of Toronto

  Website/Catalogue Record

  View Archival Record

  Retrieval Number

  Fonds number 11

  Date Range of Material

  1906-2001

  Extent

  18.5325 m of textual records
  556 photographs: b&w
  229 photographs: col.
  141 photographs: 35 mm b&w negatives
  1 photograph: 4x5 inch b&w negative
  8 photographs: 35 mm col. negatives
  62 sound cassettes
  13 sound tape reels
  4 film reels
  13 video cassettes
  15 artifacts
  4 postcards
  1 watercolour painting
  34 academic hoods
  1 drawing: pencil and black ink

  Scope and Content Note

  The fonds consists of Northrop Frye’s records pertaining to his academic career and to his personal life. The fonds is arranged in the following series:

      Series 1: Correspondence files
      Series 2: Literary files
      Series 3: Personal files
      Series 4: Professional files
      Series 5: Audio-visual records
      Series 6: Publications by Northrop Frye
      Series 7: Files about Northrop Frye
      Series 8: Artifacts
      Series 9: Miscellaneous printed files
      Series 10: Files relating to the estate of Northrop Frye
      Series 11: Collected Northrop Frye records