Personal and professional writing of Dr. Claude Liman, professor of English at Lakehead University. His work focused on teaching American Literature, poetry and creative writing at Lakehead.

The contents of his journals include daily life, and reflections on teaching and his career. The letters chronicle his private and professional life, and include correspondence both sent and received.The records also reflect his involvement in sports, particularly skiing, but also golf, cycling, and running.

Records have been arranged into four series: Journals, Letters, Writing, and Teaching.

Marion Henderson (1908-1988) was an author, musician, music teacher, and active volunteer.

She began her work as a music teacher, first in Iroquois Falls, then at the Lakehead from 1949 to 1973. She was a singer and choir leader, and played organ and flute. As a researcher and author, she was interested in early European settlers in Fort William, and wrote historical fiction, children’s literature, book reviews, and articles. She also worked in school libraries, and after retirement was a volunteer indexer at the Brodie Library (Thunder Bay Public Library).

Inge Rakovszky worked as a library technician at the Brodie Library from 1969 to 1989. During this time she worked closely with Marion Henderson, as well as other local historians such as Elizabeth Arthur, Ernst Zimmermann, and Joseph Mauro. She assisted Henderson in the last years of her life, including with the distribution of papers and published material.

These records were kept by Inge Rakovszky until their donation to Lakehead University Archives in 2024.

The records consist of some correspondence, copies of Marion Henderson’s writings, and a set of photographic sides.

Raymond Souster was born in 1921 in Toronto, Ontario, He lived there until his passing in 2012. He never lived outside of Toronto except during his military service in the Royal Canadian Air Force in the 40s. Outside of his military service he was employed by the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce until his retirement in 1985. His literary career began with an association with John Sutherland and his literary magazine First Statement. This led to him launching a literary magazine titled Direction in 1943. He was awarded the governor general award in 1964, and continued publishing works well into the 70s and 80s.

After Souster ended Direction he began a partnership with Louis Dudek and Irving Layton to launch the Contact magazine from 1952-1954, and Contact Press from 1952-1967. This partnership with Louis Dudek would also lead to the two working together on many of Souster’s poetry collections such as Selected Poems released in 1956 and included poems by Souster chosen by Dudek for publication. Souster collaborated with a wide variety of poets through Contact Press and worked to bring attention to Canadian poetry. He was also in contact with many American poets such as Sidney “Cid” Corman, Jonathon Williams, Charles Olson, and Louis Zukofsky. Souster received feedback from these poets on his collections while providing them with feedback of his own. He was incredibly involved in the poetic community especially for Canadian poetry.

Outside of poetry, Souster also published two works of fiction, one titled The Winter of Time in 1949, and the other titled On Target in 1972. He published these under the pseudonyms Raymond Holmes and John Holmes. His contributions to the literary community, not only in his own poetry, but through his collaborations with others and his work in publishing makes him an influential force for many Canadian poets. His publishing work at Contact Press allowed him to uplift new Canadian writing which included work from Margaret Atwood and Michael Ondaatje. He was named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1995, and the League of Canadian Poets named an annual prize after Souster in January of 2012.

Material collected related to the creation and publication of the book "Sweating with Finns: Sauna Stories from North America," edited by Kaarina Kailo, Raija Warkentin, and Jorma Halonen, and published 2005 by the Centre for Northern Studies, Lakehead University.

The fonds consists of publications and clippings in Finnish, including some of Terttu Koivu’s own writings in Canadan Uutiset and other publications. Terttu Koivu immigrated from Finland in 1953, and died in Thunder Bay in 2013 at age 95.