New Wave Canada
COACH HOUSE PRESS (1965-1975)
After three decades of publishing and printing documented by the hundreds of distinctive books, periodicals, posters, post cards and other printed ephemera, The Coach House Press has assumed the position as the most important writers' press founded in Canada since the 1960s. From its inception, the Press has played a dual role: Coach House as printer, defining and expanding the aesthetics and technology of small press book design in this country, and, Coach House as editor, publishing a number of seminal works in Canadian post-modern literature.
From 1965 to 1991, The Coach House Press was a cohesive printing and publishing unit. In 1975, the publishing side of the business underwent a major editorial restructuring when a single literary editor for the press was replaced by an editorial board consisting of Coach House writers and other members of the staff. In 1992 relations between the publishing and printing halves of the Press deteriorated. Two companies now coexist in Toronto. The Coach House Printing Company is owned and operated by the founder of the Coach House Press, Stan Bevington. The publisher is Margaret McClintock, who acquired The Coach House Press backlist and publishes books under The Coach House Press imprint.
The current exhibit focuses on the formative years of the Press from 1965 to 1975 when The Coach House Press was the leading small press publisher in Canada. For the writers and artists associated with the Press, it was a period of experimentation and discovery.
Coach House Press Editors: Wayne Clifford (1964-1965); Victor Coleman (1966-1974); Editorial Collectives (1975-1992).
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