The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada 9781487577780

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THE BEGINNINGS OF THE BOOK TRADE IN CANADA Frontier society in nineteenth-century Canada was hungry for all the information and entertainment it could get. By the close of the century, the book-printing, import-wholesaling, and retail trades were flourishing. But embedded in their structures were the seeds of problems that have plagued the Canadian book trade ever since. This first extensive history of Canada's early book trade begins with the impact of the Gutenberg printing revolution on Europe and colonial North America and the spread of the newspaper press across Canada between 1751 and 1900. Parker analyses the role of technological advances in printing as well as in other areas of communications, all of which helped promote literacy. He provides informative accounts of the growing complexity of the book trade in the major cities up to the time in the last quarter of the nineteenth century when Toronto became the national centre for textbook publishing and wholesale distribution of books. By 1900 publishers were enthusiastically embarking upon the agency system that has characterized much of the twentieth-century book trade. Several developments after 1840 contributed to the book trade's distinctive shape and problems: the organization of provincial common school systems; the practice of American firms in supplying Canada with books and periodicals, especially the desirable cheap, pirated reprints of British books; and the anomalies of imperial copyright that permitted American publishers to secure control of the Canadian market. The book ends with a copyright compromise in 1900 that ended half a century of international disputes but raised new problems because Canadian autonomy in copyright legislation was not yet clearly won. The compromise itself led to the adoption of the agency system. If there was a negative side to foreign control, there were also benefits for Canadian publishers, authors, and consumers. Throughout the discussion of all these issues appear the men and women who helped develop the book trade, authorship, and literacy in Canada Thomas Chandler Haliburton, Joseph Howe, John Lovell, Susanna Moodie, Egerton Ryerson, E.R. Fabre, P.J .0. Chauveau, George Maclean Rose, William Briggs, Sara Jeannette Duncan, and Goldwin Smith. They add a human dimension to the history of a very human industry. is a member of the Department of English and Philosophy at the Royal Military College of Canada.

GEORGE L . PARKER

GEORGE L. PARKER

The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada

University of Toronto Press Toronto Buffalo London

© University of Toronto Press 1985

Toronto Buffalo London Printed in Canada Reprinted in 2018 ISBN

0-8020-2547-1

ISBN 978-1-4875-7879-4 (paper)

Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data Parker, George. The beginnings of the book trade in Canada Includes index: ISBN 0-8020-2547-1 ISBN 978-1-4875-7879-4 (paper) 1. Book industries and trade - Canada History. 2. Publishers and publishing Canada - History. 3. Printing - Canada History. I. Title. z483.P37 1985 070.5 1 0971 c85-098391-6

In memory of my father and for my mother

Contents

PREFACE

ix

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

xm

Introduction Canada before the Arrival of the Printing Press 3 1 The Organization of the Pioneer Book Trade Bookselling; Literacy and Education; the Newspaper Press and Authorship; the Printing Office 1 2 2 The Quest for a Colonial Literature The Native Author and Newspaper Printer-Publishers 53

3 Bookselling from 18.20 to 1867 Libraries and Mechanics' Institutes; Foreign Reprints and Imperial Copyright; the Textbook Trade 93 4 The Mid-Century Revolution in Printing Technology The Newspaper Press Comes to the North-West and to the Pacific Coast; the Book Production Industry in the Eastern Provinces 139

5 Building a National Publishing Industry International Copyright and Foreign Reprints; Subscription Publishing; Textbook Production 166 6 Towards a Compromise International Copyright; the Manufacturing Clause; Authorship

211

viii Contents Conclusion

2 57

NOTES 261

Appendix A The Growth of the Printing and Allied Trades 1867-1900 305 Appendix B Exports: Statistics Based on the Annual Trade and Navigation Returns 1867-1900 307 Appendix C Imports: Statistics Based on the Annual Trade and Navigation Returns 1867-1900 309 Appendix D A Selected List of Copyright Acts 31 2 INDEX 315

Preface

This book is the first extensive history of the book trade in Canada. Almost a generation ago Lorne Pierce, the editor of The Ryerson Press, gathered some thirty essays by various hands for a similar history, and his literary executor H. Pearson Gundy tried to edit that unwieldy manuscript, but by the mid-196os both he and the Canadian Book Publishers' Council had abandoned the project. Professor Gundy then published four important monographs on printing and publishing and a chapter in the Literary History of Canada that was the first attempt in this country to demonstrate the relation between publishing and the profession of letters. All of these were starting points for me when I began a dissertation on Canadian publishing under the direction of Professor Gordon Roper at the University of Toronto. The present book grew out of that research, for my original intention was to write a history of the book trade up to the 1980s. However, the nineteenth century turned out to be so fascinating and important in its own right that I decided to end the first part of the history at 1900, where there was an important change of direction, and to deal with the twentieth century in another volume. Many of the characteristics and the problems of the twentieth-century book trade had their origins in Canada's unique nineteenth-century situation, first as a group of separate colonies and then as an underpopulated, rather poor, and economically dependent Dominion in the last third of the century. 'Importation' was the name of the game. Ours was a materialistic frontier society, hungry for all the information and entertainment that English authors and American publications could provide. Unavoidable distribution costs and the high prices of books were important factors in the survival of booksellers, and these same expenses made book-buying an expensive undertaking for most of the population. Reprint rights were a bone

x Preface of contention for printer-publishers anxious to keep their presses rolling, even at the risk of endangering the rights of American and British authors. International and imperial copyright hampered our publishers and confused our booksellers. Our authors had to publish abroad (and often live abroad) to win fame and fortune. Whatever we may think of the kind of publishing that emerged in the 1890s - practices that became known as 'agency publishing' and 'branch-plant publishing' in the twentieth century - there is no doubt about the vigour of wholesale and retail bookselling and the periodical business around 1900. With more money to spend on reading, Canadians avidly read the books and periodicals of the United Kingdom, the United States, and France; but because our own books and periodicals were neither circulated nor read abroad in any appreciable amounts, neither our publishers nor our government had much influence on conditions in Britain and the United States, apart from the fact that the spectre of Canadian piracy might jeopardize copyright, and even diplomatic, relations between those two countries. Much of this history is about the menace of the Canadian printers, a story not without its own entertaining sidelights. It is perhaps surprising that we have had to wait so long for a study that touches on copyright, commercial ventures, literary tastes, and intellectual history, especially since there has been no shortage of studies about the role of Canadian newspaper journalism in the development of Canadian democracy and political maturity. Perhaps, however, the very complexity of those topics and the difficulty of shaping them has deterred other writers. Certainly, two important deterrents have been the means of finding out what happened and which people were the important actors in the story. Or it may have been that for too long, too many Canadians assumed that we had no book trade and no publishing industry. There are people still living who remember the days when the notion of 'Canadian literature,' let alone the teaching of it, was anathema in university English departments. If many of our authors remained unknown and unsung, the situation has been even worse with our book publishers, printers, and booksellers. But since I began this project over ten years ago, there are healthy signs of the public's interest in the contemporary book trade, the federal government's efforts, since 1960, to accumulate as much statistical information as possible about an industry that in 1979 did $8 16. 6 million worth of business, and royal commissions by Quebec and Ontario into bookselling and publishing. Thus it will be easier to write a history of the book trade of our own day than it has been to recreate that of the past; besides, our authors and publishers now recognize the value of their business records and publishing contracts to the literary historian.

Preface xi Ideally (as in the case of the British or American book trades), one would prepare a history of the book trade based on house histories, studies of relations between authors and publishers, authors' biographies and letters, studies of popular taste, intellectual histories, mountains of statistics, and even bibliographical studies of Canadian editions. These can hardly be said to exist for the Canadian situation. Thus I had the fun and excitement of a detective and explorer, digging out and piecing together thousands of facts, clues, and hints. My sources and documentation appear in the notes, although they do not show how much meandering was sometimes involved in those frustrating searches. In time far more information will emerge to flesh out our picture of the past, but I trust such information will not substantially alter the thrust and conclusions of this history. In fact, I hope that one benefit of this book will be an increased scholarly and general interest in finding out more about subjects such as regional publishing and bookselling, not only in Quebec but in Newfoundland and British Columbia, educational publishing, children's literature, printing technology, and problems of distribution - in particular, the role of the post office in the evolution of the book trade. The list is endless. One question I faced in successive drafts was what to retain and what to discard. Perhaps it is regrettable that I ruthlessly omitted many individuals who were prominent in the newspaper press, but my concern was first of all with the publishing and circulation of books, particularly in the half-dozen important regional centres, and I decided that the reader simply would be confused with the mention of every book publisher and bookseller: this would be more suitable in a dictionary of the trade, such as Elizabeth Hulse has done for nineteenth-century Toronto. Another puzzle was how to organize the book, given the lack of earlier studies that could serve as models. Histories of the English and American book trades (despite our many similarities with the latter country) really deal with different societies and with different problems of authorship, bookselling, and copyright, and of course geography, and those two countries found solutions that would not work in Canada. I decided to move chronologically, but because each chapter treats themes or situations as they first manifested themselves and then follows the development of those situations, there is some unavoidable overlapping of chronology and subject. I received a great amount of help and encouragement on this project. A list of the archives and libraries I consulted will be found in the acknowledgments. I am particularly indebted to William F.E. Morley and his staff at Special Collections, Douglas Library, Queen's University, for their many kindnesses to me. At McClelland & Stewart I had the opportunity not only

xii Preface to examine the company records but to see a contemporary publishing firm in operation. The late Hugh Kane and Owen Wilson patiently answered my questions, and Jack McClelland introduced me to his father, J oho McClelland, sr, in the year before the latter died at the advanced age of ninety-one - my only living contact with the Toronto book world of 1900, at which point this volume ends. The Canada Council awarded me a short term grant in 1971 and a leave grant in 1972-3 so that I could proceed with research. My own university, the Royal Military College of Canada, gave me Arts Division grants almost annually since 1970; and the RMC Massey Library provided books, government documents, microfilms, and unlimited access to its photocopier. This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Social Science Federation of Canada, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and with the help of a generous gift to the University of Toronto Press from the Herbert Laurence Rous Estate. Over the past twenty years many people have helped me, sometimes in brief conversations, sometimes by reading portions of my work: Marsh Jeanneret, Philip Child, Malcolm Ross, Robert McDougall, Bruce Macdonald (who vetted the copyright portions of my dissertation), Douglas Lochhead, the late John Morgan Gray, H. Pearson Gundy, John Wiseman, Harry Holman, Elizabeth Hulse, Peter Greig, Pat Kennedy, Liana Van der Bellen, Marilyn Flitton, Beth Miller, Joyce Banks, Shirley Elliott, Gertrude T ratt, the late Alexander Brodie, the late Fiona Mee of Quill & Quire, Mary Jane Edwards of the Centre for Editing Early Canadian Texts, Carleton University, and the teacher who gave me this project and never lost faith in me, Gordon Roper. My colleagues the late Reg Watters, the late Wally Avis, and Michael Mason supported and exhorted me, and Thomas Vincent traded information with me and helped me in a variety of ways. Bob Agnew, Glen Hunter, and my family listened for years while I talked of nothing but the book. I wish to thank my editors at the University of Toronto Press, Gerald Hallowell and Jean Wilson, for their help in preparing the typescript for publication. I am very grateful to my secretary and typist, Addie Searle, who patiently and skilfully transferred the typescript onto a word processor. My father urged me to stick with it and read the dissertation with great care. And thanks to my mother, who was the first reader of the completed manuscript, examining it just as he would have done. GEORGE L. PARKER

Acknowledgments

The following archives, institutions, and libraries kindly provided me with manuscripts and printed materials. Thanks to the staff in all these places who so patiently helped me : Archives of Ontario, Toronto Archives of the United Church of Canada, Victoria College, Toronto Board of Trade, Toronto British Library, London Centre de Recherche en Civilisation Canadienne-Fran~aise, University of Ottawa, Ottawa Centre for Editing Early Canadian Texts, Carleton University, Ottawa Douglas Library, Special Collections, Queen's University, Kingston Harriet Irving Library, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton Killam Library, Special Collections, Dalhousie University, Halifax McClelland & Stewart, Toronto Maclean-Hunter Library, Toronto McLennan Library, McGill University, Montreal Massey Library, Royal Military College of Canada, Kingston Metropolitan Toronto Library Board, Canadian History Section, Toronto National Library of Canada, Ottawa New Brunswick Legislative Library, Fredericton New Brunswick Museum, Saint John New York Public Library, New York City Nova Scotia Legislative Library, Halifax Public Archives of Canada, Ottawa Public Archives of Nova Scotia, Halifax Public Archives of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown Queen's University Archives, Kingston Robarts Library, University of Toronto

xiv Acknowledgments Saint John Regional Library, Saint John Saskatchewan Archives Board, Regina University of Prince Edward Island Library, Charlottetown Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto, Toronto

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THE BEGINNINGS OF THE BOOK TRADE IN CANADA

Introduction Canada before the Arrival of the Printing Press

The story of the book trade in Canada begins with a series of transplants, of people and their technology plunged into a strange and hostile land. In other accounts of this country's colonization by Europeans, we find that many of the things necessary for survival, from tools to beliefs about life itself, were imported from the old world - for a long time, indeed, almost everything but the new experiences themselves. Champlain's trusty astrolabe, for measuring the altitude of the sun, came from France, as did most of the stones and furnishings for the fortress at Louisbourg. Or take the foundation of St Paul's Church at Halifax in 1750. Based on James Gibbs's designs for St Peter's, Vere Street, London, its frame was constructed in Boston from New England oak and pine, whence it was transported to Halifax and erected on the Parade Square in the centre of town. For many years after that date, its congregation's Bibles and prayer books were carried by ship from England. But the story of printing, bookselling, and authorship is more than simply a narrative of the spread of European printing technology across North America or summaries of the business records of publishers and authors. It includes the changing role of the newspaper press, which among other accomplishments raised the level of literacy and gave colonial society its political education. This story is also concerned with conflicts over the meaning of copyright. It tells how new kinds of transportation and communications altered the day-to-day activities of printing and bookselling. And it is the story of the growing relations among the provinces themselves, as well as their connections with the older nations from which they sprang and with which they still maintained legal and spiritual bonds; for dependence, once it has been established for generations, is not always broken abruptly or easily. What happened in Canada was coloured by events in Europe and the United States.

