Canadian Publishing - Hardcover

MacSkimming, Roy

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1551990733 ISBN 13: 9781551990736

Publisher: Macfarlane Walter & Ross, 2003

Synopsis

Brown boards with gilt letters. FIRST EDITION. There are several pages of illustrations. The DJ is crisp and covered in mylar. 464 pages.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

A book that will fascinate and inform readers who love Canadian writing

?Publishing Canadian books has always been an experiment. Like the great experiments of building a transcontinental railway and a national broadcasting system, it constitutes one of the nation?s defining acts. Publishing, after all, is a people?s way of telling its story to itself.?
?from the Introduction

Part cultural history, part personal memoir, this accomplished, sweeping, yet intimate book demonstrates that the story of Canadian publishing is one of the cornerstones of our literary history.

In The Perilous Trade, former publisher, literary journalist, and industry insider Roy MacSkimming chronicles the extraordinary journey of English-language publishing from the Second World War to the present. During a period of unparalleled transformation, Canada grew from a cultural colony fed on the literary offerings of London and New York to a mature nation whose writers are celebrated around the world. Crucial to that evolution were three generations of book publishers ? mavericks, gamblers, entrepreneurs, political activists, and true believers ? sharing a conviction that Canadians need books of their own.

Canadian publishing has long made headlines -be it Jack McClelland?s outrageous publicity stunts, American takeovers, the collapse of venerable imprints, or bold political moves to ensure the industry?s survival. Roy MacSkimming takes us behind the headlines to draw memorable portraits of the men and women who built Canada?s literary renaissance. With a novelist?s eye for character and incident, he weaves their tangled relationships with authors, agents, booksellers and each other into a lively narrative rich in anecdote and revealing personal recollection. Canadian publishers large and small have nurtured a literature of extraordinary diversity and breadth, MacSkimming argues, giving us English Canada?s greatest cultural achievement.

From the Back Cover

“Masterful....This book should be compulsory reading for anyone entering the book trade, toiling in it now or in an occupation, such as politics, constantly brushing against the business.... The Perilous Trade unobtrusively, quite fetchingly, conveys a massive amount of research, yet also manages to be a brilliantly seductive cultural history of Canada.”
–Greg Gatenby, The Globe and Mail

Edition details

• Publisher: Macfarlane Walter & Ross
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 1551990733
• ISBN 13: 9781551990736
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1