Title and statement of responsibility area
Title proper
Donald K. Gordon Collection
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Fonds
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Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)
Dates of creation area
Date(s)
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1968-2003 (Accumulation)
Physical description area
Physical description
0.01 m of textual records.
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Archival description area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Donald K. Gordon was born on September 27, 1935. He attended Calabar High School in Jamaica from 1948 to 1953. In 1969, Gordon recieved his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto in Spanish American Literature and went on to be employed by the University of Manitoba from 1970 to 2001. Gordon became a Professor in 1984 and was named Professor Emeritus in 2004 after his retirement on July 1, 2001. His publications include Language and Racism: Historicity (2007), two books in Spanish on the subjects of Juan Rulfo and Quince Duncan, several chapters in books and numerous articles for both the scholarly and popular press. One notable article presented Alderman Johnson Roden's work for the first time in the North American journal, Afro-Hispanic Review.
Name of creator
Biographical history
A. J. (Alderman Johnson) Roden, "tailor poet," was born March 28, 1893 in Jamaica. His date and place of death are unknown, although he did live to be at least eighty-nine years old. On August 14, 1911, Roden moved to Limon, Costa Rica where he was educated at a preparatory school.. Recognized as a good student, Roden began writing poetry at age twelve and won a scholarship to attend St. George's College, but was prevented from attending by his father who disliked Catholicism. Instead, Roden became a tailor and set up shop in Port Limón, moving between Matina and Bataan as economic conditions necessitated. Unable to achieve his goal of publishing a collection of his poetry, in spite of gaining support from Professor Donald K. Gordon and the important Costa Rican writer Quince Duncan, Roden burnt most of his work. Some of his work had been published in the Costa Rican periodical The American Advisor between 1968 and 1971 and other poems were self-published.
Donald K. Gordon, in his article about Roden titled "Alderman Johnson Roden: The Tailor-Poet" (1983) describes Roden as "one of the earliest and strongest voices of protest against racism." Gordon also described Roden as a "rarity" as he wrote in English while living in a Spanish-speaking country.
Custodial history
The collection was accumulated by Donald K. Gordon and donated to University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections in 2005.
Scope and content
The collection consists of A.J. Roden's photographs, poems, as well as correspodence between A.J. Roden and D. K. Gordon.
Notes area
Physical condition
Immediate source of acquisition
Arrangement
Language of material
- English
Script of material
Location of originals
Availability of other formats
Restrictions on access
There are no restrictions on this material.
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Finding aids
A finding aid can be downloaded from the fonds-level description by clicking on the “Download’ link under “Finding Aid” on the right hand side of the screen.
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Associated materials
Accruals
No further accruals to this collection are expected.
Alternative identifier(s)
A
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Status
Draft
Level of detail
Partial
Dates of creation, revision and deletion
Inventory prepared by Jason Peters (December 1, 2005). Revised by N. Courrier (October 2018). Revised by M. Horodyski (June 2019).