4 Introduction Sometime in the 1440s a goldsmith from Mainz, Johannes Gutenberg, applied some techniques of his own craft to that of woodblock printing and developed individual movable types. The procedure that he used for typecasting has remained unchanged up to our own day, whether the type is made by hand or by machine. A letter is cut in relief in a block of steel known as the punch, and this steel letter is punched into a block of copper known as the matrix. The matrix is then inserted into an adjustable tool called the mould, and molten metal alloy (a mixture of lead, tin, and antimony) is poured into the mould to reproduce the letter cut on the punch. This process permitted many replicas to be made of the same letter. At the same time Gutenberg developed an oil-based ink that would adhere to metal type. The type is placed in an apparatus that works like a wine press, and after it has been used for printing, the type can be reassembled to print other pages. Once the metal type is worn out, it can be melted down and recast. 1 Gutenberg thus solved an age-old problem in the transmission of knowledge, for the principle of movable types made possible the rapid mechanical reproduction of a text in uniform, multiple copies in a method of printing that also remained much the same for over four centuries. Within sixty years Gutenberg's followers, fired with ambition, carried their presses all over Europe, to Rome (1467), Paris (1470), Valencia (1473), Westminster (1476), Stockholm (1483), and Edinburgh (1507). The midfifteenth-century book trade, already so busy supplying rich collectors, merchants, and scholars with handwritten books as fast as the factories of scribes could finish them, welcomed the new technology with even more demands for all kinds of books, from Bibles, the classics, and textbooks to popular tales and travel accounts. The impact of the printing press was both immediate and profound, for it reshaped the book trade, helped crystallize national feelings, introduced the concept of publicity into contemporary events, and altered the nature of literacy thereafter. Booksellers had traditionally acted as publishers but now printers also assumed this role. During the first century of the Gutenberg era, as S.H. Steinberg has noted in Five Hundred Years of Printing, 'the functions of type founder, printer, publisher, editor, and book-seller are little differentiated; the same man or the same firm usually combined all or most of these crafts or professions. ' 2 By 1600 on the continent printing firms were usually separate from bookselling firms, although this was not the case in the British Isles or later in North America. Throughout the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, meanwhile, as business extended well beyond a small elite of readers, many printers and booksellers were drawn into the controversies of the age. Once the power of the press to shape public opinion was grasped by church

Introduction 5 authorities and princes, they began to license printers and presses in order to prevent the distribution of heretical beliefs and dangerous political ideas. The official regulation of the book trade was most pronounced in the midsixteenth century, at the same time that the trade began its own selfregulation. For our purposes, the establishment in London of the Stationers' Company (1557), an organization of printers, stationers, publishers, booksellers, and apprentices, is significant because the English trade for generations to come was conducted with more political and monopolistic restrictions than the international book trade in Europe. Within the Stationers' Company, control over publishing was placed in the hands of booksellers, although it should be borne in mind that the same firm might engage in printing, binding, and bookselling, a practice that was maintained up to the nineteenth century. The printing press also widened the rifts in Christendom caused by the Reformation. A steadily rising number of buyers in each country, nourished from childhood with grammars and primers in their own languages, showed a growing preference in the sixteenth century for literature in the vernacular. The German language received a boost with Martin Luther's translation of the Bible ( 152 3), just as a series of English translations of the Bible raised English to new literary glory. These translations, along with the works of Spenser and Shakespeare and the religious pamphleteers of the Elizabethan age, reached a wider public through the press than would have been possible with manuscript books. While use of the vernacular helped propagandists manipulate public feelings about national ambitions, a healthy interest in international news evolved. Gutenberg's innovations - and here we should remember that he did not 'invent' printing, for this craft had spread to Europe from China, where it had been invented almost a thousand years earlier - came at a time of upheaval and expansion among European nations. The Hundred Years' War had just drawn to a muted close, and the 'new' literature of the ancient world was being recovered as the Turks menaced eastern Europe. While England was torn by civil wars, France's kings were centralizing their power, and the Spanish finally drove the Moors from Spain in 1492. Between that year and the end of the century, several voyages of discovery to America and around the horn of Africa to India had taken place. Thanks to the press and to the network of international distribution, news of these events, as later with Luther's attacks on the Church, the Spanish massacre of the Incas, and the Battle of Lepanto, spread like wildfire across the continent, provoking discussion and unrest. The accelerated circulation of news - particularly in the light of increased overseas commercial ventures - created a desire for more

6 Introduction news from all points, and the 'relation,' an early form of the newspaper that summarized the events of a whole year, came into vogue during the first half of the seventeenth century. As the energetic Europeans pressed onward in scientific and speculative enquiry and thrust outward in voyages of exploration, they carried the printing press to the New World, where its productions promoted European culture and the Christian faith. The first printing office in this hemisphere was opened in Mexico City in 1539 by Juan Pablos of Seville, who worked under the watchful eye of the Bishop of Mexico, and whose first book that year was Doctrina Christiana en la lingua Mexicana e Castellana. A later printer at Mexico City, Ricardo, introduced printing to South America in 1 5So at Lima, Peru. By 1600 there were about nine offices in Mexico City producing works on religion, science, and law. After flourishing in the eighteenth century, the newspaper press frequently was censored during the civil unrests of the nineteenth century. By the mid-twentieth century great strides were made in the freedom of the press and in the spread of literacy, for education had long been the preserve of a privileged few. 3 The first permanent French and English plantations in North America were also accompanied by conscious efforts to introduce European civilization, but for well over a century the colonies were unable to evolve the complex economic life and rich social milieu that supported the book trade in Europe, even though some elements of the trade, namely import bookselling and binding, easily took root. Printing presses slowly appeared in the English-speaking American colonies in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The earliest printer in what is now the United States was Stephen Day, who set up shop at Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1638. Two years later he printed the first book in New England, The Whole Booke of Psalmes, which is popularly known as the Bay Psalm Book, an auspicious beginning for the vigorous intellectual life of the American colonies. The printing press spread from Cambridge across the Charles River to Boston (1674), and southward along the seaboard to Jamestown, Virginia (1682), St Mary's City, Maryland, and Philadelphia (1685), New York (1693), Perth Amboy, New Jersey (1723), Newport, Rhode Island (1727), Charleston, South Carolina (1731), and to New Berne, North Carolina (1749). By the mid-eighteenth century bookselling was concentrated in Boston, Philadelphia, and New York. The absence of a printing press before 1751 in the French and English colonies that now compose Canada has several explanations. Officially the raison d'etre of the colonies was to produce furs and fish. Political power rested with a governor, or jealously shared with an intendant, and no popular

Introduction 7 assemblies were elected until 1758 in Nova Scotia. The harsh terrain kept the population small and scattered, made communication by land difficult, and leisure activities did not go in literary directions. Yet the colonies were not barren of literary pursuits, and the modest group of writings to emerge from the settlements reached print in Paris or London, where such works were treated as part of the European publicity given to the New World. Indeed, some of the early colonists were men of letters. The lawyer Marc Lescarbot, on his departure for the first permanent French settlement at Acadia, issued his verses Adieu a la France sur l'embarquement du sieur de Poutrincourt et son equipage faisent voile en la terre de Canadas in May 1606 at La Rochelle. Five months later, on 19 November 1606, in the harbour in front of Port Royal, he organized North America's first dramatic performance, the masque 'Theatre de Neptune.' When he returned to France in 1607, he issued his epic poem la Defaite des sauvages armouchiquois and began his famous Histoire de la Nouvelle-France (1609), which was published by the bookseller Jean Millot and which appeared in new editions in 161 1- 12 and 1617. Its popularity helped generate an interest in colonizing in seventeenth-century France, and part of the Histoire was translated into English by Pierre Erondelle for Nova Francia, which was published in London in 1609. The Neptune masque and twelve poems appeared as an appendix to all the editions of the Histoire, and appeared separately as Les Muses de la Nouvelle-France (1609), with three reprints in nine years. 4 Although Lescarbot's efforts were the prototype of many later ventures to graft middle-class European culture onto wilderness society, the intellectual aspirations of many frontier communities were often dissipated by the physical hardships of farming, fishing, and fur-trading, and often just by the overwhelming sense of isolation itself. Because these things all took their toll on mental exertions, the pleasures of eating and drinking and dancing in clubs like Samuel de Champlain's Order of Good Cheer (1606-7) were more immediate gratifications than those obtained from books. In Acadia before the Expulsion of 175 5, education, which was in the hands of the Church, did not extend beyond the primary school level, but the Acadians developed a popular oral culture of songs, legends, and folk-tales, many of these derived from peasant life in France, as the novelist Antonine Maillet has demonstrated in her monograph Rabelais et Les traditions populaires en Acadie (1971). Even after the Treaty of Utrecht (1713) paved the way for the first English settlements in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, day-to-day life was primitive and harsh, and David Galloway observes in the literary History of Canada that 'the taste for learning hardly existed. ' 5 One of the early governors sent by Bristol merchants to Newfoundland,

8 Introduction Robert Hayman, found time during his stay at Harbour Grace to put together 'probably the first book of original English verse written on the North American continent, ' 6 a group of satires and epistles, several of them on the subject of his experience here. This book, Quodlibets, Lately Come over from New Britaniola, Old Newfound-land ... (1628), was issued in London by the bookseller Roger Michell. Although it was part of a brief Caroline literary flowering in Newfoundland, there was no further appreciable literary activity on that island for almost 200 years. Newfoundland's importance rested on its fisheries, and its long line of tyrannical admiral-governors, so unlike the cultured Hayman, and profit-obsessed merchants neither wanted permanent settlers nor saw any use for such luxuries as schools and printing presses. Yet this misfortune had its compensations in the rich oral tradition of folk-songs and stories that flourished in the isolated outports, an inheritance that has survived into our day to invigorate the literature and drama of contemporary Newfoundland. New France was a more populous and prosperous colony than either Newfoundland or Acadia; here a modest literary culture did emerge although it did not perhaps equal the intellectual heights of neighbouring New England in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Like the writings about Acadia, Quebec's earliest literature was also a part of French culture, taking the form of voyages and travel accounts by men such as Samuel de Champlain. The Jesuit Relations, which were published in Paris almost annually from 1638 to 1673, were examples of Canadian news events prepared for European readers of the kind of newspaper known as the 'relation,' and the Relations also served their primary purpose as excellent religious propaganda. The first local history, or more accurately, the first emigrant handbook, Histoire veritable et nature/le des moeurs et productions du pays de la Nouvelle-France (1664), was written by the governor of Trois-Rivieres, Pierre Boucher, a self-made businessman who was the first Quebec colonist to be ennobled. Boucher's realistic descriptions were intended to show what life was really like here: a harsher environment than France but a satisfying one for settlers of independent spirit and egalitarian outlook; and his was the first book to display a characteristically quiet but intense love for this land.7 Soon European travellers such as the Baron de Lahontan (who visited New France in the 1680s but whose book was not published until 1703) began a fashion for descriptions of society in the New World. For the most part, the narratives of visitors and explorers such as Peter Kalm, Alexander Mackenzie, Simon Fraser, and Charles Dickens were published at 'home' for the authors' British and European audience. Many of these works have been reprinted up to our own time, and some, such as the Jesuit Relations, have encouraged later

