F.R. Scott, poet, lawyer, university professor, was born in Quebec City, a son of the poet and minister F.G. Scott. In 1919 Scott graduated from Bishop's University, then taught for a year and left for Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar in 1920. He entered McGill's Law School in 1924. During his first year at McGill, Scott contributed several pieces to The McGill Daily Literary Supplement through which he met the poet and critic A.J.M. Smith. Smith invited Scott to help found The McGill Fortnightly Review, which they published for two years and through which grew Scott's interest in modern poetry.

In 1928 Scott married the Canadian painter Marian Dale and joined the McGill Law Faculty. He co-edited the short-lived Canadian Mercury with poet Leo Kennedy, 1928-1929. In 1932 Scott and historian Frank Underhill founded the League for Social Reconstruction, a socialist study group, and contributed to its publication, Social Planning for Canada (1935). Scott was the League's president 1935-1936 and was also active in the C.C.F., serving as its national chairman 1942-1950. Scott edited New Provinces, a poetry anthology published in 1936, and was a member of Preview and Northern Review, Montreal little magazines, in the 1940's. He published his first collection of poetry, Overture, in 1945. Later publications included Events & Signals (1954), Eye of the Needle (1957), and The Blasted Pine (1957), co-edited by A.J.M. Smith.

Scott was a founder of les Recherches Sociales, which concerned itself with French Canadian social problems. At the same time, he worked on translations of various French Canadian poets and in 1962 published St-Denys Garneau and Anne Hébert, which was followed in 1977 by Poems of French Canada, which won him the Governor-General's award for translation. In law, Scott specialized in constitutional law, as well as the defence of civil liberties. Among his best known cases were the Roncarelli and Lady Chatterley's Lover cases, and his opposition to the Quebec Padlock Act. He became dean of McGill's Law Faculty in 1961.

During the 1960's, Scott helped found the New Party, the successor to the C.C.F. and the predecessor of the New Democratic Party, before retiring from active party politics, and served on the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism. He continued to publish poetry, including Signature (1964), his Selected Poems (1966), Trouvailles (1967) and The Dance is One (1973). In 1977 Essays on the Constitution appeared, for which he won the Governor-General's Award. His Collected Poems was published in 1981.

Fonds consists of 20 series of textual records, 1832-1986, including Subject Files series, Personal Papers series, and Printed Material series, as well as two series of Additional Papers. The Subject Files contain correspondence, memoranda, reports, manuscripts, notes, clippings, pamphlets and other material relating to Scott's career as university professor, poet and political activist; there are also C.C.F. and N.D.P. subject files. The Personal Papers include family material, documentation relating to Scott's youth and education, early correspondence, correspondence between Scott and Marian Dale Scott, diaries, notebooks, income tax returns, honorary degrees and certificates; posthumous material includes letters of condolence to Marian Scott. The Printed Material includes pamphlets, articles and scrapbooks. The Additional Papers include correspondence and manuscripts by Scott; the Additional Papers Series II include subject files, personal papers and printed material.

Fonds also contains a microfilm copy of scrapbooks, 1924 to 1974, compiled by Francis Reginald Scott, microfilm reels M-3733 and M-3734.

