Review of History of the Book in Canada: Volume 3: 1918-1980, edited by Carole Gerson and Jacques Michon (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2007) 611 pp. Indexed Cloth 0802090478 $85.

This is an essential resource for both public, school and university libraries, not only of this country, but internationally, because of its significance to scholars and general readers.

Under the banner of  “Alberta”, we discover: “censorship”, “education”, “government support of the arts”, “libraries”, “literacy”, “mass-market distribution”, and “publishing.” Somewhat surprisingly, in 1946, Alberta became the first Canadian jurisdiction to respond to concerns about funding the arts through government sponsorship.  When the Canadian Arts Council was established in 1945, this province set up a series of arts boards to support cultural activities, in 1946. (“High Culture Nationalism and the Missing Book”, in “The State and the Book”, by Paul Litt, p. 37).

Take note of one of the Case Studies, “Collecting Canadian Manuscripts at the University of Calgary, by Apollonia Steele, about the “special mission” to collect the papers of contemporary Canadian authors, following the landmark Canadian Conference of Writers and Critics.  By 1980, the Rare Books and Special Collections Department of the University of Calgary Library had become an internationally recognized research centre for Canadian literary and cultural studies.  In the 1980s it would begin to publish detailed finding aids to specific collections in order to further facilitate research. (p. 114)

Under “prairies”, we uncover: “folklore”, “libraries”, “publishing”, and “study groups”. See also: “individual cities and provinces”; “Ukrainian (language)”.  Fiona A. Black, who was an editor of Volume 2 of HBIC/HLIC, in “Prairie Publishing” (in “Trade And Regional Book Publishing In English”) we can learn more about Western Producer Prairie Books, founded by the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool, in 1954; Peguis Publishers, Hurtig Publishing, and several others.  “Alberta took over first place by 1978, as a result of Hurtig” (a notable project being The Canadian Encyclopedia, in 1980).  Yet, W.O. Mitchell’s Who Has Seen The Wind “has never been published in the Prairies.” (p. 185)

In “The West”, by Dominque Marquis, the story of French-language print culture and publishing in the Western provinces deals with Editons du Blé (and its additional reincarnations) asserting its own identity and “freedom” from Québec.

In Part Eleven, “Publishing And Communities”, the reader will enjoy: illustration 11.3 “The Canadian Small Press”, concept by David McKnight and graphic artist: Jennifer Garland (p. 309).  As far as “controlling the means of production [which] has long been at the ideological centre of the small press movement”, Louis Dudek is the unacknowledged theoretician cum practitioner.   Any serious study must undertake to deal with both the English-Language Small Press Publication and French literary presses and literary magazines, (”The Small Press in Quebec”), as well as those in both languages (after the 1960s).

The essay on “Small Press Publishing” is by David McKnight (a specialist in the area of “Electronic Text and Image”) who was a part-time lecturer at McGill University, before joining the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania.  He is the author of an “Annotated Bibliography of English Canadian Little Magazines, 1940-1980” (a Masters thesis, Concordia University, 1992), in which this form is defined as: “the non-commercial production of books and periodicals with a literary orientation, issued in limited runs for specialized readerships, and often dedicated to experimental writing or identity-based perspectives.” (p. 310).

The Canadian small press movement, which began in the 1920s, is surveyed for the 1940s, and in the 1960s (TISH) but the prairies had to wait until the 1970s, when “Across the West, new presses were founded annually.” (p. 315). Some of the benchmarks are: in 1972, the creation of The Writing and Publishing Division of the Canada Council; in 1975, the founding of the Literary Press Group; then the rise of the Provincial arts councils, which made possible “a strong cross-country regional press network.” (p. 310)

In “Publishing by Women”, by Carole Gerson, (whose previous focus to which she will now return is on Canada’s early women writers) relies on Myrna Kostash, “The Feminist Press–-Is Anyone Out There Listening?” Chatelaine, March 1975.  Gerson notes: “In the absence of a reliable inventory of Canada’s feminist press, I have compiled a list of some fifty publications founded before 1980, drawn from numerous sources and all subsequently verified…. a few from smaller cities, such as Edmonton (On Our Way, 1972-4; Branching Out, 1974-80, and Saskatoon (Prairie Women, 1979-81). Of a 1991 survey, which lists forty-four extant periodicals, more than half were founded after 1980. (notes 51 and 53, p. 545).