Introduction 9 Canadian writers to find in them the origins of our national heritage, thus making them a part of Canadian literature. Intellectual life in New France was fostered and monitored by the Church, which in this dynamic 'mystical' period 8 saw its mission as the conversion of the Indians, a dream not always in accord with the imperialistic dreams of the military and the businessmen. Recognizing the need for modest education among the settlers, the clergy organized a system of primary schools and one secondary institution for boys, the Jesuit College (1635) at Quebec City, while the Ursulines set up schools (1639) for girls. Frequently the garrison officers performed Corneille, Racine, and Moliere, until in 1694 a fight between Governor Frontenac and Bishop de Saint-Vallier over a proposed performance of Moliere's Tartuffe, a satirical anticlerical play that had been banned from the French stage, put a stop to theatricals in the colony for many years. 9 Despite Saint-Vallier's advice that each family should have 'quelque bon livre, " 0 the clerical suspicion of frivolous reading irked at least one visitor to Montreal in 1685, the sophisticated Baron de Lahontan, who said the 'clergy prohibit and burn all the Books that treat of any Subject but Devotion.' He was 'inrag'd' when the local cure fell upon his copy of Petronius 'with an unimaginable fury, and tore out almost all the Leaves.'" Lahontan had to be physically held back from tearing the hairs out of the cure's beard. By the mid-eighteenth century intellectual activity was in flower in Quebec and Montreal, where a broader spirit of enquiry prevailed than in the previous century, albeit a cautious one if measured against the secularism and scepticism of contemporary France. The works of Erasmus, Montaigne, Buffon, Fontenelle, Bayle, Locke, Voltaire, and Rousseau were read and discussed. ' 2 In the 1740s and 17 5os the booksellers Jean Seto (dit Sanschagrin) and Joseph Bargeas imported books for the gentry, the merchants, and the garrison:' 3 that is, a small middle- and upper-middle-class readership. This liberal atmosphere slowly disappeared after the Conquest when the officers and gentry returned to France, and its existence was played down in the nineteenth century when much of Quebec's intellectual activity was once again firmly in the hands of a conservative clergy. Around 1765 there were 60,000 volumes in the hands of all classes, according to an estimate made by Benjamin Suite in 1915, ' 4 although there was not really public access to the large collections. Of the forty-five private libraries, Thomas Pichon's in Acadia contained 300 volumes and those of Magistrate F ran~ois-J oseph Cugnet and King's Councillor Guillaume Verrier each contained over 3,000 volumes.' 5 There were more than 20,000 volumes in approximately fifty libraries belonging to the religious orders. 16 By 1782

10 Introduction

the largest library was the Jesuit collection of 5,ooo volumes, which was about the same number held by Harvard College in 1780. 17 There was no printing press in New France although the Jesuits had petitioned for one as early as 1665 in order to educate the savages, 18 and they made several other petitions. When Governor La Galissonniere requested one in 1749 for promulgating the laws, 'once again,' says Aegidius Fauteux in The Introduction of Printing into Canada ( 19 30), 'the central authority held to the usual method of temporizing' 19 by saying it would wait for a suitable candidate to present himself. In the same year the Swedish traveller Peter Kalm, who had so much pleasure in discussing botany with La Galissonniere, was told that the reason was the fear of libels against the government and religion, but he believed that the real reason was the poverty of the country and that the small but flourishing book trade could not expand because 'la France tienne a se reserver !es benefices resultant de !'exportation des livres dans sa colonie, ' 20 which is surely the first time we have evidence that the local book trade was stifled by one of Canada's mother countries. Indeed, the situation in New France was simply a reflection of the state of affairs in France itself. Although the French government maintained a strict control over the press and local censors operated in all the major towns of France, hundreds of newspapers and periodicals appeared throughout the eighteenth century. News-sheets were widespread, and the illiterate (and the literate) gathered in groups to hear the news read aloud. Semi-official nouvellistes, who were in effect guilds of gossips, recited their news and circulated it in handwritten form. In New France the licensed newspapers were eagerly awaited, and in the salons of Quebec and Montreal, as in the grander salons of France, the latest literary and scientific news was discussed along with the handwritten newsletters. Throughout the eighteenth century a different state of affairs existed in the American colonies, which had been founded for a variety of reasons, some of them by religious and political dissenters from the Old World, others by private commercial adventurers. Yet no matter what their spiritual or secular origins, each colony had an elected assembly that managed its own internal business and political affairs with a freedom not given to the inhabitants of Acadia, Newfoundland, or New France. American life fostered individual speculation and permitted criticism of its institutions, but even where dissent and criticism were denied, it was possible to move to another colony or to found a new one, partly because the terrain of the seaboard colonies made such movement relatively easy. While printers were not regulated by the established Church, numerous denominational and official restrictions, amounting to censorship, were exercised in the seventeenth century, but these

Introduction 11 forms of censorship were considerably relaxed by the 1730s. 21 A flourishing trade based on locally produced sermons, devotional and philosophical works, almanacs, and primers served a population of nearly 4,000,000 by the Declaration of Independence in 1776. This activity was made possible because the English parliament quietly decided in 169 5 to let the infamous licensing laws ( 1662) lapse. There was no official censorship in England after that time, although there were various ways in which printers and news vendors could be harassed by fines, imprisonment, or the pillory for libels against the state. A series of stamp taxes on paper used for newspapers was in effect from 1712 until 1836. But the decision not to license the press soon encouraged newspapers to spring up in London, including the first English daily, The Daily Courant (1702), and weeklies such as The T atler and The Spectator of Addison and Steele. London swarmed with hack journalists. In the early eighteenth century printing offices and news-sheets appeared in the provincial towns of England and in the larger American towns such as Boston and Philadelphia. 22 By 1709 the stationers had petitioned successfully for the first Copyright Act in the world (it came into effect in 1710), but because of the efforts of Jonathan Swift and his fellow authors, this act ruled that copyright belonged to authors, not to publishers. The number of books and periodicals published in England rose in each decade, so that by mid-century the newspaper press in both Britain and in the American colonies was shaping public opinion among the middle classes, a situation not lost on American printers during the Revolution. Well before that conflict, however, the Americans had begun to expand east and north to what is now Canada, where after 150 years the population of 80,000 was still centred chiefly in the Annapolis Valley and along the St Lawrence River. In 1749 Britain, egged on by New England's concern over the French presence in the Newfoundland fisheries, founded Halifax, and within a decade the British decided to break French maritime power. On a September day in 1759 near Quebec the commander of the invading British forces, General James Wolfe, was reported to have said on hearing a portion of Gray's 'Elegy in a Country Churchyard' recited, 'I would rather have been the author of that piece than beat the French to-morrow,' 23 and the next day France's dream of empire in North America came to a tragic close on the Plains of Abraham.

1

The Organization of the Pioneer Book Trade Bookselling; Literacy and Education; the Newspaper Press and Authorship; the Printing Office In an age of great political and philosophical turmoil throughout the western world, our newspaper press was established soon after the first printing press was brought to Halifax from Boston in 1751. By the time the second press was brought to Quebec in 1764, the Seven Years' War had changed the map of North America, and the Treaty of Paris (1763) had ceded the northern portion of the continent to the British Crown. During the next half century, in which the repercussions of the American and French revolutions reached even the backwoods, there was rapid settlement of all the six eastern provinces by American and British emigrants, many of them accustomed to newspapers and books in their previous homes. At the end of the Napoleonic Wars the country had a population of 600,000 and was served by nineteen printing offices extending from St John's, Newfoundland, to the Niagara frontier, a territory as large as that covered by the spread of European printing 300 years before. Although the printing offices and newspapers helped bookselling by offering the means of local publication and by advertising new works, and in time would help broaden the base of literacy, the environment itself had as much impact on bookselling and literacy as did the presence of newspapers. The colonial status of the poverty-stricken provinces prolonged their psychological and economic dependency on Britain. There were strains between the French and English, whose enmity stretched back 400 years, and there were also violent religious animosities among the English-speaking Protestants, as well as among the Gaelic-speaking Protestants and Catholics. Pioneer communities in their isolation tended to be parochial and parsimonious, while the provincial assemblies were reluctant to spend money on schools, libraries, and cultural development. To a large extent, reading was an elite preoccupation, and everywhere the wretched state of literacy and

The Organization of the Pioneer Book Trade r 3 education stifled the full benefits of bookselling and printing. Most important, however, were the conflicts over the kind of society that British North Americans wanted. THE ORGANIZATION OF THE BOOKSELLING TRADE UP TO

1820

From the outset the book trade was organized to import books and periodicals, just as other mercantile activities brought in manufactured goods: this was a corollary of being a colony, which existed to absorb excess populations and to serve as a market for home products, as well as to ship out raw materials. Since most British North Americans were farmers and woodsmen with neither the cash nor the inclination to buy books, a handful of booksellers imported works for a small group of readers who were chiefly government servants, garrison officers, the clergy, teachers, merchants, and ladies. These were the people, most of them city dwellers, with the time and means for serious or leisure reading, even in adversity. Margaret Hutchinson, a Loyalist refugee in Halifax in 1780, wrote to her Boston relatives: 'Reading is my chief amusement and I very much regret leaving the greatest part of our books behind us. But we have a few friends here who supply us .. .'' The fate of several booksellers shows that the struggle to survive by traditional methods was so hopeless that they forsook the country for greener pastures to the south. The earliest bookseller in Halifax was James Rivington, of the well-known family of London booksellers, whose advertisement for his stock appeared in The Halifax Gazette on 14 May 1761. He soon moved on to New England to establish a chain of bookstores, and by 1773 he was in New York City with an extensive printing and bookselling organization. 1 Next came Robert Fletcher, who was enticed to Halifax by a government printing contract which lasted from 1765 to 1769. He advertised in The Nova-Scotia Gazette (15 June 1773) for subscriptions to Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773) by the New England slave girl Phillis Wheatley, and he offered testimonials of her genius and a sampling of her work. Prospective buyers were informed : 'Subscriptions received at A. Bells, Bookseller, No. 8, Aldgate-Street; by E. Johnson, Ave-Mary-Lane; S. Leacroft, Charing-Cross; C. Davis, Sackville-Street, Piccadilly; Mess. Richardson and Urquart, Royal-Exchange; at the Bar of the New-England Coffee House, and by Robert Fletcher, Merchant in Halifax.' This may be the first example of a British North American bookseller's name in any prospectus. Fletcher was following the eighteenth-century publishing practice whereby a group of booksellers collected advances on a work for which they each agreed to take a certain number of copies and whose

14 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada names would then appear on the title-page, but Fletcher got either too few or no subscriptions because his name was not on the title-page of Wheatley's Poems. After he sold his printing business in 1769, he ran his bookstore until his bankruptcy in 1782. 3 In Shelburne the Loyalist booksellers and printers Thomas and James Swords had a terrible time in the 1780s, and by 1790 they had returned to New York City, where they became one of the first bookselling firms to engage in publishing, according to John Tebbe!. 4 Until George Eaton set up a bookstore in Halifax in late 1818, general merchants such as Richard Kidston and Thomas Cowdell and the local printing offices sold books and stationery. Almost two generations passed between the arrival of educated Loyalists to the Mari times and that point in the 1820s when a modest market for trade books could sustain bookstores, because unlike in Europe an upper-class readership of literary gentlemen and leisured ladies was never economically important in this country. Much the same conditions prevailed in the other towns. At Saint John general merchants such as Stephen Humbert and James Codner always carried a small stock of books. At York (Toronto) the merchant Quetton St George regularly carried books, and when the American bookseller Green Adams came to town in 1810, John Beverley Robinson wrote enthusiastically to John Macaulay: 'We have quite a respectable Book-store here from the United States. Good authors, but wretched editions - however, I could lay out fifty pounds very much to my satisfaction in it.' 5 In 1818 an Edinburgh bookseller and binder, George Dawson, set up business in York. Kingston had three booksellers in the early 1820s - J .B. Chessman, Thomas Tomkins, and Henry George Hart. In Quebec at the turn of the century bookselling was in the hands of printer John Neilson and bookseller-journalist Thomas Cary. Cary got a return by renting his books for a few pennies in a subscription circulating library, an innovation successfully tried as early as the 1730s in Britain and the United States. 6 In 1797 Cary commissioned Neilson to print 1,300 copies of a Catalogue of books to be loaned from one month to a year, and Cary soon advertised that he would mail books anywhere in the province as long as users paid the postage. The 1830 Catalogue had 4,514 English and 799 French titles, and by the mid-nineteenth century every city had commercial rental libraries and newsrooms. At least one visitor to Lower Canada in 1806, John Lambert, was unimpressed with the bookstores. 'The printing-offices at Quebec and Montreal are the only book-stores in the country, and those collections consist chiefly of school books and a few old histories. ' 7 If this seems unduly critical of colonial towns, we should remember that James Lackington, a successful London bookseller, reported in his memoirs that in the 1790s

