Back in June, after returning from Fredericton, I wrote a brief overview of my work on George Whalley. I mentioned that the production of a website – intended as an introduction to Whalley’s life and writings – was underway. The first iteration of the site at www.georgewhalley.ca was published today.
Robin Isard, the Systems Librarian, and Rick Scott, the Library Technologies Specialist in the Wishart Library at Algoma U, contributed their programming expertise and helped produce a clean and attractive design. The website includes Whalley’s essay, “Picking Up The Thread,” three poems, and previously unavailable recordings of Whalley reading his poems. It also includes unpublished photographs from the beginning to the end of his life, a comprehensive bibliography, and a timeline of significant events in his life. Three essays written by John Ferns (Professor Emeritus, McMaster University) explore Whalley’s life, poetry, and Coleridge scholarship.
This is an important start in establishing a space for Whalley on the web. The site will also help me with my future work in a number of ways. Now, when someone asks me, “What are you working on?” or “Who was George Whalley?” (though Zailig Pollock assured me “surely everyone knows George Whalley”), my answer will end with “and you can see more at www.georgewhalley.ca.”
This is only the beginning. Attending TEMiC has inspired me to reconsider my work and develop a new plan for publishing editions of Whalley’s writings. In the future, the site will include much more material. It may also serve as a gateway to digital editions of Whalley’s writings that will include images of Whalley’s wartime letters and poetry manuscripts and typescripts. The digital editions will be counterparts to print editions. An online database recording the materials available in various archives will also help others who are interested in studying different aspects of Whalley’s works.
I hope the site will spark a renewed interest in Whalley’s life and writings and lead people who are interested in him to contact me.