Between 1918 and 1980, there were “proportionally few[er] publications in which their participation was specifically identified at the level of the publisher’s imprint” (p. 319). With the franchise to vote, by 1919, and in Québec, in 1940, (first executed it in 1944), there were lingering vestiges of first-wave feminism, until the 1960s. “Whereas only a few new women’s periodicals appeared during the 1960s, the following decade saw at least fifty spring up across the country.” (p. 320) Some of the many hallmarks of second-wave feminism appear: in 1967, with the Royal Commission on the Status of Women, and in 1975, International Women’s Year.  Some presses are mentioned in passing, with Press Gang, Ragweed/gynergy, and Eden Press.

This first edition is being marketed as the third and “final volume” of the series, with general editors Patricia Lockhart Fleming and Yvan Lamonde (the latter who edited Volumes 1 and 2).  Francess G. Halpenny, who was the general editor of DCB/DBC, from 1969 to 1989, contributes “Scholarly and Reference Publishing”.  Michael Peterman, known for his research in other areas, contributed “Sports Writing”. Peter Buitenhuis prepared a Case Study on “The CAA [Canadian Authors Association] and Propaganda during the Second World War.” Frank Davey offers “Economics and the Writer.” Catherine Owen, who has published eight collections of poetry, contributes a paper on “Allophone Authorship”. (“Allophone” refers to authors who write in languages other than French or English.)

 Part One: “The Cultural Influence of Books And Print In Canadian Society” deals with 1) “The Book And The Nation”: with respect to “Imprinting the Nation in Words, Government Policy and Allophone Cultures”, “Native-Oral and Print Culture”, “The State and the Book”, “Book Policy in Quebec”, “Translating the Two Solitudes, Candianization of the Curriculum”, Case Studies of “Canadian Content in Primary Textbooks in Québec”, “Cohering through Books, Picturing Canada”. 2) “Symbolic Value Of Books”, “Books and Reading in Canadian Art”, “The Image of the Book in Advertising”, “Prize Books in Québec”, “Marshall McLuhan and the History of the Book”.

Part Two: “Authorship” deals with 3) “Authors’ Careers: Social and Cultural Profile of Writers”, “Allophone Authorship”, a Case Study of “The Canada Council for the Arts Writer-in-Residence Program”, “Celebrating Authorship: Prizes and Distinctions”, “Writers’ Networks and Associations”. 4) “The Author And The Market: “Writers and the Market for Fiction and Literature”, “Writers and the Market for Non-Fiction”, “Children’s Authors and Their Markets”, a Case Study of Leslie McFarlane and the Case of Pseudonymous Children’s Authorship”, “CBC Radio and Allophone Authors”, “Adaptations for Film and Television.”

Part Three: “Publishing For A Wide Readership” deals with:  5)” Trade And Regional Book Publishing In English”, “The Agency System and Branch-Plant Publishing”, “Trade and Regional Publishing in Central Canada”, “Atlantic Canada”, “Prairie Publishing”, a Case Study of “Harlequin Has Built an Empire”, “British Columbia and the North”, “Organization and Training among Book Publishers”, a Case Study: “From Tea Room to Top Floor: The Book Publishers’ Professional Association”, 6) “Publishing Books in French”, “Book Publishing in Québec”, a Case Study: “Les insolences du frère Untel / The Impertinences of Brother Anonymous”, “Ontario”, “Acadia”, “The West”, “Francophone Organizations in the Book Trade”, 7) “Publishing For Children and Students”, “Publishing for Children”, “The Rise and Fall of Textbook Publishing in English-Canada”, Case Study of “Coles Notes” and of McClelland and Stewart and the Quality paperback”, “Textbook Publishing in Quebec”, Case Study of “French-Canadian Classics from Fides”;  8) “The Serial Press”, “Major Trends in Canada’s Print Mass Media”, “Women’s Magazines”, and Case Studies of “Almanacs in French Canada”, of “Serial Pulp Fiction in Québec”, of “Canadian Pulp Magazines and Second World War Regulations’.

