Title and statement of responsibility area
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Maggie Siggins fonds
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Fonds
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Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)
Dates of creation area
Date(s)
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1979-1991 (Creation)
Physical description area
Physical description
6.36 m of textual records and other material
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Archival description area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Maggie Siggins is a journalist and broadcaster of national stature. Born in Toronto in 1942, she received a Bachelor of Applied Arts in Journalism in 1965 from Ryerson Polytechnical Institute and began her career as a reporter for the 'Toronto Telegram.' During the 1970s she worked as a political reporter, commentator, interviewer, and producer for CBC and CITY-TV Toronto. As a freelancer, her work has appeared in such major national magazines as 'Chatelaine', 'Macleans', 'Reader's Digest', 'Today Magazine', and 'Financial Post Magazine', and she published a monthly political column in 'Toronto Life', 1981-1983. She has produced documentaries for CBC and CITY-TV, and spent 1985-1986 in China where she worked at the New China News Agency and taught at the Beijing Broadcast Institute. She is the author of six major books. Siggins has won a number of awards and honours. In 1985 her book on the JoAnn and Colin Thatcher murder case, 'A Canadian Tragedy' (MacMillan, 1985), won the Crime Writers of Canada Arthur Ellis award. 'Revenge of the Land' received the Governor-General's Literary Award for Non-Fiction in 1992, and 'Riel: A Life of Revolution' won the City of Regina Best Book Award. 'Love and Hate', a CBC television miniseries based on Siggins' book on the Thatcher case, was produced in 1989 and has aired in Canada, the U.S., Britain and forty other countries. A miniseries based on 'Revenge of the Land' is in production. Siggins has lectured widely and taught journalism, receiving the Southam Fellowship for Journalists, University of Toronto (1973-1974), and the Max Bell Chair in Journalism at the University of Regina (1983-1984). She is a member of numerous professional organizations and has served as chair of the Writers' Union of Canada and as a board member of PEN. Maggie Siggins has three children and resides in Regina with her husband, Gerald B. Sperling.
Custodial history
Scope and content
Fonds consists of research materials and writings generated by journalist Maggie Siggins during the production of five books: 'Bassett: His Forty Years in Politics, Publishing, Business, and Sports' (James Lorimer and Company, 1979); 'Brian and the Boys: A Study of Gang Rape' (James Lorimer and Company, 1984); 'A Canadian Tragedy: JoAnn and Colin Thatcher: A Study of Love and Hate' (Macmillan of Canada, 1985); 'Revenge of the Land: A Century of Greed, Tragedy and Murder on a Saskatchewan Farm' (McClelland and Stewart, 1991); and 'Riel: A Life of Revolution' (Harper Collins, 1994). While the arrangement varies amongst the various accessions, as a whole the records fall into four main series: Research Files, Interviews, Legal Materials, and Writings. The products of Siggins' thorough research, the first series contains magazine and news clipping, correspondence, biographical information on subjects and informants, notes, bibliographies, background materials, chronologies, photographs, articles, and copies of archival documents. The second series consists of audio recordings and/or transcripts of interviews with an extensive array of individuals who played major or minor roles in the events Siggins describes. Since a number of her books deal with court cases, the fonds also includes comprehensive legal documentation including proceedings of hearings and trials, affidavits, judgements, and files relating to forensic and medical evidence, laws and legal arguments, and testimony. The final series consists of outlines, drafts, manuscripts, galleys and correspondence relating to the writing and publication of the books. It should be noted that although Siggins' research occurred since 1979, the research files contain extensive historical material. This is particularly true for the Riel records in which is assembled a comprehensive collection of archival documents copied from repositories across Canada, and dating back to the early 1800s. Relating to the 'Bassett' book, the fonds includes only tape recorded interviews.
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Restrictions on access
Open for research. Some restrictions apply to individual biography files in 84-26.
Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication
Copyright retained by the donor.
Finding aids
Inventories available for 84-26, 87-46, and 94-67; Register of sound recordings available for 84-26 and 87-46.
Associated materials
Accruals
General note
Includes 9 computer diskettes, 74 photographs, 276 audio cassettes, and 378 oversize items.