MacSkimming, Roy, 1944-

Roy MacSkimming fonds. – 1970-2006; predominant 1998-2003. – 2 m of textual records, graphic material and sound recordings.

Roy MacSkimming was born in 1944, grew up in Ottawa and attended the University of Toronto. From 1964 to 1968 he worked as an editor with Clarke, Irwin. In 1969 MacSkimming co-founded New Press in Toronto with James Bacque and Dave Godfrey. He later co-founded the Association of Canadian Publishers, a lobby group focused on strengthening the publishing industry. When New Press was acquired by General Publishing in 1974, MacSkimming became books editor, literary columnist and publishing reporter at The Toronto Star. In 1977 he moved to Ottawa to work with the Canada Council for the Arts, administering policies and programs for book publishing. In 1990 MacSkimming began a ten-year involvement with the Association of Canadian Publishers as policy director and government relations advisor. He is the author of several books including The Perilous Trade: Publishing Canada’s Writers. This biographical sketch is a condensed version of the one available on his webpage.

The fonds is mainly concerned with the writing of The Perilous Trade. It has been arranged in five series: interviews; sound recordings of interviews; research materials; The Perilous Trade and other writings; correspondence.

Title based on content of the fonds.
The fonds (18-2009) was acquired from Roy MacSkimming in April 2009.
Finding aid is available electronically.
There are no access restrictions.
Further accruals are expected.