Part Four: “Publishing For Distinct Readerships” deals with  9) “Government and Corporate Publishing”, “Government as Author and Publisher”, a Case Study of “The Federal Government’s Advice to Mothers”, “The Publishing Activities of CBC / Radio Canada”, “CPR in Print”, 10) “Organized Religion And Print”, “The Religious Press in Quebec”, a Case Study of “The Magazine Relations”, “Catholic Publication and Distribution of Books in French”, a Case Study of “A Catholic Best-Seller”, “The Journal of Gérard Raymond”, “Print and Organized Religion in English Canada”, “Publishing for Young Christians”, 11) “Publishing And Communities”, “Publishing and Aboriginal Communities”, “Allophone Publishing”, “Jewish Print Culture”, a Case Study of “Free Lance, “Publishing Against the Grain”, 12) “Scholarly and Professional Publishing”, “Scholarly and Reference Publishing”, a Case Study of “R.E. Watter’s Check List of Canadian Literature”, “Scientific Periodicals”, “Legal Publishing”, “Medical Publishing.”

Part Five deals with:: “Production”13) “Printing And Design”, “The Canadian Printing Industry”, a Case Studies of “Thèrien Frères”, of “From Humble Beginnings: Friesens Corporation”, of “Learning the Trade: The École des arts graphiques de Montréal, of The Livre d’artiste in Québec, of “The Alcuin Society”, of “Cartier: Canada’s First Typeface”,  “Working in the Print Trades”, “The Graphic Arts in Québec”, “The Private Press”, “Book Design in English Canada”.

Part Six deals with: “Distribution” Systems of Distribution”, “International Sources of Supply”, “The World of Bookselling”, Case Studies: “The Book Room”, of “Librairie Tranquille”, “Control and Content in Mass Market Distribution”, “Book Clubs”, “Booksellers’ Organizations.”

Part Seven deals with: “Reaching Readers” 15) “Libraries”, “Government Libraries”, “The Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information”, “National Library of Canada”, “Bibliothèque nationale du Quebec”, “The Rise of the Public Library in English Canada”, “The Public Library in Quebec”, “Academic Libraries”, “Special Libraries”, “The Profession of Librarianship”, 16) “Reading Habits”, “Measuring Literacy”, “Surveying the Habit of Reading”, “Best-Sellers”, “Fan Mail from Readers”, “Autobiographies of Reading: L.M. Montgomery and Marcel Lavalle”, 17) “Controlling And Advising Readers”, “Government Censorship of Print”, “Religious Censorship in English Canada”, “From Censoring Print to Advising Readers in Québec”, “’Read Canadian’”, “Encouraging Children to Read”, 18) “Special Communities of Readers”, “Reaching Out to Isolated Readers”, Case Study of “Libraries On the Move”, of “Libraries on the Move”, of “Women’s Institute Libraries”, of “Wheat Pool Libraries”, “Reading on the ‘Rez’”, “Reading in Alternative Formats”, “Reading and Study Clubs”, Case Study of “Sociétié d’étude et de conferences.

Other features are the “General Editors’ Preface”, “Acknowledgments”, “History Of The Book In Canada / Histoire Du Livre Et De L’Imprimé Au Canada” (HBiC / HLIC) Advisory Board, (HBiC / HLIC) Editorial Committee, (HBiC/ HLIC) Editorial Team, (HBiC / HLIC) Volume 3 Team, Abbreviations and List of Illustrations. The collection ends with a “Coda”, by Gerson and Jacques Michon.  They conclude:” Literary history used to be impossible to write; lately it has become much harder,” as an American critic quipped, in 1995. (See: Lawrence Lipking, “A Trout in the Milk,” in The Uses of Literary History, edited by Marshall Brown, 1-12. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1995.)

The Chronology situates events in general history with the evolution of the book industry Canada.  There are many black-and-white Illustrations, Charts, Map, and Tables.  Of the latter, information is provided about Members of the (SéC) Sociétés des écrivains canadiens and of the Union des écrivains québécois (UNéQ). a) “Not all members are covered in this compilation as 10 to 15 per cent do not appear in dictionaries and other reference sources that identify their output.  As many authors work in more than one genre, the total percentages exceed 100”.  The same proviso applies to members of the Writers Union of Canada (WUC), as compiled by Nancy Earle from The Writers’ Union of Canada Directory, (1981.) The “Selected Writers’ Organizations 1918-80” (with identification of organizations still in existence in 2005) will be helpful. “Labour in the Book Trades”, with divisions by sector, occupation, and gender, in the printing trades, in available for selected Canadian cities, 1921-1961, based on the Census records.  To round about this compendium of literary history, there are: “End Notes”, “Sources Cited (Archival Sources, Published Sources), and “Contributors”.

Anne Burke