The Organization of the Pioneer Book Trade 15 there were only half a dozen towns in Great Britain with respectable bookstores. 8 Booksellers in Montreal usually stayed in business longer than those in Halifax, but none the less had their tribulations. Following the capitulation in 1760 Joseph Bargeas, the bookseller and binder, fell on hard times and landed in debtors' prison. By 1767 he was at Quebec where his wife was implicated in the notorious Walker case, and he remained in business at least until 1774. 9 By the end of that decade the printer Fleury Mesplet was advertising the 1775 Paris edition of the Anti-Dictionnaire and other devotional works attacking Voltaire and the Philosophes; these books probably came to him via English booksellers and English ships. Fran~ois Sarault (or Saro), who sold books at Quebec in 1789, took over Mesplet' s stock in 179 5. The major bookseller in the early years of the new century was the Scotsman James Brown (1776-1845), who emigrated to Quebec in 1795 and opened his Montreal book and stationery store in 1801. Brown regularly stocked English and French works, and later became a powerful businessman, as the proprietor of The Montreal Gazette between 1805 and 1822 and the owner of the first paper mill (1804) in British North America. Between 1810 and 1820 Montreal developed the most flourishing retail bookselling trade in the country, and it retained this leadership until the early twentieth century. In 1815, for instance, Montrealers could patronize H. H. Cunningham, who had been in business since 1810; Hector Bossange, who came from Paris in June 181 5 to establish the Montreal branch of the family business; Pierre La Force; and the first News Room and Library, run by Joseph Nickless and his partner McDonnell. Both Cunningham and the successor to Bossange, E.R. Fabre, remained important booksellers into the thirties and forties. In that same year one of the first giant auctions was held by Stewart Spragg, who announced in The Montreal Herald: Ten Thousand Volumes BOOKS, forming probably the most extensive Collection that has ever been offered at public sale in this city (sic] sale to commence at 7 o'clock precisely. To continue the remaining Evenings of the Week, beginning at the same hour. At the first evening's sale, there will be sold in addition to the Books, 27 Elegant ENGRAVINGS ... 10

There had been book auctions before this festive event, but they were for the disposal of estates such as that of the Quebec merchant Peter Farques in 1780, 11 or for the sale of libraries of departing colonial administrators, as in the case of Judge Alexander Croke in Halifax in 1815. 12 There were no auctions directed solely at the book trade such as the famous annual ones after

16 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada 1824 in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, but perhaps visiting merchants found something at Spragg's auction to sell back home in small towns. Each year when the shipping season reopened, newspapers ran columns of advertisements for new merchandise from Britain, which included everything from dress materials, hats, furniture, building supplies, and rum, to books. Kidston's advertisement in the 23 June 1789 Royal Gazette (Halifax) listed a consignment of 2 30 books just arrived on the brig Ceres, which included the standard works found in many early advertisements: Milton's Paradise Lost, John Gay's Fables, and Edward Young's Night Thoughts, and poems by Samuel Johnson and Thomas Gray. The fiction included The Arabian Nights Entertainments, Sir Charles Grandison, The Vicar of Wakefield, and Humphrey Clinker. Among the devotional works were Richard Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity, Bishop John Tillotson's Works, Jonathan Edwards' Freewill and his Religious Affections, and sermons by Isaac Watts and Jon athan Swift. There were also works on history, law, medicine, mathematics, navigation, architecture, bookkeeping, botany, and grammar, and an assortment of engravings, parasols, and drugs. In an age when newspaper book reviews were almost uncommon, these advertisements ran for months and served as seasonal catalogues. American books, periodicals, and newspapers always circulated in the provinces; they were handled by booksellers, newspaper offices, post offices, and merchants acting as agents; and a sizeable business in exchanges flourished among North American printing firms. Once James Rivington was in business in New York in 177 3, he advertised the delivery of his New-York Gazetteer to Montreal and Quebec. The publisher Mathew Carey of Philadelphia had agents from Halifax to Georgia in 1 790 for his monthly magazine American Museum. 13 By 1800 American and British booksellers were advertising for direct orders. John Ward Fenno of New York advertised his stock of imports from London, a reprint of Alexander Pope's Imperial Epistle, and George Washington's portrait and retirement speech in the Halifax Royal Gazette (2 December 1800). Fenno had bought his store from British journalist William Cobbett, who previously had been stationed with the British forces in New Brunswick, New York, and the West Indies. (When the radical Cobbett - a man much admired by reform journalists in British North America - opened his Pall Mall, London, bookstore in 1801, he advertised in John Ryan's Saint John Royal Gazette (1 September 1801] that he 'has some reason to expect, that many gentlemen, in his Majesty's Colonies in America and the West-Indies, will be disposed to favour him with their custom,' and offered discounts to established customers, schools, and libraries. Ryan himself sometimes got shipments from Cobbett.) One early

The Organization of the Pioneer Book Trade 17 travelling agent for the New York Evening Post, a paper well known for espousing urban reforms, and other American papers was Charles Reade, who solicited subscriptions from Jordan's Hotel at York in 1818, and promised that the papers would be 'promptly and punctually forwarded.' 14 Colonial travellers abroad brought back primers for sale, as did John Patterson of Pictou in 1779, 15 and often individuals sent orders with friends who went to Britain on business, as did Fran~ois Baby of Quebec in 177.2 16 and schoolmaster John McNamara of Annapolis Royal in 1790. 17 Although the advertisements of the booksellers contained a good sampling of quality writings, we do not know how many copies of each title were stocked (possibly one to five copies, depending on popularity); or how long books remained on the shelves; and the only indications of the size of stock come from catalogues such as Cary's, or the number of titles in the newspaper advertisements, or the figure that Nickless & McDonnell gave when they sold their Montreal News Room in 18.21, 'about Fourteen hundred Volumes of Novels, Romances, and other Works.' 18 It is almost impossible, if not meaningless, to speculate on changes in colonial reading tastes from season to season. By the second decade of the nineteenth century, there are hints of trends from the garrison towns, where Jane Porter's Thaddeus of Warsaw (1809) was sympathetically received, 19 Walter Scott's novels eagerly read,2° and Lord Byron's books generated as much excitement as his own personal peregrinations. Like the printing offices, the bookstores played an important social role that is hard to measure. Here friends from out of town could exchange gossip and news, or leave letters and packets in the care of the proprietor. In the backroom of Mesplet's shop, Mesplet, J autard, and their circle of Frenchspeaking intellectuals planned their Academie de Montreal until Montgolfier, the Superior of the Sulpicians, put a stop to their incorporation. 21 Tradition has it that Captain Philip Broke of HMS Shannon walked into William Minns's premises on the Parade Square in Halifax and said, 'Well, Minns, I'm going to Boston ... to challenge the Constitution.' When Minns advised caution in the light of HM frigate Guerriere's tragic encounter with Constitution in August 18 1 .2, Broke replied that he would 'trust more to boarding than to the calibre of his guns.' Instead of bringing back Constitution, however, the victorious Broke led Chesapeake into Halifax harbour on 6 June 18 13 . 22 Perhaps the most striking difference between the European roots and the colonial transplant was in the way bookselling and publishing were conducted on this continent. Britain and the United States seaboard had a network of towns while this country had ribbon-like strands of communities stretched along coasts and waterways. Shipment by water was inexpensive, but in fact

18 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada the transport of books from one part of the country to the other could be as slow as, and even more difficult than, getting them across the ocean or north from the United States. American booksellers also relied on imported books, but their markets were larger, richer, and geographically more compact than ours. After the first United States copyright law was passed in 1790, American printers were encouraged to reprint British and foreign works without the necessity of paying royalties, and this 'piracy,' as it was commonly known, contributed significantly to the growth of book production and bookselling well before the Civil War. British North American booksellers also carried the productions of local printing offices, but until the 1960s no bookseller in Canada survived by selling only books produced in Canada. Our population was too small and too poor to support a local reprint industry, and no provincial acts were passed to encourage reprinting. Consequently, readers became used to British and American editions, and in time the prosperous importing business based on American reprints directly led to quarrels over printing, distribution, and copyright that have lasted to our own day. Although several early colonial booksellers aspired to be publishers, only H. H . Cunningham of Montreal had much success. In 181 o he issued John Perrin's The Elements of French Conversation (printed by Nahum Mower) and in 1816, Lord Byron's Poems on His Domestic Circumstances (printed by Lane and Bowman). Cunningham also published The Canadian Review and Magazine (1824-6) and was credited with being the first Lower Canadian publisher to pay for the right to print a local edition of a foreign book, John Willis's Scraps and Sketches ( 183 1). 23 H. Pearson Gundy maintains that when bookstores as such were firmly established in early nineteenth-century Canada, they brought with them 'the English tradition of both selling and publishing books, [and] were the first to challenge the publishing monopoly in Canada of the newspaper and government printing offices. ' 24 ATTEMPTS UP TO I

820

TO IMPROVE LITERACY AND EDUCATION

The book trade proper, then, as conducted by booksellers and merchants, commercial rental libraries, auctioneers, and by private orders sent abroad, served only a small section of the entire literate community. There was no mass reading public as we understand the use of that term since mid-Victorian days, for as Richard Altick points out in The English Common Reader (1957), the mass reading public was only then emerging in late eighteenthcentury Britain. In colonial society the problem was to improve literacy, not merely for its own sake but for religious and political ends, because in the 1750s and 1760s 'only a minority of Nova Scotians could read and write and

The Organization of the Pioneer Book Trade 19 calculate and hundreds could not sign their names. ' 25 Although illiteracy was widespread among the poor and farmers, those who could read were bombarded with edifying religious pamphlets by travelling missionaries. We usually think of the pedlar, based on our knowledge of these nineteenth- and twentieth-century free enterprisers as dealers in pots and pans, ribbons and needles, but almost the earliest known pedlars were 'colporteurs' who distributed Bibles and tracts. In 1773 the Reverend Peter Delaroche, an Anglican missionary sent out by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel to preach in French, English, and German, told the poor of Lunenburg, 'being obliged to work hard, you cannot spend much time in reading and study ... for as you have neither so much leisure nor so much opportunity as the rich, to study Religion, it is not required that you should have so much knowledge, ' 26 and with this slightly patronizing comment, passed out his sermon free of charge. Delaroche had his sermons printed in Halifax as did a more famous colporteur, Henry Alline, the popular 'New Light' evangelist in the towns and rural districts of western Nova Scotia during the seventies and eighties. Two other colporteurs also changed the religious and social life of the districts they covered. In Upper Canada the American missionary Thaddeus Osgood made his first five-month mission in 1810-11 distributing sermons and tracts, and thanked all his friends by praising Britain and George III and the Prince Regent in a poem in The York Gazette (3 1 March 1811 ). Osgood travelled widely through the Canadas over the next thirty years, preaching and teaching. Walter Johnstone, a shoemaker turned preacher, was sent to Prince Edward Island by the Scottish Missionary Society in 1820-1 to sell his tracts to the farmers, but he soon realized as he walked from house to house that the Society would have to furnish tracts free of charge because the people had no cash and the Charlottetown Bible Society Depository offered only high-priced, well-bound books.Even worse, the Depository, which was supplied from London, did not have the Psalms bound in with the Bibles, which was a sorry state of affairs for Scottish Christians. 27 The oldest of the British societies that sent missionaries to North America were the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (1698) and the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (1701); the latter society maintained the Anglican clergy until the colonial dioceses were set up in 1787, and for many more years after contributed to the salaries of the clergy. Under the impetus of the mid-century religious revival by the founder of Methodism, John Wesley, whose influence reached many parts of North America, a group of denominational Bible societies sprang up in Britain around 1800. These were the Baptist Missionary Society (1792); the London Missionary

