Virgil Burnett fonds

Burnett, Virgil.
Virgil Burnett fonds. - 1958-1990.

3.96 m of textual records and graphic materials.

Born in Kansas in 1928, Virgil Burnett was an author and illustrator whose work was widely published in Europe and North America. He received his undergraduate education at Columbia University in New York, where he studied with Edward Melcarth, a Social realist painter. In 1950 he was drafted, trained as a combat engineer and sent to Europe where he served for two years in a propaganda company as an artist-illustrator. After his military service he attended graduate school at Berkeley, taking a master's degree in art history. When a Fulbright scholarship took Burnett to Paris in 1956, he encountered other expatriate artists including David Hill, who remained a close friend until his death in 1977. Burnett also met Maurice Darantiere, a French publisher, who made him aware of the expressive possibilities of the book arts. By 1960 he was working primarily as an illustrator. A professor in the Fine Arts Department at the University of Waterloo since the early 1970's, Burnett created an artistic oeuvre of extraordinary scope and breadth. (From Beglo, Jo Nordley. "Text,Image, Memory, and Illusion" in Virgil Burnett: a Retrospective Exhibition 1960-1990. Waterloo, Ont.: University of Waterloo Library, 1991). Virgil Burnett died in June, 2012.

The fonds consists of correspondence, manuscripts, illustrations, and other materials created by and received by Virgil Burnett over the course of his career, dating from the 1950's to the 1990's. Correspondence with many authors, artists and publishers is present, and includes figures such as David Hill, Walter Bachinski, Rikki Ducornet, Marian Engel, John Glassco, Maurice Darantiere, Robin Magowan, Jerome McGann and Daryl Hine, among many others. The fonds contains representations of much of Burnett's illustrative work, present as book jackets, programmes, playbills, broadsides, posters, journal illustrations, etc., with some original illustrations included. The fonds also contains manuscripts of works illustrated and/or written or compiled by Burnett, and materials relating to their publication.

Title based on contents of fonds.

The original donation of 2.96 m. was made to the University of Waterloo Library by Virgil Burnett in 1989. A second donation of 1 m. was made in 1993.

Arranged in seven series: 1. Biographical; 2. Financial; 3. Correspondence; 4. Works by Virgil Burnett; 5. Works by Others; 6. Notes on Correspondents; 7. Miscellaneous.

Correspondence primarily in English and French, with some German and Greek.

All documents in Series 2: Financial are restricted.

Detailed finding aid available.

There have been several accruals to this fonds:
GA 73 Accrual 1994
GA 73 Accrual 1996
GA 73 Accrual 1998
GA 73 Accrual 2000
GA 73 Accrual 2000-2
GA 73 Accrual 2002
GA 73 Accrual 2003
GA 73 Accrual 2004
GA 73 Accrual 2004-2
GA 73 Accrual 2005
GA 73 Accrual 2005-2
GA 73 Accrual 2006
GA 73 Accrual 2007
GA 73 Accrual 2009
GA 220 Accrual 2012
GA 221 Accruals 2009-2012.

Call number: GA73

Special Collections

Virgil Burnett fonds