Canadian Speakers' and Writers' Service Ltd., Canada's first literary agency, was founded by Matie Molinaro in 1950. Since then, it has represented the interests of some leading Canadian authors, performers and speakers, including Marshall McLuhan, Harry Boyle, Mavor Moore, Celia Franca, Peter Stersburg, Lister Sinclair, Don Harron, and several others. The Service ran a writers' retreat north of Toronto until the late 1980s. During her career as the president of CSWS, Molinero has acted as a ghost-writer, publicity-writer, and translator for the agency.
The fonds consists of: correspondence, typescripts, financial records and related materials of the CSWS for the period 1950-1990. The client files are arranged either alphabetically by name of the client or chronologically with an alphabetic sub-division under each year, including correspondence between CSWS and clients, clients' publishers, the media, sponsors of talks, radio and television producers, and other related material; some with clients' résumés, photographs, schedules, travel arrangements, publicity, royalty statements, and contracts; some with typescripts of clients' literary works both published and unpublished. Featured clients include Earle Birney, Harry Boyle, Celia Franca, Larry Henderson, Frank Rasky, Mckenzie Porter, Clyde Gilmour, Stanley Burke, Ben Wicks, and Marshall McLuhan, among others. There is a separate collection of the correspondence of Marshall McLuhan which was used for publication after being edited by McLuhan's wife and Matie Molinero, as well as galleys of McLuhan's works and his publications. This collection also includes audio-visual material such as recordings and interviews of CSWS's clients.
Finding aid available.
Access is restricted.
Inventory number: F0280