20

The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada

Society ( 1797 ), formed by the W esleyans; The Religious Tract Society ( 1 799 ), organized by the evangelical Anglicans; and the non-sectarian British and Foreign Bible Society (1804). Their purpose in the colonies was to spread the faith and to raise the level of literacy by providing devotional works free of charge or for a modest price; in 1816, for instance, the Halifax branch of the SPCK distributed 7,253 books and tracts this way. 28 Bible societies appeared in Quebec City (1804), Pictou (1808), York (1817), Saint John (1819), and Montreal ( 1 820). 29 These local societies, their depositories, and even general merchants were affiliated with British and American organizations. Many a bookstore-depository survived throughout the century - Egerton Ryerson's Methodist Book Room at Toronto is the best known - and even branched into printing and publishing due to its good religious sales. The British organizations, in particular The Religious Tract Society of London, proved good friends to such Canadian writers as Catharine Parr Traill and Egerton Ryerson Young by publishing their children's stories and travel books. There were as well many illiterates in the middle and upper ranks of society, as revealed in 1787 when it was discovered that some Montreal militia captains could not read the Laws and Orders. 30 Governments therefore lent a hand in organizing public libraries for the upper classes, but even these endeavours to encourage reading ran into sectarian hostility. When Governor Haldimand and Judge Adam Mabane were canvassing for funds to establish a public subscription library at Quebec in 1778 to improve public opinion and bring the two races together, Vicar General Montgolfier wrote privately to Bishop Briand: 'I am inwardly persuaded that in all these establishments of public printing presses and libraries, although there is something good in them, there is always more evil than good and that they do more harm than good even in places where there is a certain supervision for the preservation of faith and morals. ' 31 The Quebec Library was announced in 1779, and membership cost a high entrance fee of £5 with a £2 annual subscription, which were not within the pocketbooks of artisans and servants. Haldimand had an agent in London procure the best English and French books, and the Library opened in 1783 with almost 1,800 volumes. By 1806 John Lambert found it 'indifferently supplied with new publications,' and contemptuously noted that 'novels and romances are most in request among the Canadian ladies, as they indeed are among the ladies of Europe. ' 32 He would have liked them to read solid stuff like Tom Jones and Roderick Random in spite of all the indelicate language of these novels. Already the leisure market in Britain was changing to suit more delicate and sentimental tastes, and there were indications that colonial tastes were following suit. This oldest public library in the country, located for

The Organization of the Pioneer Book Trade 21 many years in the Bishop's Palace, was absorbed in 1866 into the library of the Quebec Literary and Historical Society, which was founded in 1817. From its founding frontier Upper Canada was expected to have proper resources for intellectual growth. Shortly after he arrived at the first capital, Newark, Governor John Graves Simcoe sent home a memo in August 1791 to Secretary of State Henry Dundas on these needs: The Colony of Upper Canada may justly be considered as the Rival, for public Estimation & preference, of the American Governments near to which it is situated. To the Infinite Superiority of Constitution, it certainly will be no inferior Part of Policy to aim at superiority in Morals, in Manners, in Industry, in Arts & Sciences. It is therefore with great pleasure that I have apprehended that Lord Grenville was inclined to allow me a Sum of Money to be laid out in the purchase of such Books as I should deem proper to lay the Foundations of a Public library. My Ideas are to procure the Encyclopedia & Books of that Description, Extracts of which might be published in the periodical Papers for the purposes of facilitating Commerce & Agriculture ... 33

The first public library in Ontario was organized in Newark in 1800 by forty-one subscribers who paid 24s. or $3 .00 to join. 34 They were drawn from the clergy, the military, the government, and the yeomanry, that is, the same kind of social group who subscribed to The Nova-Scotia Magazine in 1789 and The Quebec Magazine in 1792. Although the Newark Library's 1,000 volumes were destroyed by invading Americans in 1813, the institution was revived in 18 15 and served the district for many years. The ignorance of the French Canadians was a favourite theme with the English-speaking population because their own Loyalist tradition, as Hilda Neatby explains, 'whether of Protestant piety or of rational scepticism, tended to apply to culture and to civilization the one basic test of literacy. ' 3 5 In 1784 Hugh Finlay, the Deputy Postmaster, estimated that 'not a man in five hundred among them can read.' 36 Bishop J .-F. Hubert later argued that climatic and pioneering conditions accounted for French-Canadian backwardness, and claimed that 'on trouveroit facilement clans chaque paroisse entre 24 et 30 personnes capables de lire et d'ecrire,' 37 that is, approximately 4,000 literates (many of them women) in a population of 140,000. But Finlay saw the problem not in cultural terms alone but in the light of new social responsibilities when he advised: 'Before we think of a house of Assembly for this Country, let us lay a foundation for useful knowledge to fit the people to Judge of their Situation, and deliberate for the future well-being of the Province. The first step towards this desirable end, is to have a free School in every Parish ... ' 38

22

The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada

Although Finlay's comments referred to the condition of the Frenchspeaking population, in a broader context they point to a fundamental relation that exists between the conduct of public affairs and the educational level of the electorate, and this same problem had to be faced again in the 1840s because the implementation of responsible government required an informed electorate. Clearly, illiteracy could not be wiped out overnight, for the change would have to come at all levels of schooling; but first, important changes in the philosophy of education were necessary. Unfortunately, the conflict over literacy for the few and universal education was not laid to rest until the middle of the nineteenth century. Schools were conducted by private individuals, by societies, and by the state. The private schools, which charged fees and whose quality varied greatly, taught writing, bookkeeping, sewing, fencing, and dancing whatever their teachers could offer to satisfy local needs. Better training was provided by religious societies like the Jesuits, but their college and school at Quebec were closed in 1768 and 1776 respectively, and the Order itself was dissolved by the Pope in 1773. After 1749 the British Board of Trade and Plantations arranged for the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (the SPG) to send out Anglican missionaries and teachers, but there were not enough men available to serve every district. Towards the end of the century when colonial governments turned to improving schools, bitter disputes arose over the role of religion in education, funding for schools and teachers, and the use of American textbooks for British subjects. These questions dragged on for generations. The strong aversion everywhere to non-sectarian education was especially complicated· in Quebec, where a commission on education in 1789 under Chief Justice William Smith recommended that free primary and secondary schools and a non-sectarian university, for both French and English students, be established from the Jesuit Estates funds . Although Smith's proposal to raise 'the lower classes' from a 'state of base barbarism' 39 was supported by both racial groups, the Anglican bishop, Charles Inglis, and the Roman Catholic bishop, J .-F. Hubert, objected to the secularizing of education, and the recommendations came to nothing in a flurry of personal animosities among the Catholic clergy. Elsewhere, there were antagonisms among the Protestant denominations. In Nova Scotia the Anglican minority in the Council set up King's College School in 1788 with the aid of provincial grants, and within twelve years King's excluded non-Anglicans. As a result, the Reverend Thomas McCulloch founded Pictou Academy, a Presbyterian institution to which the Methodists also sent their sons, and after 1814, in spite of protests by the

The Organization of the Pioneer Book Trade 23 Anglicans, the Academy got a provincial grant; but the disputes over these two schools led Governor Sherbrooke to found Dalhousie College ( 181 8) as a non-sectarian institution. New Brunswick was less fortunate because the SPG could provide only six salaries for clergymen and the cost of four churches. During the 1790s Governor Thomas Carleton and Provincial Treasurer George Leonard tried to raise money for libraries and an academy at Fredericton, but the assembly refused to vote money for a central institution, and the college (established in 1789) did not hold classes until 1826. 40 Although the Anglican Church was not 'established' in Upper Canada, it behaved as though it were. Governor Simcoe, who fully accepted the principle of the Anglican Church's control over primary and secondary education, insisted on using the meagre resources of the colony 'to complete the education of the Children of the principal People of this country, so as to qualify them for the proper exercise of those leading functions in the Church and State to which they have a birthright and which they will attain with or without education.' 4 ' This viewpoint came under severe attack from the American Methodist settlers, with their democratic belief in common and secondary schooling for all. In 1801 Lower Canada passed the first free school education act, which, despite its lack of success among French Canadians in its first twenty-five years, established official (that is, Protestant) and separate (Roman Catholic) schools. Lower Canada's Royal Institution was in effect the first provincial department of education in the country. The other provinces followed suit with school acts: New Brunswick in 1802 (parish schools) and 1805 (secondary schools); Upper Canada in 1807 (grammar schools) and 1816 (common schools); Nova Scotia in 1808 (common schools) and 1811 (grammar schools). These acts laid the foundations for universal free schools later in the century, but for the time being many school districts simply did not have the money or resources to hire a teacher, let alone to erect a schoolhouse. Henry Chubb capitalized on these shortages as a way of promoting The New-Brunswick Courier (2 May 1811): 'One principal advantage which might be derived from these publications has been neglected; we mean that of reading them in schools, and by the children in families - try it for one season ... Encourage newspapers and you encourage learning; encourage learning and you secure the liberties of posterity.' A great advance came with the efficient 'monitorial' schools, where the teacher instructed the brighter students, who in turn taught other children. Developed by the Quaker Joseph Lancaster in England and by the Anglican Dr Andrew Bell in Madras, India, and intended for middle- and lowermiddle-class children, these schools were admirably suited for North

24

The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada

American conditions, by inculcating self-reliance and providing a training ground for future teachers. The first monitorial school in Canada was Walter Bromley's Royal Acadian School at Halifax, opened in 1814 under the auspices of the British and Foreign School Society; and it was shortly followed by a rival 'National' or 'Madras' school, under the auspices of Bell's National Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church, which was founded in 1811. 'National Schools' proved very popular in the Maritimes, spreading to New Brunswick in 1817, to Prince Edward Island in 1821, and to Newfoundland in 1824, but were less popular in Upper Canada, where a monitorial school opened in 1818.42 In Upper Canada the impact of American education was more direct than in other provinces, particularly as non-Loyalist American settlers continued to take up farmlands for decades after 1791. Already American schools were non-sectarian and oriented towards practical subjects. After the War of 1812 the circulation of itinerant American schoolmasters and their textbooks (especially histories and geographies) created conflicts as serious as those among the churches over education. A standard British work such as Mavor's Spelling Book competed with popular American ones such as Webster's History and Spelling Book, Dobell's Arithmetic, and Morse's Geography, all of which were cheaper and easier to obtain than British schoolbooks. One of the few native textbooks was A Concise Introduction to Practical Arithmetic (Montreal: Nahum Mower 1809), written by the Reverend John Strachan, who long before he became the Bishop of Toronto ran one of the best private schools in the province at Cornwall. An early attack on American texts came from 'Palemon' in a series of articles on education in Upper and Lower Canada, written in 1815 for The Montreal Herald and reprinted in the Kingston Gazette. He complained that American books not only taught American orthography, customs, and coinage, but far worse: 'They teach us to hate the government that we ought, and are bound, to support; to revile the country that we are bound to love and respect; and to think that there is nothing great or good, generous or brave, anywhere to be found but in the United States.'43 THE SPREAD OF THE PRINTING PRESS AND LITERARY ACTIVITY BEFORE I 820

The printing press was not brought to Canada in 1751 and 1764 to enlarge the literary and philosophical horizons or to spread the word of God, and certainly not to advance the cause of free speech and democracy, even though in time it became an important instrument for all those causes. It came as an adjunct to the military and civil authorities, to uphold law, order, and good

The Organization of the Pioneer Book Trade 25 government through the dissemination of official newspapers and proclamations. That is why in 1791 Governor Simcoe said that 'a Printer is indispensibly necessary,' 44 even though he and other early governors were also genuinely concerned about the press's potential for improving colonial intellectual life. Thus our newspapers started out with more authoritarian restrictions than their contemporaries in Britain and the United States. Our printing trade was a child of American and Scottish parentage. Many early printers were New Englanders or Loyalists, young men who were often related to each other by blood or marriage or partnerships; most of the others were Scottish, the vanguard of an army of Scots and Ulstermen who dominated nineteenth-century printing and bookselling. Although the first French printer was trained in his native France, even the French Canadians were trained by the Americans or Scots. The American and Scottish contribution to our cultural life will be evident as this book unfolds. The craft of printing was pervaded by American standards, while printers' notions of free enterprise were flexible enough for them to accept cushioning by government patronage. But whatever their origins, the printers had a characteristic eighteenth-century view of their role in the advance of civilization, which was their inheritance from the bookmen of the Renaissance, and they would have agreed with Thomas McCulloch, who told his students at the opening of Pictou Academy in 18 16: In tracing the progress of education, the effects resulting from the invention of letters and the art of printing ought not to be overlooked. By these means, the information of past ages is transmitted to the present and every additional discovery and invention communicated with ease to the various sections of civilized society. As tending to the diffusion of knowledge, therefore, their influence upon the intellectual and moral character of man must have been great and important. 41

