In Defence of Literature: John Calder-Fifty Years of Publishing Literature, Politics and the Arts

Ashley Thomson is a full librarian at Laurentian University and co-editor or co-author of nine books, most recently Margaret Atwood: A Reference Guide, 1988-2005.

After losing his Arts Council grant in 1983, John Calder, one of the
last of Britain’s independent publishers, relied exclusively on the
income he received writing obituaries to keep his firm going. He
continued his practice of personally peddling his books from bookstore
to bookstore both in Britain and abroad. As a publisher, he specialized
in translations of such European authors as Beckett, Borges, Duran,
Ionesco, and Pirandello. He also became famous for publishing
controversial American authors (e.g., Burroughs and Miller) shunned by
other British publishers. Over the years, he had 18 Nobel prize winners
on his list, the most famous of whom was Beckett.

Calder’s 50 years in the business are chronicled in this handsomely
illustrated festschrift. Many of the papers recount Calder’s
activities outside publishing, including an unsuccessful run for public
office. The papers are nonacademic and thus highly accessible (a
bibliographic guide to the books Calder published is included). In his
piece, Baret Magarin reports a delicious anecdote concerning a walk
Calder took with the critic Harold Hobson and Samuel Beckett. Hobson
remarked to Beckett: “On a day like this you feel glad to be alive.”
There was a pause, and then Beckett said: “Well I wouldn’t go as far
as that.”

In Defence of Literature belongs in every book lover’s hands.