McClelland & Stewart Limited is a Canadian
publishing
Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, news ...
company. It is owned by
Penguin Random House of Canada, a branch of
Penguin Random House
Penguin Random House LLC is an Anglo-American multinational conglomerate publishing company formed on July 1, 2013, from the merger of Penguin Group and Random House.
On April 2, 2020, Bertelsmann announced the completion of its purchase of ...
, the international book publishing division of German media giant
Bertelsmann
Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA () is a German private multinational conglomerate corporation based in Gütersloh, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is one of the world's largest media conglomerates, and is also active in the service sector a ...
.
History
It was founded in 1906 as McClelland and Goodchild by John McClelland and Frederick Goodchild, both originally employed with the "Methodist Book Room" which was in 1919 to become the
Ryerson Press
Ryerson Press was a Canadian book publishing company, active from 1919 to 1970.Janet B. Friskney"The Birth of The Ryerson Press Imprint" Historical Perspectives on Canadian Publishing. First established by the Methodist Book Room, a division of t ...
. In December 1913 George Stewart, who had also worked at the Methodist Book Room, joined the company, and the name of the firm was changed to McClelland, Goodchild and Stewart Limited. When Goodchild left to form his own company in 1918, the company's name was changed to McClelland and Stewart Limited, now sometimes shortened to M&S.
The first known imprint of the press is
John D. Rockefeller's ''Random Reminiscences of Men and Events.'' In the earliest years, M&S concentrated primarily on exclusive distribution and printing agreements with foreign-owned publishing houses. But the company did feature home-grown authors alongside their foreign offerings - the second catalogue issued by the company was titled ''Canadiana: A list of Books on Canada and Canadian Questions, Books by Canadian Writers.''
Publications and authors
In 1910 ''
Kilmeny of the Orchard'' by
L. M. Montgomery was issued by the press, the first by a Canadian author. The company slowly expanded its list of Canadian authors to include writers such as
Bliss Carman
William Bliss Carman (April 15, 1861 – June 8, 1929) was a Canadian poet who lived most of his life in the United States, where he achieved international fame. He was acclaimed as Canada's poet laureate during his later years.
In Canada, Car ...
,
Duncan Campbell Scott and
Stephen Leacock. When McClelland's son,
Jack joined the company in 1946, the company started moving away from the distribution of books published outside the country. With the establishment of a Canadian subsidiary of
Doubleday and Co., a firm which McClelland and Stewart had previously held Canadian distribution deals with, Jack started the move to a more Canadian-based catalogue: "I decided that I didn't want to be dependent on foreign agencies. I saw that a logical decision in London or New York could cut our volume in half. A Canadian nationalist was born overnight." By 1962, most of the company's activities were associated with Canadian publishing. This included writers
Margaret Atwood
Margaret Eleanor Atwood (born November 18, 1939) is a Canadian poet, novelist, literary critic, essayist, teacher, environmental activist, and inventor. Since 1961, she has published 18 books of poetry, 18 novels, 11 books of non-fiction, ni ...
,
Pierre Berton
Pierre Francis de Marigny Berton, CC, O.Ont. (July 12, 1920 – November 30, 2004) was a Canadian writer, journalist and broadcaster. Berton wrote 50 best-selling books, mainly about Canadiana, Canadian history and popular culture. He also ...
,
Leonard Cohen
Leonard Norman Cohen (September 21, 1934November 7, 2016) was a Canadian singer-songwriter, poet and novelist. His work explored religion, politics, isolation, depression, sexuality, loss, death, and romantic relationships. He was inducted in ...
,
Peter Gzowski
Peter John Gzowski (July 13, 1934 – January 24, 2002), known colloquially as "Mr. Canada", or "Captain Canada",Mary Gazze Canadian Press via The ''Toronto Star'', August 23, 2010. Retrieved 2016-06-27. was a Canadian broadcaster, write ...
,
Donald Jack,
Margaret Laurence
Jean Margaret Laurence (née Wemyss; July 18, 1926 – January 5, 1987) was a Canadian novelist and short story writer, and is one of the major figures in Canadian literature. She was also a founder of the Writers' Trust of Canada, a non-pr ...
,
Farley Mowat
Farley McGill Mowat, (May 12, 1921 – May 6, 2014) was a Canadian writer and environmentalist. His works were translated into 52 languages, and he sold more than 17 million books. He achieved fame with the publication of his books on the Ca ...
,
Michael Ondaatje and
Mordecai Richler
Mordecai Richler (January 27, 1931 – July 3, 2001) was a Canadian writer. His best known works are '' The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz'' (1959) and '' Barney's Version'' (1997). His 1970 novel '' St. Urbain's Horseman'' and 1989 novel ...
.
Jack McClelland acted as the head of the company since the early 1950s, though he was officially in the position of general manager. John McClelland acted as chairman of the board of directors until his death in 1968.
Imprints and others
Quality paperbacks were produced in Canada with their
New Canadian Library series, launched with four titles. They were aimed at a college or university market, for course texts. The term "quality" was intended to suggest a divide between the mass market paperback and this higher production valued, often scholastic, publication. These paperbacks were the same size as mass market paperbacks, but had more sober covers, sometimes better quality binding, and were produced in smaller print runs. This was at a time when Canadian literary identity was beginning to be valued on a large scale level in Canada (it was after the war, and influenced by that as well). The 1950s had seen rare inclusions of Canadian content in English literature classes, and in the 1960s and 1970s,
Canadian literature
Canadian literature is the literature of a multicultural country, written in languages including Canadian English, Canadian French, Indigenous languages, and many others such as Canadian Gaelic. Influences on Canadian writers are broad both g ...
was being included more frequently in
Canadian education. The New Canadian Library was said to have been an important factor in the establishment of the Canadian Literary identity.