Another transplant from the American experience was the combination of the newspaper printing office and bookstore as one enterprise, an arrangement quite appropriate for a frontier book trade, but no longer common in Europe and becoming less so in Britain. The printer, who was responsible for the physical production of a work, spent a long apprenticeship at his craft. The connection between bookselling and publishing, however, was an ancient one extending back well before Gutenberg's time. The bookseller was a wholesale or retail merchant, whereas the publisher (who was often a bookseller as well) took the financial risks, which might be shared with other booksellers, or the author, or the printer. In colonial days the printerbookseller combination made economic sense, by minimizing capital and overhead expenses in the form of unsold stock, unused equipment, and idle

26 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada employees; but the merging of those roles led to conflicts in the later nineteenth century between printer-publishers and publisher-booksellers. The staples of colonial printing were job work such as circulars and cards, almanacs and directories, sermons and devotional works, a very small number of textbooks, and government reports. Almost every office issued an annual almanac that contained the names of government officials and militia, the dates of court sessions, postal rates, mileages, tides, weather predictions, and astronomical calculations. The sermon, a neglected literary genre in our time, was cherished along with the Bible, meditations, tracts, and hymns as the only reading in homes where often no other books or newspapers were found. Sermons were not simply homilies on a bibfo;al text; they dealt with the emotional and political issues that shaped British North American life. Even before 1820, primers were printed in large runs because they did not go out of date. In Quebec, especially, the loss of imports from France was a boon for printers of schoolbooks. Even though government publications had a better chance of survival than other works, their large quantity reflects their high proportion of the output. For generations, then, government patronage was the key to survival. All six governments needed a printer for the official gazette and a steady flow of proclamations and statutes, and eventually for the annual journals of the councils and assemblies. In return the printers obtained commissions as King's Printers, which carried either an annual salary or payment for each order. On Prince Edward Island James Robertson received £60 as King's Printer and Deputy Postmaster, while in Upper Canada the King's Printer usually received between £80 and £100. Governments saw their printers as public relations instruments and often required them, as was John Ryan in St John's, to post a bond for security and to 'submit the perusal of the proposed contents [of the newspaper] to the Magistrates in the said Court of Sessions ... ' 46 Swift and effective punishment took the form of loss of patronage, a call to the Bar of the Assembly for a humble apology to the House, or even a term in prison without trial. Since the printers also sold stationery, ledgers, pens, and ink to government clerks, it was natural for them to carry a small stock of books from Britain. By the time that British North America could support bread-and-butter publications, namely gazetteers, devotional works, and textbooks, there was a network of printing centres whose productions were aimed almost exclusively at the regional market. Even though very few of the thousands of books and pamphlets issued between the 1750s and the 1870s were literary publishing ventures, to omit the government printers and newspaper offices from our story is to ignore their role in the earliest literary movements in Halifax, Quebec City, and Montreal.

The Organization of the Pioneer Book Trade 27 THE PRINTING PRESS IN THE ATLANTIC PROVINCES

Nova Scotia's significant development began with the founding of the garrison at Halifax in 1749 to offset French power in the St Lawrence and on the Grand Banks. Large scale immigration was encouraged, and within twenty-five years the coast was dotted with settlements of Germans and Scots, and once again with Acadians who had returned to the three Maritime provinces after the 175 5 Expulsion. But it was the New England settlers who brought the printing press, along with their architecture, town meetings, and provincial assemblies. The first printing office in Canada claimed descent from Stephen Day's office founded in 1638, and which in 1649 passed to Samuel Green, the progenitor of a distinguished family of Boston printers. His grandson Bartholomew Green carried his press to Halifax in 17 p, 47 possibly - since we do not know with any certainty - to get a business monopoly, the same reason that brought so many other New England merchants to Nova Scotia. Because he died soon after his arrival, his partner John Bushell (d. 1761) had the honour of launching the first newspaper in the country, The Halifax Gazette, on 23 March 1752. It was a modest half-sheet of foolscap with two columns of print on each of its two pages, and it contained government announcements, shipping news, and advertisements. In time, this and other colonial newspapers regularly included excerpts from British and American periodicals of social and military news, essays, poetry, book notices, and anecdotes; and for several generations colonial readers, as in the United States, got their information about the contemporary world from newspapers rather than from books. For some reason Bushell lost editorial control of the paper in 1754, and this function was taken over by Richard Bulkeley, the provincial secretary. Bushell's publications were either commercial handbills or official documents such as the 175 8 Proclamation that was circulated in New England to announce the land made available due to the Expulsion of the Acadians in 175 5 and their second deportation in 175 8. But Bushell had very little other work and did not prosper, 48 and his Grafton Street office, whose roof can be seen in one of Richard Short's 1760 engravings of Halifax, passed to his journeyman Anthony Henry (1734-1800), a native of Alsace who had served as a bandsman at Louisburg. 49 One of Henry's apprentices, Isaiah Thomas, a lively Boston boy who was later to be the leading Revolutionary printer, said in his book The History of Printing in America (1810) that his master was 'indolent, and inattentive to his affairs. ' 50 Perhaps that is why Thomas was able to capitalize on the first instance of press censorship in Nova Scotia, which arose over the strong public disapproval of the Stamp Act of 176 5. The numbers of Henry's Halifax

28 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada

Gazette between 28 November-5 December 1765 and 27 February-6 March 1766 carried mourning borders, and sometimes a woodcut of a skull-andcrossbones appeared where the revenue stamp should have been. One number contained a woodcut of a devil aiming a pitchfork at the stamp, with the statement 'Behold me the Scorn and contempt of AMERICA pitching down to Destruction Devils clear the Way for B-s and STAMPS.' 51 Henry lost his printing contract for four years and the mischievous Thomas, who later claimed credit for this outrage, was sent packing home to Boston. Before Henry Stimer came to the office in the 1780s to improve the appearance of their productions, Anthony Henry's carelessness provoked at least one author, the Loyalist Jacob Bailey, to complain to John Howe, 'You cannot be ignorant of the deficiencies and blunders of Master Henry and must confess that his ignorance and errors are so numerous as to discourage persons of leisure and genius from contributing to the information of the public.' 5i While most of Henry's work, over 200 titles, was official, some pamphlets in the 1770s reflected the tensions which led up to the American Revolution: for example, John Day's An Essay on the Present State of the Province of Nova-Scotia (1774), which advocated ways of avoiding revolution in the new colony. Despite their trade links and sympathies with their New England kin, when the War broke out, the Nova Scotia Yankees were restrained by their practicality and caution from joining in armed conflict. The establishment of the United States did not end the connections but merely modified them, for in the next century the cultural life of Nova Scotia - and, indeed, most of English-speaking British North America - continued to be influenced by New England and New York. In the meantime, the arrival of Loyalists from the American colonies had an immediate impact on all phases of life in British North America. Wherever they went, the Loyalists helped to civilize the country, opened up more farmlands, encouraged schools and libraries, and founded newspapers and magazines. They were the first group of Englishspeaking settlers to articulate publicly and loudly their convictions about the shape of the new society. The opening of hostilities brought the first Loyalist printer, and one of the most famous colonial printers, John Howe, to Halifax. A more skilled and diplomatic printer than Anthony Henry, Howe was trained in the office of the Drapers, another illustrious Boston printing family. 53 Howe (1754-1835) came to Halifax between 1776 and 1780, accompanied by the widow of his former employer, Margaret Draper, and by his young brother-in-law William Minns, who started his own paper The Weekly Chronicle ( 1786) soon after Howe finished training him. Howe's own newspaper The Halifax

The Organization of the Pioneer Book Trade 29

Journal ( 1780) was renamed The Nova-Scotia Royal Gazette in 1801 when he was appointed King's Printer on the death of Anthony Henry; and the latter paper (under several name changes) still exists as the offical Nova Scotia Gazette. A Sandemanian in religion and a Tory in politics, Howe was sent by his government at least once to the United States on official business. He passed on to his eldest son John, jr, the lucrative offices of King's Printer and Deputy Postmaster, which gave both men enviable access to news over rival editors. His family continued the firm until the 186os; another son, Joseph, who became the most famous journalist in the province, fondly remembered 'the old man between whose knees I was trained, - who was, in fact, my only professor. ' 54 The first literary awakening, marked by a surge in book production, came in the 1780s when religious quarrels between the New Englanders and the Loyalists exploded into print. These quarrels were the local manifestation of the Great A wakening, the religious revival that had been sweeping the English world since the 1740s. In British North America this revival was concerned with both doctrine and loyalty to the Crown because the Anglicans and Presbyterians blamed the Revolution to a large extent on the dissenters, in particular the Methodists. Howe and Henry printed books and pamphlets for all the denominations, the Anglicans, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Methodists, and the New Lights, and early in the new century Howe even printed defences of Roman Catholicism by Bishop Edmund Burke, which were answered by Thomas McCulloch's pamphlets printed in Edinburgh. Meanwhile, in the eighties Henry Alline's The Anti-Traditionist (Anthony Henry, 178 3) was attacked by Congregationalist Jonathan Scott in A Brief View ... Gohn Howe, 1784). The Methodists employed Howe to reprint one of John Wesley's sermons and his A Short History of the People Called Methodists (1786). The Loyalist Anglican clergy used both printers in their threefold campaign for a stable, Tory society, which was to include the establishment of the first Anglican bishopric in Canada ( 1787), King's College School (1788), and The Nova-Scotia Magazine (1789-93). The Loyalist emphasis on the transplanting of British civilization to the frontier are the themes of Roger Viets's topographical poem Annapolis Royal (Anthony Henry, 1788) and Bishop Charles Inglis' sermon Steadfastness in Religion and Loyalty Recommended Gohn Howe, 1793). The latter, a warning against democracy, republicanism, and anarchy, was by a happy coincidence printed in the same week that news reached Halifax of the outbreak of war between Britain and France. The building of the new society was a dream shared by Henry Alline and Jacob Bailey in Nova Scotia, and Jonathan Odell in New Brunswick, who

30 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada among them produced essays, sermons, a large number of poems, and even some fiction, but little of this writing was published during their lives. There was an important distinction, moreover, between what they sent to the local printer and what they sent to a British or American publisher. Authorship was possible in the pioneer community despite physical and economic hardship, but it was for all practical purposes invisible because there were few authors and fewer printers willing to risk the expense and trouble of publication. Writers such as Frances Brooke, a temporary resident, or John Lambert, a visitor who travelled extensively around the continent, wrote for British audiences. Mrs Brooke (1724-89) was already a published author, associated with the London literary circle of Samuel Johnson (he kissed her in private at her farewell party), when she arrived at Quebec in 1763 to join her husband, the Reverend John Brooke, Chaplain to the British forces . Here she wrote portions of The History of Emily Montague (London: John Dodsley 1769, 2 vols), the first novel to be directly inspired by an author's own experiences in Canada. This epistolary novel, a series of letters between English ladies and gentlemen at Quebec and their friends at home, records the author's awe and fear of the landscape, her delight at winter social life, and makes a plea for the anglicization of the Quebeckers. The thorough discussion of ideas and society, which are as important as the love interest in this 'political' 55 novel, reflects the seriousness with which Brooke and her audience approached fiction . While The History of Emily Montague did not directly inspire an indigenous tradition in Canadian fiction, it has a special place at the head of our fiction for its treatment of life in this part of the world, including the comment on authorship by one of its letter writers, Arabella Fermor: 'I no longer wonder the elegant arts are unknown here; the rigor of the climate suspends the very powers of the understanding; what then must become of those of the imagination? ... Genius will never mount high, where the faculties of the mind are benumbed half the year. ' 56 Mrs Brooke published in London because her own career as a writer and theatre manager was based there, but Henry Alline (1748-84), likewise looking for a larger audience, began a custom that has continued to our own day when he took his Hymns and Spiritual Songs to an American publisher. In fact, the Hymns was the first book of poems to be printed in Canada, in a small pamphlet by Anthony Henry in 1782. This edition, long unknown to bibliographers, is now called 'Version 1,' and was reprinted at Windsor, Vermont, by A. Spooner in 1796. The larger, revised 'Version u' of the Hymns was printed in Boston by P. Edes in 1786; and it was reprinted at Dover, New Hampshire, by S. Bragg in 1795 and 1796, and at StoringtonPort, Connecticut, by S. Trumbull in 1802.57

