The Greater Vancouver Book: An Urban Encyclopaedia

Matt Hartman is a freelance editor and cataloguer, running Hartman Cataloguing, Editing and Indexing Services.

Chuck Davis says, in one of his contributions to this book, “it was
gratifying to be told by the Vancouver Public Library that in 1976 The
Vancouver Book [an earlier edition of the present work] was the second
most frequently stolen book in their system.” If book thieves were up
to the challenge of smuggling that earlier 498-page tome out of the
library, only the fittest pilferers will be able to manage this 836-page
sequel.

The Greater Vancouver Book more than lives up to its “urban
encyclopaedia” subtitle. It’s the Britannica of Burnaby. The
Colliers of Coquitlam. More than half a million dollars of production
costs were offset substantially through the generosity of sponsors—a
whole page of them, listed in two single-spaced columns.

The book’s 19 chapters focus on the area’s history, neighborhoods,
environment, structures and buildings, government, people, education,
people “helping people,” media, transportation, and much more. Also
included are stories by hundreds of contributors (two dozen of whom
contributed to the 1976 volume) and hundreds of photographs.
Unfortunately, says the editor, much had to be left out due to lack of
space—but fear not, a CD-ROM version is in development.

All in all, The Greater Vancouver Book is a remarkable achievement.