The Marshall McLuhan Collection was created in 2010 from material within the John M. Kelly Library to mark the centenary of McLuhan’s birth as well as to celebrate McLuhan’s tenure with the University of St. Michael’s College from 1946-1980.  The bulk of the collection was formerly part of the University of St. Michael's College Publications Collection (a collection of publications by individuals who have been members of the faculty, staff, or student body of the University of St. Michael's College).  The remainder of material comes from the estate of James Feeley, a former assistant to McLuhan. Feeley, a librarian, was working on a bibliography of McLuhan’s work. His extensive collection of material by and about McLuhan was donated to the Library in 2008.  A small collection of Richard Buckminster “Bucky” Fuller an American engineer, author, designer, inventor, futurist and McLuhan collaborator was also donated by Feeley and is included in the McLuhan Collection.

Highlights of the Collection include rare collector’s items such as a complete set of the newsletter the McLuhan Dewline, as well as inscribed first editions, variant copies and dust jackets.

The Collection will continue to grow through purchases and donations. It does not include the Marshall McLuhan Papers, which were donated to Library and Archives Canada in 1984 by McLuhan's widow, Corinne McLuhan.

Text compiled from:

Marshall McLuhan finding guide, Library and Archives Canada

McLuhan program, Faculty of Information Studies, University of Toronto

1911: Born in Edmonton, Alberta on July 21

1929-1934: Attends University of Manitoba, receiving a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts in English literature

1942: Receives doctorate in English literature from Cambridge University (dissertation title: The Place of Thomas Nashe in the Learning of His Time)

1937: Enters the Roman Catholic Church

1946: Joins the faculty of St. Michael's College, University of Toronto

1953-1959: Teaches seminar on culture and communications, sponsored by the Ford Foundation, from 1953-1955; co-edits with anthropologist Edmund Carpenter, Explorations from 1953 to 1959

1963: Becomes Director of the Centre for Culture and Technology, University of Toronto

1970: Becomes companion of the Order of Canada

1980: Dies on December 31st

Text compiled from:

Marshall McLuhan finding guide, Library and Archives Canada

McLuhan program, Faculty of Information Studies, University of Toronto

The Mechanical Bride: The Folklore of Industrial Man (1951)
Explorations in Communications (1960), co-edited, with Edmund Carpenter
The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man (1962), winner of the Governor General's prize for critical prose
Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (1964)
Selected Poetry of Tennyson (1965)
The Medium is the Massage (1967), co-authored with Quentin Fiore
War and Peace in the Global Village (1968), co-authored with Quentin Fiore
Through the Vanishing Point: Space in Poetry and Painting (1968), co-authored with Harley Parker
Counterblast (1969), co-authored with Harley Parker;
The Interior Landscape: Selected Literary Criticism, edited by Eugene McNamara.
Culture is Our Business (1970)
From Clich to Archetype (1970), co-authored with Wilfred Watson;
Take Today
The Executive as Dropout (1972), co-authored with Barrington Nevitt
The City as Classroom (1977) co-authored by McLuhan, Eric McLuhan, and Kathryn Hutchon.

For books:

Books in the Marshall McLuhan Collection are fully searchable in the University of Toronto Libraries Catalogue.

For articles:

Articles in the library's Marshall McLuhan Collection are listed in this finding guide. Scroll down to page 2 of this guide and click on the relevant links.