Fonds also contains photographic materials. 2,330 photographs, ca. 1865-1983, include portraits and snapshots, and document the life and career of F.R. Scott as poet, teacher, constitutional lawyer and political activist, in Montreal and North Hatley, Quebec; travels of F.R. Scott in Canada, the United States, Europe and Southeast Asia; activities of friends of F.R. Scott: Patrick Anderson, P.K. Page, Louis Dudek, John Glassco, Doug Jones, Ron Sutherland, Neufville Shaw, Ralph Gustafson, A.J.M. Smith, George Johnson, Anne Hébert, Irving Layton, Hans Selye, Leon Edel, Pierre Elliot Trudeau, George Whalley, Earle Birney, Fred Cogswell, Al Purdy, George Woodcock; group photograph of delegates attending the founding convention of the New Party, Ottawa, Ontario, August 1961. 32 photographs (b&w;), 1910-1955, depict a C.C.F. banquet, Montreal, Quebec, 1943; Phyllis Webb, Morley Callaghan, Anne Wilkinson, and F.R. Scott, attending Canadian Writers' Conference, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario; with A.M. (Sandy) Nicholson, of the C.C.F., 1947; portrait of Florian Fortin, ca. 1941; public housing projects in the U.S.A., ca. 1939; Irving and Betty Layton, Scott, Ari Boxer, Eli Mandel, P. Webb, Louis Dudek, at Layton's home; family members; photographs by Gail Turnball. 14 photographs, 1926-1952, depict F.R. Scott at the Couchiching Institute, 1934; F.R. Scott at a reception for United Nations personnel, Burma, 1952; F.R. Scott's room, Montreal, Quebec, 1926; Peter Scott, ca. July 1932. 71 photographs, 1960-1980, are personal snapshots of F.R. Scott and literary friends inlcuding Ralph Gustafson, Eli Mandel, Irving Layton, Michael Ondaatje, Al Purdy, Louis Dudek and others; convocations, honorary degrees at McGill, Simon Fraser, Dalhousie University; with photographs by Chris F. Payne, Arnott Rogers Batten, Studio Eclair. 143 photographics, 1967-1978, predominant 1976-1978, depicts F.R. Scott at his camp on Lake Massawippi, Quebec, and at his house in North Hatley, Quebec, with Marian Scott, and Raleigh and Louise Parkin also appearing; photographed by Scott family friend, Lois Lord.

Fonds also consists of sound recordings of F.R. Scott interviews, such as one for the CBC series Distinguished Canadians, poetry readings by Scott and other poets, various radio programs and a recording of an oral correspondence to Scott. Also included is a video recording of a TV Ontario production on Scott.

Fonds also contains graphic materials and objects. Four drawings, a photograph, a photostate and a watercolour, 1935-1954, are a comic drawing of F.R. Scott by Arthur Lismer; a design for book jacket at "Social Planning in Canada" by Maria Dale Scott; designs for the cover of the book Housing Canadians; a photograph of a cartoon entitled The amendment of the B.N.A. Act ... as it seems to Québec; a poster by M.B. entitled Three Canadian reservations. 10 drawings and one plaque, ca. 1940-1964, predominant ca. 1950-1960, relate to F.R. Scott's career at McGill University, including seven Arthur Lismer caricatures, a drawing, a portrait of F.R. Scott by Edith Simon, a portait of Irving Layton by Betsy Sutherland, and one silver plaque presented to Scott by the Graduate Society of McGill University in 1964. Three drawings, 1954-1962, consist of two by Arthur Lismer, entitled F.H. Varley getting his honourary degree at Manitoba, and A Montreal half-nude; and one, by Marian Scott, is a cover design for a book of F.R. Scott's poetry.

Subject Files (Series I and II) were acquired in 1981 and 1983. C.C.F./N.D.P. Subject Files (vols. 31-35), Other Subject Files (vols. 35-36) and Printed Material (vols. 36-39) were placed on deposit in 1978 and subsequently acquired in 1981. Scrapbooks were microfilmed from originals in the possession of F.R. Scott and presented in 1975 by McGill University Archives. Subject Files Series III, the Personal Papers, the Posthumous Material, the C.C.F./N.D.P. Subject Files (vols. 97-98) and other Subject Files (vols. 99-110) were presented in 1986 by Scott's widow, Marian Scott of Montreal. Additional Papers and Additional Papers Series II, in volumes 111-118 were received from Marian Scott through Anne Scotton of Ottawa in 1988 and 1996. The Stephen Leacock Manuscript located in vol. 113 was received in 1995 from William Toye of Toronto, Frank Scott's literary executor.

Biographical material about the Scott camp on Lake Massawippi, by Lois Lord, is available in the accession file for accession 1992-647 DAP.