The Organization of the Pioneer Book Trade 31 Born in Newport, Rhode Island, Alline was brought to Nova Scotia by his parents in 1760 when the New Englanders moved into the Annapolis Valley lands vacated by the Acadians. A humble farm boy with little education, he devoured all the religious books and pamphlets that came his way. Unable to find an outlet for his energy in marriage or politics, he had a religious illumination in March 1775 and soon decided to preach salvation and hope as an antidote to the Calvinistic emphasis on guilt, sin, and damnation that pervaded Nova Scotian religious life, even though he was conscious of not being in the New England mould of the learned divine. Having found a way to transcend the political extremes of the Revolution, he may well have persuaded some listeners in the vast crowds he preached to, to pursue a neutral stand on the war. Besides the Hymns, Alline published three sermons and two theological works. In late 1783, frail and dying, he carried his revival to New England, and died while he and his brother were seeing the Hymns through the press. His hymns, which record his spiritual autobiography, are among the most intense of Canadian religious lyrics; some of them were reprinted in hymnaries throughout the nineteenth century. Alline's posthumous Life and journals (Boston: Gilbert & Dean 1806) was also published in the United States in order to attract sales from his Baptist followers. Other writers who published abroad included Lieutenant Adam Allen (d. 1823) of the King's New Brunswick Regiment, who turned Allan Ramsay's Scots dialect poem The Gentle Shepherd (1725) into English and had it published in 1798 by W.J . andJ. Richardson of London. Stephen Humbert's Methodist hymnary Union Harmony: or British America's Sacred Vocal Musick ( 1801) was printed in the United States as much for copyright reasons as for sales. Besides, music printing was not possible in Saint John, and three later editions of the Union Harmony (1815, 1831, 1840) were also printed in the United States. 58 Perhaps Humbert sang verses from his hymnary when he once walked to the gallows with two army deserters. The Halifax merchant Thomas Cowdell, who may be our first author to live by his pen, was stranded in Dublin where he had journeyed for an expected inheritance, and published there his A Poetical]ournal ofa Tour from British North America in England, Wales and Ireland (1809), which was popular enough to merit a third Dublin edition in 18 17. Back in Halifax with a local subject, however, A Poetical Account of the American Campaigns of 1812 and 1813 (1815), Cowdell entrusted its printing to John Howe, jr. What is curious is the situation of the Loyalists Jacob Bailey and Jonathan Odell, who came to the Maritimes with literary reputations, and who might have been expected to continue publishing after they settled down. But Bailey, who was banished from his beloved home on the Kennebec River in

32 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada Maine during the Revolution and forced to reside as the Anglican missionary in sleepy Annapolis Royal after 1782, recognized that the times had changed and perhaps guessed that his Hudibrastic satires on rebels and dissenters would never find a publisher, and certainly not a receptive audience in the new United States. He submitted some essays and poems to the Halifax papers but most of his work, including an unfinished novel, remains in manuscript to this day. Possibly he was paying off old scores by making a printer the subject of his poem 'The Character of a Trimmer.' In the middle of the nineteenth century when there was considerable interest in colonial and Loyalist America, Bailey's memoir, The Frontier Missionary, was published in Boston (1853). A large portion of literature was circulated and recopied in manuscript for a chosen few, as were Bailey's poems and one of the finest satires on Halifax society, Alexander Croke's The Inquisition, written in 1805 in the style of Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock on the subject of the Duke of Kent's appropriate gift of a sofa to his mistress Frances Wentworth, the Governor's lady. 59 Otherwise, poetry and sketches appeared in newspapers and magazines, often anonymously, most of it never reprinted in volume form. Odell was more interested in running New Brunswick politics as provincial secretary than in pursuing a literary career although he found time to publish An Essay on the Elements, Accents and Prosody of the English Language in London in 1805. His published poems are scattered anonymously in newspapers; for instance, his satire on American General Stephen Van Rensselaer's defeat at Queenston Heights, 'The Agonizing Dilemma,' was carried in two successive numbers of the Saint john Gazette (28 December 1812 and 4 January 1813), a scant two months after the event. Odell's verses were included in two collections of Revolutionary poetry by Winthrop Sargeant, which appeared respectively in Philadelphia (1857) and Boston (1860). The earliest colonial magazines were started in order to offer selections from European and American magazines and to develop native talent. But The Gentleman's Magazine of London, on which the colonial ones were modelled, had an army of professional journalists and gentlemanly contributors to draw on, a large middle-class audience, and a complex society to write about. Here, only The Nova-Scotia Magazine (1789-92) and The Quebec Magazine (1792-4), of the four known attempts before 1820, survived for a significant length of time. The Nova-Scotia Magazine, issued monthly in blue paper-covers, had 223 subscribers its first year and offered them Warren Hastings' Petition to Parliament and William Collins' 'Ode on the Popular Superstitions of the Highlands of Scotland.' Its editors, the Reverend William

The Organization of the Pioneer Book Trade 33 Cochran (who resigned to become principal of the Academy at Windsor) and then John Howe, begged for original contributions but received only thirty-one poems and several essays on education and agriculture; and Howe ceased publication, annoyed over the number of declining subscribers and their tardiness in paying up . The editor of The Quebec Magazine, the Reverend William Stark, had more trouble getting original pieces although in 1794 he offered readers a French translation of Mary Wollstonecraft's feminist essay 'Abrege de la defense des droits des femmes . ' Gideon Tiffany of Newark fared even worse, for when he asked permission to start a magazine in 1796, he was curtly reminded by Major Littlehales that he was paid to print a weekly gazette that he could use for extracts from magazines and agricultural works 'whenever there is a dearth of political Intelligence or other public news.' 60 Once the American Revolution was over in 1783, the influx of thousands more Loyalists necessitated a political reorganization of Nova Scotia and Quebec out of which two more provinces, New Brunswick (1784) and Upper Canada (1791), were created. In New Brunswick the SaintJ ohn River Valley was quickly settled in 1783-4 by disbanded regiments and by American-born gentry and farmers . Its inland capital, Fredericton, never became a printing centre like SaintJ ohn, the major seaport, whose first newspaper, The Royal St John's Gazette, and Nova Scotia Intelligencer, was issued by William Lewis and John Ryan on 18 December 1783 . Lewis had worked in Loyalist James Robertson's Albany office and had been arrested along with his employer, 61 but by 1786 he was discouraged with Saint John and returned to New York City. Ryan (1761-1847), who had been trained by John Howe, stayed in Saint John until 1807 when he and his son Michael left to open the government printing office at StJ ohn's, Newfoundland. 62 An early Lewis & Ryan imprint was the 178 5 Charter of the City of Saint John, which was the first city to be incorporated in British North America. The second newspaper, The Royal Gazette and New Brunswick Advertiser ( 178 5-99 ), one of the typographically handsomest of colonial publications, was issued by Christopher Sower (1754-99), 63 whose family had been printers in Germantown, Pennsylvania. A pompous and quarrelsome man, he got the commissions of King's Printer and Deputy Postmaster as reimbursements for his war losses, but nevertheless was forced to compete with Ryan for government contracts. His reputation for offensiveness reached a climax in a street fight with George Leonard, a Provincial Councillor, during the 1795 election. Ward Chipman told Edward Winslow, 'I trust the most decided steps will be adopted to discountenance him by employing Ryan in the service of the government hereafter for he [Sower] is and always has been the most seditious firebrand in the Province. ' 64

34 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada

In 1799 Sower quit and went to Baltimore to join his brother's new type foundry but he soon died of apoplexy. Neither Sower nor his successors as King's Printer, John Ryan and Jacob Mott, did much apart from job work and sermons. Henry Chubb's The New-Brunswick Courier (18u-65) after 1825 marked a new era in journalism. The first literary activity in the New Brunswick press was the war of the pamphlets in 1802, which arose out of the bitter quarrels dating from 1796 between the Assembly and the Governor for control of the appropriations bills. In the acrimonious 1802 winter session the House wanted one of its own members, Samuel Denny Street, as Clerk rather than Governor Thomas Carleton's choice. In May, Carleton dissolved the House and called an October election. Soon Street, under the pseudonym 'Creon,' published a pamphlet entitled A Statement of the Facts Relative to the Proceedings of the House of Assembly on Wednesday the Third, and Thursday the Fourth of March, 1802, at the Close of the Last Session. This was answered by Ward Chipman's A Fair and Candid Review ... and by Edward Winslow's A Statement of Facts Relevant to the Standfasts and Runaways, or Sammy Creon's Pamphlet Turn'd Right Side Outwards; 'Published for Fun'; and by the anonymous pamphlet The Elector's Mirror; Or, Truth Unveiled in a Reply to Creon. The tone of these works was vigorous and vicious. Late in the campaign, or even after the election, came Street's satiric poem 'Creon,' published in Mott's Saint john Gazette (23 October; 6, 13, 20 November 1802). Like much satiric verse in this age, it was both public and propagandistic, one of the first indications of the relentless movement in New Brunswick towards popular government. But the time was not yet ripe to challenge the Crown's authority, and the Governor's 'friends' won this election. 65 The printers of the two island provinces had even more difficulties than mainland printers in securing official work because neither community had a large military and civil bureaucracy. Both places received peculiar treatment by the British that hampered their social and economic development: Prince Edward Island was saddled with absentee landlords from 1767 to 1873, and Newfoundland had a ban on permanent settlement until 1806. Their isolated farmers and fishermen, moreover, had little need for printers' services, and many decades passed between the arrival of the press and the establishment of lively journalism or even rudimentary book production. Three printers in Charlottetown eked out a meagre existence up to the 1820s. James Robertson (1747-1816) arrived in 1787 at the invitation of Governor Fanning66 and was gone by 1789. He and his brother Alexander had seen their Albany, NY, press destroyed by rebels, had suffered arrest, and

The Organization of the Pioneer Book Trade 35 then fled to Shelburne in 1783 (where Alexander died) to revive their Royal American Gazette. After leaving Charlottetown, Robertson visited Quebec briefly, where he unsuccessfully tried to drum up subscriptions for a reprint edition of Robert Burns's Poems; eventually he ended his days as an Edinburgh printer and bookseller. His journeyman William Rind then conducted The Royal Gazette and Miscellany of the Island of Saint john from 1791 to 1798, but he elected to return to his family home in Virginia. Rind's brother-in-law James Bagnall ( 178 5-18 56) firmly established the press with his Royal Herald (1805-10) and The Weekly Recorder of Prince Edward Island (18u-30), although he too had to leave the Island temporarily to find work in Halifax. Bagnall's small list included almanacs and sermons. 67 When the ban on settlement was lifted in Newfoundland, Governor Sir Erasmus Gower established a post office and brought in John Ryan from New Brunswick to set up a government printing office. 68 His The Royal Gazette appeared on 27 August 1807, and he held his government monopoly until 1820, when he was forced to share work with his rival Robert Lee. Well before the literary flowering in the St John's newspapers in the 1830s, Ryan's printing of William Carson's Reasons for Colonizing the Island of Newfoundland, in a Letter Addressed to the Inhabitants ( 18 12) was the earliest sign of literary activity, in conjunction with the contemporary urge for political reform. THE PRINTING PRESS IN THE CANADAS

Unlike the other regions of the country, Quebec was hardly a pioneer society when the printing press arrived in 1764. Its population of 63,000 were farmers, woodsmen, and fur-traders, with a small group of clergy, administrators, gentry, and merchants at Quebec City and Montreal. The British settlers came for farming and commerce, and the newspapers, although bilingual, were conducted as much, if not more, for their benefit than for that of the original colonists, who did not find a permanent journalistic voice until 1806. Thus the coming of the press and the re-establishment of bookselling held complications for racial and cultural tensions, which smouldered until the 18 30s. The press in Quebec City was established by William Brown ( 1738-89) and Thomas Gilmore (d. 1773), who issued The Quebec Gazette I La Gazette de Quebec on 2 I June 1764. Both Scottish born, they had worked briefly in Philadelphia for Brown's uncle, William Dunlop, who was related by marriage to Benjamin Franklin. Dunlop arranged for them to go to Quebec, whence Brown proceeded directly while Gilmore visited England to buy

36 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada

equipment. The first neat entry in their account book can still be seen at the Public Archives of Canada, whose collection of the Brown-Neilson Papers contains the most detailed information we have on printing and bookselling in colonial days: 5 Aug 1763. This day our partnership commenced and we have in consequence deposited the following sums in the hands of Mr. William Dunlop of Philadelphia as a stock for purchasing the several materials requisite for a printing office. Viz' Philadelphia Our William Brown £72 Our Thomas Gilmore £72 69

