Lester & Orpen Dennys was a Canadian
book 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, newsp ...
company based in Toronto, originally as Lester & Orpen. It operated as a publisher from 1973 to 1991.
Writers who published with the company included
Graham Greene
Henry Graham Greene (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading English novelists of the 20th century. Combining literary acclaim with widespread popularity, Greene acquir ...
,
P.D. James,
June Callwood
June Rose Callwood, (June 2, 1924 – April 14, 2007) was a Canadian journalist, author and social activist. She was known as "Canada's Conscience".
Callwood achieved acclaim and a loyal following for her articles and columns written for na ...
,
Morley Torgov
Morley Torgov (born 3 December 1927) is a Canadian novelist, humorist and lawyer. He was a partner in the Toronto-based legal firm Olch, Torgov, Cohen LLP.
Torgov was born in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. He studied law in Toronto at Osgoode H ...
,
P. K. Page, Anne Collins,
John Irving
John Winslow Irving (born John Wallace Blunt Jr.; March 2, 1942) is an American-Canadian novelist, short story writer, and screenwriter.
Irving achieved critical and popular acclaim after the international success of '' The World According t ...
,
Don DeLillo
Donald Richard DeLillo (born November 20, 1936) is an American novelist, short story writer, playwright, screenwriter and essayist. His works have covered subjects as diverse as television, nuclear war, sports, the complexities of language, perf ...
,
George Jonas
George Jonas, CM (June 15, 1935 – January 10, 2016) was a Hungarian-born Canadian writer, poet, and journalist. A self-described classical liberal, he authored 16 books, including the bestseller '' Vengeance'' (1984), the story of an Israeli ...
,
Modris Eksteins,
Gabrielle Roy
Gabrielle Roy (March 22, 1909July 13, 1983) was a Canadian author from St. Boniface, Manitoba and one of the major figures in French Canadian literature.
Early life
Roy was born in 1909 in Saint-Boniface (now part of Winnipeg), Manitoba, and ...
,
Alberto Manguel
Alberto Manguel (born March 13, 1948, in Buenos Aires) is an Argentine-Canadian anthologist, translator, essayist, novelist, editor, and a former Director of the National Library of Argentina. He is the author of numerous non-fiction books such ...
,
Joy Kogawa
Joy Nozomi Kogawa (born June 6, 1935) is a Canadian poet and novelist of Japanese descent.
Life
Kogawa was born Joy Nozomi Nakayama on June 6, 1935, in Vancouver, British Columbia, to first-generation Japanese Canadians Lois Yao Nakayama a ...
and
Sandra Birdsell
Sandra Louise Birdsell, CM (née Bartlette) (born 22 April 1942) is a Canadian novelist and short story writer of Métis and Mennonite heritage from Morris, Manitoba.
Life and career
Born in Hamiota, Manitoba, Birdsell was the fifth of eleven c ...
.
Lester & Orpen was established in 1973 by partners Malcolm Lester (27 August 1938 - 1 April 2022) and Eve Orpen, who died in 1978. It was renamed, reorganized, or succeeded as Lester & Orpen Dennys in 1979 by partners Malcolm Lester and Louise Dennys. It was sold to Pagurian Corp. in August 1988, and to Hees International in December 1988, with Lester and Dennys continuing as publishers.
Publishing operations were suspended by Hees in 1991, with L & OD continuing as a backlist operation only, as a part of
Key Porter Books
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 ...
.
Malcolm Lester and
Anna Porter of Key Porter established Lester Publishing, a new publishing company based in Toronto, announced 7 June 1991. The new company would hire many services from Key Porter Books. Its first catalogue was expected to be completed in July for Fall 1991. Kathy Lowinger, who had led the children's division at L&OD, continued in the same position at Lester Publ.
Lester Publishing issued new editions of some books published by L&OD, such as ''D-Day at 50'' (1994; was 1984).
Louise Dennys subsequently joined the Canadian division of
Alfred A. Knopf
Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. () is an American publishing house that was founded by Alfred A. Knopf Sr. and Blanche Knopf in 1915. Blanche and Alfred traveled abroad regularly and were known for publishing European, Asian, and Latin American writers in ...
.
References
Sources in 1991 newspaper coverage by ''
The Globe and Mail'' (Toronto).
# H. J. Kirchhoff, "L&OD suspends publishing: Financial backing is withdrawn", 10 January 1991, p. C1
# Kimberley Noble, "Publish and Perish", 19 January 1991, p. D1
# Val Ross, "Canadian publishers launch new firm", 7 June 1991, p. C6 – Lester Publishing Ltd.
Book publishing companies of Canada
Defunct publishing companies of Canada
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