New Canadian Library: The Ross-McClelland Years, 1952–1978.

W.J. Keith is a retired professor of English at the University of Toronto and author A Sense of Style: Studies in the Art of Fiction in English-Speaking Canada.

Between 1958 and 1978, the McClelland & Stewart New Canadian Library totally transformed the way Canadians responded to their literature. By the time Malcolm Ross, the first general editor of the series, retired in the latter year, it was possible to go into any well-stocked bookshop in the country and buy inexpensive copies of a high percentage of the best and/or most important Canadian fiction and a reasonable selection of its poetry. Moreover, because the titles were kept in print, teachers at universities could teach the history of the national literature confident that texts would be readily obtainable by their students.

Janet Friskey’s book has unearthed the facts behind this remarkable development, and has produced an excellent example of scholarly research. She begins with a historical account of the collaboration between Jack McClelland, the enthusiastic risk-taking publisher, and Ross, the careful and responsible scholar, but goes on to explore all aspects of the enterprise—how the texts were selected, who made the year-by-year decisions (and why), the problems that prevented the two men from attaining all their ideals, the successes and failures, and even such details as cover designs, problems of distribution, and the acquisition of reprint rights. At the end of the book there are useful appendices that list titles, authors, introducers, the dates when each volume first appeared, and the number of copies of each title sold each year during the period covered. All you wanted to know about the series but had been afraid to ask.

This is a scholarly, well-organized book, though casual readers may find it a little dry. The emphasis falls on established facts. If one judges it as a human story, while McClelland’s ebullient personality reveals itself in the extracts quoted from his letters, Ross’s gruff geniality, vividly remembered by all who knew him, never quite comes through. Nevertheless, for anyone wanting a reliable, unbiased, information-packed account of a remarkable publishing phenomenon that changed the intellectual lives of millions, it can hardly be bettered.