McMaster University Library Launches a Virtual Page Turner: Historical Perspectives on Canadian Publishing Website

Which novel by Margaret Laurence won the Governor General’s Award, became a literary cause célèbre, and was an object of censorship in 1976? What is the history of hockey books in Canada? What has been the impact on publishing and book sales by Canada Reads (CBC’s annual competition of the “battle of books”)? What publisher of the nineteenth century had the Canadian rights to the Ouija board?  Which publisher, founded in 1978 in Montreal, is dedicated to the bridging of cultures in Canada and specializes in the publication of original, literary works written in English, French, and Italian?

These questions and a host of many related, complex issues are now explored and addressed by a new exciting, scholarly website hosted by McMaster University Library:  Historical Perspectives on Canadian Publishing (http://hpcanpub.mcmaster.ca/).

The site will be launched tomorrow, Oct. 8 at 2 p.m. in Convocation Hall. Renowned Canadian publisher/editor Douglas Gibson will give a brief talk about Canadian publishing and the "coat of many authors" of the late publishing impresario Jack McClelland will be on display.

McMaster University Library is renowned for its archives and books on Canadian publishing. The papers of the well-known publishers such as McClelland & Stewart, Macmillan Canada, Clarke Irwin, Copp Clark, and Key Porter Books are housed at the University Library. Lesser known Canadian publishers in educational publishing, avant-guard publishing, and fine press, including Garamond Press, Weed/Flower Press, the Book Society of Canada and Locks’ Press, also have their archival holdings at the University Library.

Unique and fascinating, publishers’ archives contain a vast array of primary research materials: editorial files and exchanges with authors, catalogues, correspondence among publishers and with government agencies, manuscripts, production cards, marketing and publicity plans for books, inventory books, financial ledgers of many kinds, salemen’s record books, designs, mock-ups of books, illustrations, copyright registrations, readers’ reports, contracts, reviews of books, royalty reports, and photographs. These documents contain hidden stories of people in publishing, authorship, design, and marketing.

Funded by the Canadian Culture Online Program of the Department of Canadian Heritage, McMaster’s website on publishing is a collaborative project done in partnership with the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library at University of Toronto (archives of Coach House Press, Barbarian Press, and Richard Outram of the Gauntlet Press) and Queen’s University Archives (home of the archives of the legendary editor Lorne Pierce).

Augmented with digital images, sound, and video, and enhanced with Web 2.0 features for tagging and commenting, the web site consists of 90 case studies, scrupulously written by scholars from across Canada, including senior academics, doctoral and graduate students, librarians, archivists, and members of the public. Case studies have been written on authors such as Farley Mowat, Pierre Berton, L.M. Montgomery, Alice Munro, and Al Purdy. The hardscrabble business of Canadian publishing is discussed in many historical studies on a wide range of genres, including fiction, poetry, children’s literature, academic publications, and the periodical press, from the 1800s to the present day.

“I publish authors, not books,” Jack McClelland, the great impresario of Canadian publishing, once quipped. Emblematic of his many promotional stunts and commitment to Canadian writers, McClelland’s iconic “coat of many authors” is a captivating motif for this multi-layered website. Historical Perspectives on Canadian Publishing reflects McMaster University Library’s cutting-edge approach to digital scholarship where history and the virtual world are constructed seamlessly in harmonious balance.

by Carl Spadoni