Macmillan of Canada
Macmillan of Canada was a Canadian publishing house.
The company was founded in 1905 as the Canadian arm of the English publisher Macmillan. At that time it was known as the "Macmillan Company of Canada Ltd." In the course of its existence the ...
was a major competitor of the New Canadian Library.
In 1986, M&S hired editor and publisher
Douglas Gibson from Macmillan,
giving him his own
Douglas Gibson Books imprint.
["Munro follows publisher Gibson from Macmillan". '']Toronto Star
The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and par ...
'', April 30, 1986. Many of the authors Gibson had worked with at Macmillan — including
Alice Munro,
Mavis Gallant
Mavis Leslie de Trafford Gallant, , née Young (11 August 1922 – 18 February 2014), was a Canadian writer who spent much of her life and career in France. Best known as a short story writer, she also published novels, plays and essays.
Pe ...
,
Robertson Davies
William Robertson Davies (28 August 1913 – 2 December 1995) was a Canadian novelist, playwright, critic, journalist, and professor. He was one of Canada's best known and most popular authors and one of its most distinguished " men of letters" ...
,
Jack Hodgins,
Guy Vanderhaeghe,
Hugh Maclennan
John Hugh MacLennan (March 20, 1907 – November 9, 1990) was a Canadian writer and professor of English at McGill University. He won five Governor General's Awards and a Royal Bank Award.
Family and childhood
MacLennan was born in Glace B ...
and
W.O. Mitchell — followed him to the new imprint.
The first book published under the Douglas Gibson Books imprint was Munro's ''
The Progress of Love''. Gibson became the publisher of McClelland and Stewart in 1988, and the company's president in 2000.
[Mark Medley]
"Douglas Gibson: Life among his writers"
. ''National Post
The ''National Post'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet newspaper available in several cities in central and western Canada. The paper is the flagship publication of Postmedia Network and is published Mondays through Saturdays, with ...
'', December 23, 2011.
At times, the company's financial future has been uncertain. In 1971, the Ontario Development Corporation made a $961,645 loan to stave off imminent collapse due to an unsustainable burden of debt. In 1986, the company was purchased from McClelland by
Avie Bennett. In 2000,
Random House of Canada
Random House of Canada was the Canadian distributor for Random House, Inc. from 1944 until 2013. On July 1, 2013, it amalgamated with Penguin Canada to become Penguin Random House Canada.
Company history
Random House of Canada was established i ...
bought a 25% share in the company. The other 75% was donated to the
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...
. In 2011, Random House bought the remaining 75% of the company to become sole owner.
Legacy
Canada Post
Canada Post Corporation (french: Société canadienne des postes), trading as Canada Post (french: Postes Canada), is a Crown corporation that functions as the primary postal operator in Canada. Originally known as Royal Mail Canada (the operati ...
has issued a single commemorative stamp celebrating McClelland & Stewart's centennial. The stamp, designed by James Roberts of Overdrive (Design Limited), was issued nationwide on April 26, 2006, with the
first day of issue
A first day of issue cover or first day cover (FDC) is a postage stamp on a cover, postal card or stamped envelope franked on the first day the issue is authorized for useBennett, Russell and Watson, James; ''Philatelic Terms Illustrated'', Sta ...
ceremonies at the
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...
.
Parent company
Penguin Random House
In 2011, University of Toronto sold its shares of McClelland & Stewart to Random House for $1.
In 2013, Random House's parent company, Bertelsmann, entered into a joint venture with Pearson PLC (the parent company of the Penguin Group) to form a new trade publishing company called Penguin Random House.
As part of this venture Random House of Canada and Penguin Canada were amalgamated as Penguin Random House Canada.
References
Further reading
* James King, ''Jack: The Story of Jack McClelland'', Toronto:
Knopf Canada, 1999.
* Roy Macskimming, ''The Perilous Trade: Book Publishing in Canada, 1946 - 2006.'' Toronto:
Random House Canada
Random House of Canada was the Canadian distributor for Random House, Inc. from 1944 until 2013. On July 1, 2013, it amalgamated with Penguin Canada to become Penguin Random House Canada.
Company history
Random House of Canada was established i ...
, 2003.
* Jack McClelland (edited by Sam Solecki), ''Imagining Canadian Literature: The Selected Letters of Jack McClelland'', Toronto:
Key Porter
Key Porter Books was a book publishing company based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1979 by Anna Porter, later well known as a writer, the company specialized in Canadian non-fiction, although it published some fiction too. It ceased op ...
, 1998.
External links
McClelland and Stewart websiteat
McMaster University
McMaster University (McMaster or Mac) is a public research university in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The main McMaster campus is on of land near the residential neighbourhoods of Ainslie Wood and Westdale, adjacent to the Royal Botanical G ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:McClelland and Stewart
Book publishing companies of Canada
Companies based in Toronto
1906 establishments in Ontario
Canadian companies established in 1906