b.1942, Toronto, ON; d. June 12, 1974, Toronto, ON

1965 BA (University of Toronto)
1966 MA (University of Toronto)
1968 BLS (University of Toronto School of Library Science

1964–1966 Library Assistant, Victoria University Library
1966–1967 Museum Assistant, Victoria and Albert Museum
1968–1974 Rare Books and Special Collections Librarian, Victoria University Library
1966–1974 Bibliographical Fellow, Centre for Renaissance and Reformation Studies.
1972–1974 Lecturer, Victoria College, Department of English, University of Toronto

Sinclair, D. (1968). “Individual items of interest in the Forbes Collection.” Renaissance and Reformation 5 (1): 14–24.

Sinclair, D. (1969). “The Forbes Collection—collecting habits and the personal library.” Renaissance and Reformation 5 (2): 13–16.

Sinclair, D. (1970). “The Tennyson Collection in Victoria College Library.” Victorian Studies Association Newsletter 6: 12–14.

Sinclair, D. (1970). “Marjorie Pickthall: Mary tired.” Canadian Notes and Queries 6: 11.

Sinclair, D. (1970). “William Kirby and the production of the U.E.” Papers of the Bibliographical Society of Canada 9: 30–35.

Sinclair, D. (1972). Nineteenth-century narrative poems. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart.

Sinclair, D. (1971). ‘Winifred Cotter’ and Helena Coleman.” Canadian Notes and Queries 7: 11–12.

Sinclair, D. (1973). “The first pirated edition of Tennyson’s poems.” The Book Collector 22 (2): 177–188.

Sinclair, D., & Warkentin, G. (eds.). (1976). The new world journal of Alexander Graham Dunlop, 1845. Toronto: Dundurn Press.

Bibliographical Society of Canada

Scholarship, 1961–1965
Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire Scholarship, 1967–1968
David Sinclair Memorial Fund, 1974 (established by Lorna Fraser, Victoria University Library Chief Librarian)

Sinclair’s research interests included the bibliography of Sir Philip Sidney, late nineteenth-century English poetry, and Canadian poetry and fiction, in particular, poetry and fiction of the nineteenth century.

Sinclair’s comparatively short but accomplished career in academic librarianship and bibliography exemplified the increasing importance of subject specialization of librarians to the institutional prestige of university libraries.
Sinclair’s graduate thesis, Metamorphosis and Mimesis in Sir Philip Sidney’s Arcadia, was supervised by William Blissett and completed in 1966.
Sinclair was the first Bibliographical Fellow of the newly established Centre for Renaissance and Reformation Studies, and was appointed to the position by its founder, David Hoeniger. At the time of his death, he was a Ph.D. student in bibliography at the University of London, completing a dissertation under the supervision of Arthur Brown.
His mother, Dorothy Sinclair, donated his papers to Victoria University Library in 1974.

Victoria University Library. David Sinclair (Fonds 38) . Accessed Jan. 8, 2017.
Warkentin, G. (1976). “David Sinclair, 1942–1974.” In: The new world journal of Alexander Graham Dunlop, 1845, edited by D. Sinclair and G. Warkentin. pp. 114– 117. Toronto: Dundurn Press.
ELA bography compiled by Agatha Barc