Nathan Cohen fonds [textual record, graphic material, sound recording]
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Hierarchy 
Nathan Cohen fonds [textual record, graphic material, sound recording]
Hierarchical level:FondsContext of this record:Fonds includes:7 lower level description(s)View lower level description(s) -
Finding aid Sound recordings (Electronic) See MISACS database for item-level descriptions. (90: Open)Textual records (Electronic) MSS2375 (90: Open)
http://data2.collectionscanada.ca/pdf/pdf001/p000000954.pdfGraphic (art) (Paper) File list in accession file (90: Open) -
Record information Nathan Cohen fonds [textual record, graphic material, sound recording]
Date:1923-1988; predominant 1923-1971.Reference:R790-0-8-E, MG31-D27Type of material:Sound recordings, Art, Photographs, Textual materialFound in:Archives / Collections and FondsItem ID number:140419Date(s):1923-1988; predominant 1923-1971.Place of creation:No place, unknown, or undeterminedExtent:5.77 m of textual records.
38 photographs b&w
15 audio reels (42 h, 41 min).
3 drawings pen and black ink, pencil and coloured pencils.
1 watercolour gouache.Language of material:EnglishScope and content:Fonds consists of Nathan Cohen's personal records, correspondence and memoranda, documentation on Fighting Words, writings including manuscripts of lectures and radio scripts, and printed material. Also included are letters from Nathan Cohen to Gloria Cohen, as well as letters his widow received after his death and other posthumous material.
Fonds includes sound recordings of radio programs in which Cohen participated mostly as host or reviewer including "Contact" and "Fighting Words". Program guests were writers, intellectuals, actors and artists such as Anthony Burgess, John Kenneth Galbraith and Gilbert Murray, 1956-1971. Also included are several tributes to Cohen on CBC's radio series' "Assignment" and "Gzowski on FM".
Fonds also includes artwork, consisting of a gouache portrait of Nathan Cohen by Rusins Kaufmanis, two caricatures by Jack Reppen and a caricature by Trevor Hutchings, and photographs of Cohen.Provenance:Biography/Administrative history:Cohen, Nathan, 1923-1971 : Nathan Cohen was born in 1923 in Sydney, Nova Scotia. His experience in journalism began at Mount Allison University, where he edited the student newspaper, The Argosy Weekly. He graduated with an honours B.A. in English in 1942 and, after briefly studying law in Toronto, edited the labour-owned Glace Bay Gazette, 1942-1945. He then settled for good in Toronto, where he joined the Communist Party and contributed to the Canadian Tribune, Wochenblatt, New Voice and Canadian Jewish Weekly.
Cohen broke into radio in 1948 with the CBC's Dominion Networks programme on CJBC, Across the Footlights, reviewing theatre in Toronto. In 1949, he moved to its successor, CJBC Views the Shows, where he stayed until the end of the 1950s. At the same time, he contributed reviews to CBC's national magazine programme, Critically Speaking. He gained even wider public exposure when he began to host CBC's discussion programme, Fighting Words, which challenged guests to identify a quotation and then debate its merits, and which was broadcast on both radio and television from the early 1950s until 1962. Cohen published and edited his own quarterly, The Critic, from 1950 to 1953. From 1956 to 1958, he worked as a script editor for CBC television's General Motors Theatre, where he worked with the legendary Sydney Newman. After a brief stint as theatre critic for the Toronto Telegram, Cohen joined the Toronto Star as drama critic and stayed there until his death, for a period also acting as its entertainment editor (1959-1965). During the same time, he appeared as a commentator on both CBC's Assignment and on the private radio station CKFM (CFRB's FM station). He contributed articles on Canadian theatre to various periodicals throughout his career and in 1970-1971 taught theatre at York University. In 1967, he received an honorary degree from Mount Allison University.
Nathan Cohen died on 26 March 1971. After his death, the Canadian Theatre Critics Association's Nathan Cohen Award for Art Criticism and the Nathan Cohen Award for excellence in Playwriting for Children were established in his honour.
Nathan Cohen married Gloria Brontman in 1947 and they had two children, Susan and Phyllis.Additional information:Arrangement note:Some of the material was lent to the Archives by Gloria Cohen for microfilming in 1972. The resulting 8 microfilm reels contain correspondence to Nathan Cohen dating 1970-1971, most of the radio scripts, the scrapbooks of playbills, and the earliest and latest clippings scrapbooks (those for 1946-1949 and 1970-1971). There is some variation between the arrangement of the material on the microfilm and the arrangement of the originals.Location of originals note:The Argosy Weekly copies in vol. 7 were photocopied in 1972 from originals held by Mount Allison University, N.B.Availability of other formats note:Microfilm reels M-2218 to M-2225.Subject heading:- Scrapbooks Canada
- Nathan Cohen - Manuscripts, 1948-1971 The Argosy Weekly, 1941-1942
- Nathan Cohen - Correspondence, 1970-1971 The Toronto Star, 1970-1971
- Nathan Cohen - Authorship, 1941-1942, 1948-1971 "Fighting Words", 1970-1971
- Universities and colleges - Periodicals, 1940-1941 York University (Toronto, Ont.), 1970-1971
- Lectures and lecturing - Canada, [1948-1971] Mount Allison University (Sackville, N.B.), 1941-1942
- Theatre critics - Canada, [1947-1971]
- Radio scripts - Canada, [1948-1971]
- Television programs - Canada, [1948-1971]
- Theatre programs - Canada, 1947-1971
- Sackville (N.B.) - Newspapers, 1941-1942
- Clippings (Books, newspapers, etc.)
Source:PrivateFormer archival reference no.:MG31-D27Other accession no.:1972-0010 MISA
2004-0133 VSA -
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