As part of our ongoing 50th Anniversary observances, the Robertson Library is pleased to celebrate the centrepiece of our University Archives and Special Collections, the Prince Edward Island Collection, with a guest lecture from The Reverend Edward Rix, one of the foremost independent collectors of Island books and ephemera. A proud Islander, with deep family roots in West Prince, Father Rix studied at the University of King’s College in Halifax, the University of Toronto’s Wycliffe College, and Dalhousie University in Halifax. It was during his university days that he began to turn his passion for books into a successful venture as an independent bookseller and collector, learning from some of Canada’s leading rare and antiquarian book dealers. Since 2001, he has served as Priest in Charge of the Parish of All Saints Episcopal Church in Wynnewood, a western suburb of Philadelphia, where he has continued to build a remarkable personal library, including some 2000 titles relating to Prince Edward Island, with exemplary collections of the works of Basil King and Milton Acorn as particular highlights.

Please join us at the Library on Thursday, November 6 at 7 pm to hear Father Rix share highlights from his PEI collecting adventures, and how the careers of many Island authors in the 1800s and 1900s underscored the observation of Island essayist Sir Andrew Macphail — another writer well-represented in Rix’s collection — that our Province’s chief export for many years was, “brains.” Special selections from his library and from our own PEI Collection will be displayed at the talk. All are welcome, and admission is free, but donations to the ongoing Love Our Library fundraising campaign will be gratefully received. Light refreshments will be served.