Children’s author Robert Munsch is donating his stash of story drafts, publisher notes and fan letters to the Guelph Public Library.
The southwestern Ontario library said the collection will offer a rare glimpse into Munsch’s decades-long career, during which he penned bedtime classics including “The Paper Bag Princess,” “Love You Forever” and “Mortimer.”
It will be a key part of a new Central Library currently under construction and set to open in late 2026 or early 2027.
“This is a huge coup for the Guelph Public Library, and I’m grateful to the fact that they recognize the importance that public libraries play in the community,” library CEO Dan Atkins said Tuesday.
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In a press release announcing the news, the Munsch family said they were excited to have the archives of Robert Munsch preserved at the new building, a massive project that will triple the size of the current library.
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“The library has been a large part of our family’s lives. When our children were young, Robert would take the kids every week to pick out new books,” the family said in a release issued Monday.
“Robert Munsch is happy to continue to inspire kids and adults alike through the archives.”
Atkins said the library reached out last year to the Munsch family, and that they were immediately receptive to donating material that Atkins called “a significant piece of local history.”
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He estimated the family has saved “tens of thousands” of items including carvings, letters and artwork from children, much of kept it in basement storage. Atkins said early talks focused on including items of historical impact, such as first drafts, letters from publishers and edits that were made to Munsch’s writing.
Atkins said Munsch seemed surprised by the library’s request.
“He was quite shocked that people would be interested in this material. I think he’s quite a humble man, and so we expressed our interest in saying that there’d be a real demand for the community to have access to this type of collection for research purposes going forward,” Atkins said, adding later that the material will be well-cared for.
“Obviously, a basement is not an ideal place for a long-term archive and in our new central library we will have proper climate-controlled environments to preserve these items well into the future.”
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