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Volume 2, Number 3, May-June 2006 
PartnershipsPromoting Canadian Authors
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 Cover page of the McClelland & Stewart 2006 spring catalogue Source |
Library and Archives Canada is pleased to present this exhibition in celebration of the centenary of McClelland & Stewart Ltd., Canada's premier English publisher. The company's contribution to Canadian authors and society has been enormous and pervasive. In this extraordinary period of our history, McClelland & Stewart has published upwards of 5,000 books and has marketed and distributed thousands of other titles from foreign publishers. Its story parallels the infancy, growth and establishment of Canadian literature.
John McClelland and Frederick D. Goodchild, the original partners of the firm, began a library supply house in Toronto in 1906. Their small company first published books under their own imprint in 1909. Before 1950, McClelland & Stewart acted as representative and distributing agent for many British and American companies. When Jack McClelland took over the company from his father in the 1950s, he brought a bold, brave vision to Canadian publishing. He initiated the New Canadian Library, a paperback series of Canadian classics. His relationships with writers fostered a renaissance in Canadian literature.
In December 1985, McClelland & Stewart was rejuvenated when Avie Bennett, an astute businessman and important supporter of Canadian culture and the arts, purchased the company and served as its president. In June 2000, he gave 75 percent of the company's publishing arm to the University of Toronto, selling the other 25 percent to Random House of Canada Ltd.
Today McClelland & Stewart remains a strong, vibrant publisher, producing 100 books annually. It publishes poetry, short stories, novels, political memoirs, books about art, the environment and native issues. The company maintains the New Canadian Library, has launched the fiction reprint series, Emblem Editions, and publishes children's literature through the imprint of Tundra Books. Its roster of writers represents the best of Canadian literature, authors of the stature of Margaret Atwood, Leonard Cohen, Mavis Gallant, Alistair MacLeod, Rohinton Mistry, Alice Munro, Michael Ondaatje and Jane Urquhart, who collectively bring prominence to Canadian culture worldwide. Deservingly so, McClelland & Stewart proudly calls itself "The Canadian Publishers."
Promoting Canadian Authors: 100 Years of McClelland & Stewart will run from June 13, 2006, to March 4, 2007, and is open every day free of charge, from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., in Exhibition Room D, at Library and Archives Canada, 395 Wellington Street, in Ottawa.