The Brown & Gilmore office on Mountain Street, situated just where the road curves sharply downhill, was the biggest and busiest office in British North America. Many of their publications were of historical importance, such as the local printings of the Quebec Act of 1774 and the Canada Act of 1791. A list of 'firsts' in the country came from their presses, including their 1765 almanac; Pere Jean La Brosse's devotional book in the Mohawk language, Nehiro-lriniui Aiamihe-Massinahigan (1767); Fran~ois Cugnet's three-volume Traites, a compilation of the old laws; Phillipe Badelard's medical treatise Direction pour la guerison du ma! de la Baie St Paul (1785); in 1789 the first volume of poems in the Canadas; and in 1800 the first printed music in the country. They were successful enough to pay off their debt to Dunlop in 1769, but by the time of Gilmore's death from alcoholism in 1773, Brown had got control of the firm and ran it capably until his own death. 70 His nephew Samuel Neilson (1771-93), who had been sent out from Scotland to learn the trade, inherited the firm, and in his few years as proprietor he revised the scale of payments for official work. When Samuel died young of tuberculosis, his brother John Neilson (1776-1848) took over as proprietor, and he became the country's first journalist to enter active politics. After twenty years of favouring moderate reform, he was elected to the Assembly in 1818 and later joined Louis-Joseph Papineau's popular party, but broke with Papineau in 18 34 over the Ninety-Two Resolutions, a radical proposal for reorganizing the government along republican lines. On three occasions he went to London as a supporter for the 1791 constitutional arrangement that was made for Lower Canada, and which he saw as defending French rights particularly against the onslaughts of the English in Montreal and Toronto. He served on the Special Council following the 1837 Rebellion, and opposed Lord Durham's Union of 1841 until finally he accepted its inevitability. In 1844

The Organization of the Pioneer Book Trade 37 Neilson, defeated in the election of that year, was appointed to the Legislative Council, a fitting distinction for one of the architects of responsible government in Quebec. 7 ' A man of great integrity and widely respected by all parties and language groups, Neilson had the capacity for transcending his own Scottish roots, without rejecting them, and envisioning a society where the French population would not be subordinate to the English citizens. Around 1789 both The Quebec Gazette and the publications began to reflect the increased literary and political activity of the colony. Samuel Neilson began publication of The Quebec Magazine (1792-4), whose editor, William Spark,7 2 tried to appeal to both language groups. Although contributions and subscriptions lagged, the magazine's demise was caused by the busy printing schedule in 1794 for the Laws and journals of 1793, the first year that the Lower Canada Assembly was permitted to meet. The few commercial ventures that did get into print were paid for either by the printer, by a society, or by the author. The production costs were raised by subscription, which was similar to the newspapers' method of getting names and payment prior to production. Subscription publishing, as it was called, originated when seventeenth-century English authors became dissatisfied with the profits turned over to them by booksellers, 73 and became widespread in the next century, following Alexander Pope's phenomenal success in marketing his translation of The Iliad (1715-20) this way. The subscription publishing trend had diminished by the end of the century in England, but it was particularly suited to colonial society, where the hazards of speculative publishing were far greater than in Britain. Thus we find Thomas Cary's poem Abram 's Plains announced in The Quebec Gazette on 8 January 1789: 'for Publishing by Subscription, ABRAM'S PLAINS. A POEM. Price 2s. To be printed in Large Quarto, on Demy Paper, with a Large Elegant Type. To Be Published as soon as there are subscribers enough to Pay the EXPENCES ... The Subscribers' Names to be Published with the Poem.' In some cases the newspaper announcement was separately printed as a prospectus and circulated; if the work were very expensive, subscribers might make a down payment, with the balance due on delivery. Cary's subscription account book was prominently displayed in Brown's stationery shop, and perhaps Cary took it with him around the town and garrison and invited people to enter their names. Within two months he had enough subscribers to proceed, and the production costs were duly recorded in Brown's account book: '1789, Mar. 14. Printed for Thomas Cary, Abram's Plains a Poem, making 3 Sheets on Quarto Demy 30/ pr. sheet - £4. 1o. Sold ditto 4 ½ Quires blue Demy to cover D 0 - 5/ Paid Postage of letter to Saro [Montreal agent) concerning D 0 & to Courier 2/6 - 3/3 [total] £4. 18. 3' 74 This venture was an

38 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada uncomplicated instance of individual enterprise, where the author acts as his own publisher, for the title-page imprint reads: 'Quebec: Printed for the Author, 1789.' For an unknown reason the subscribers' names were not included in this volume, but if Cary sold fifty copies, then he broke even. A similar case of successful private enterprise was Spark's marketing his Battle of the Nile Sermon in 1799. 400 copies were printed and bound by J oho Neilson for £9. 18. 4, and these were sold at Is. 3d. each, returning Spark £12.. 11 . 8 as his profit, 7 s Apart from two broadside elegies in 1792. on the death of the cure of Quebec, Auguste David Hubert, one by Pierre-Florent Baillairge and the other by Fran~ois Sarrault the bookseller, the first French literary work, Joseph Quesnel's three-act comedy Colas et Colinette ou Le Bailli dupe ( 1808), was also a subscription venture, advertised widely in the Quebec and Montreal papers. Quesnel (1749-1809) was a sailor from St Malo who was captured during the Revolutionary War on a French ship carrying munitions to the Americans. He was brought first to Halifax but made his way to Montreal, where he ran a store in Boucherville. According to Helmut Kallmann in A History of Music in Canada 1534-1914, Quesnel wrote at least four plays and a number of poems.76 Colas et Colinette, which is set in France, was first performed at Montreal in 1790, and Quesnel composed music for it in the style of his beloved Mozart. Quesnel saw the work through the press, corrected the galley sheets, and delayed publication while a method of engraving the music was attempted, but finally both Quesnel and John Neilson despaired of printing the music and only the play itself was published. Portions of the music were kept in the Archives of Quebec; the overture was rescored in the 1960s by Godfrey Ridout, and full performances of the play with its music were given at Hamilton in 1976 and Quebec City in 1981. The other kinds of speculative publishing were the broadsheet biographies and sensational gallows confessions that cashed in on notorious personalities and were hawked for 6d. or 9d. while public interest was high. Stephen Miles tried this in 181 5 with a 32.-page pamphlet, A Short Account of the Life and Dying Speech of Joseph Bevir, Who Was Executed at Kingston (Upper Canada) on Monday the 4th Day of September, 1815,forthe Murder of Mary Bevir, His Daughter. Written by Himself While in Prison. But the newspapers were full of unsuccessful proposals such as James Robertson's attempt to get Scottish subscribers in Quebec for a reprint edition of Robert Burns's poems in 1789.77 The Quebec Gazette ceased to be the official newspaper in 1822. when Lord Dalhousie in his anger at Neilson gave the post of King's Printer to John Charlton Fisher, a literary editor from New York.7 8 After 1842. The Gazette

The Organization of the Pioneer Book Trade 39 was printed in English only; on Neilson's death it passed into the hands of Robert Middleton. It was merged into The Quebec Chronicle in 1874 and survived into the twentieth century as The Quebec Chronicle- Telegraph. Nor did the other newspaper editors develop into book publishers although several of them deserve mention here. Pierre Edouard Desbarats (1764-1828), one of the purchasers of William Vondenvelden's New Printing Office in 1798, was the first of a well-known family of Quebec printers whose activities stretched back to seventeenth-century France and forward into the twentieth. Desbarats was one of several printers whom John Neilson supported, and even though his office was valued at over £800, more than once in 1801 he had to ask Neilson or his partner for a loan : 'Could you oblige me just now with a couple of Dollars, as I have not a penny to buy bread with.' 79 Among the newspapers he printed was The Quebec Mercury, founded in 1805 by Thomas Cary (1751-1823). For decades The Mercury was the organ of English-speaking toryism and commerce, and was often violently opposed to the development of French-Canadian culture - sentiments that Cary first sounded in his poem Abram's Plains. Thomas Cary, jr, bought Desbarats' office in 1815 and later issued Joseph Bouchette's General Report of an Official Tour through the New Settlements of the Province of Lower Canada (1825) and the monographs of the Quebec Literary and Historical Society. Cary, jr, also printed Colonel James Cockburn's guidebook Quebec and Its Environs; Being a Picturesque Guide to the Stranger ( 18 3 1), which contained seven engravings, and the first three volumes of Robert Christie's History of the Late Province of Lower Canada (1848-50).

The French response to The Quebec Mercury was the appearance of Le Canadien (1806-1919), whose editor Pierre Bedard (1763-1829) was one of the first Quebeckers to be admitted to the Bar under the British regime. Bedard and his friends in the Parti Canadien saw the Assembly as a means of resisting anglicization, and used the paper to attack Governor Sir James Craig on this matter. It was printed briefly by Charles-Fran~ois Roi (d. 1844) 80 and then by Charles Le Fran~ois, who was arrested by Craig in 1810 when he suppressed the newspaper. This was one situation in which the connection between literature and politics was too close for comfort, for Le Canadien's satiric poems between 1807 and 1810 helped lead to its suppression. Ordinarily, however, newspaper poets stuck to New Year's verses, love, sickness, death, sorrow, war, and patriotism. Although Le Canadien was not the first newspaper to be printed and edited by a French Canadian (both Fleury Mesplet and Louis Roy preceded him), it was the journal that firmly established the traditionally close connection between Quebec politics, journalism, and literature, and for several decades after it was re-established in

40

The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada

1819, it was one of the more literary papers in the province.

Such an attempt was made by the first printer at Montreal, the adventurous Fleury Mesplet (173 5-94), who has been the subject of several monographs in our own day. A native of Marseilles who learned printing in Lyon, he emigrated to London in 1773 and settled in Philadelphia the next year, possibly through the efforts of Benjamin Franklin. Here he printed the Lettre adressee aux habitans de la province de Quebec, ci-devant le Canada (1774) for the first Continental Congress. Mesplet arrived in Montreal on the coat-tails of General Montgomery's forces in 1776. How different was the commission given to him by the Continental Congress from those given to Loyalist printers by provincial governments! 'Resolved, Monsieur Mesplet, printer, be engaged to go to Canada, and there set up his press and carry on the printing business, and the Congress to engage to defray the expense of transporting him, his family and printing utensils to Canada, and will moreover pay him the sum of 200 dollars.' 81 It took six tortuous weeks to haul that equipment by land and by barge. When the Continental Army evacuated Montreal in late June, Mesplet and his wife, his two journeymen, and a French journalist, Alexandre Pochard, were all thrown in jail. This unfortunate event was emblematic of Mesplet's whole career in Montreal. He had been financed by his fellow countryman in Philadelphia, Charles Berger, whose name appears with Mesplet's on their imprints, but Berger received no return on his investment. When Mesplet memorialized the American government in 1783 for his earlier expenses, he himself received very little money from that source. 82 In 1784 he was forced to sell his printing press to Edward Gray, who then hired Mesplet to run it. After his own death, ten years later, Mesplet's debts ate up his young second wife's estate. As we saw earlier, Mesplet tried to operate like a traditional bookseller and publisher, but he was hampered by his political and financial problems and by the limited literary tastes of Montreal. His first book was printed for La Seminaire de St Sulpice, Reglement de la confrerie, De /'adoration perpetuelle du s. sacrement et de la bonne mort ( 1776), and a year later he issued the first Mohawk primer lontri8Aiestsk8a lonskaneks N'Aieienterihag Gaiatonsera Te Gari8toraragon ... (1777). There were reprints of Pierre Brumoy's play ]onathas et David (1741, reprinted in 1776) and Pierre Restaut's Abrege des reg/es de la versification fran raise ( 1732, reprinted in 1778), as well as reprints of medical and legal works, textbooks, and devotional works, all of them standard books that could no longer be imported direct from France. In effect, Mesplet's productions were the first instances of what would become the traditional way of survival for nineteenth-century printers, local reprint

The Organization of the Pioneer Book Trade 41 editions. The inventory of Mesplet's stock after his death contained dozens of books in sheets, unbound and unsold. Mesplet's La Gazette du commerce et litteraire appeared on 3 June 1778 and lasted just one year; it contained no 'commerce' but was in fact the first French-language literary newspaper on this continent. Mesplet was an excellent craftsman but his lack of education forced him to find a competent editor, and in this respect he was fortunate to meet another expatriate from France, Valentin Jautard (1738-1787), who had recently come to Montreal from Quebec, where he had practised law. As children of the enlightenment, both were sympathetic to the American experiment and determined to criticize the local civil and religious authorities. Because they fought 'obscurantism and the somewhat oppressive presence of the Sulpicians, who claimed the right to direct intellectual life in Montreal,' 83 as their biographer Claude Galarneau puts it, their reputations were blackened throughout the nineteenth century. Although Mesplet promised Governor Guy Carleton that there would be no controversy, J autard inserted selections from Voltaire. The end came when Mesplet and J autard were jailed without trial for letting the merchant Pierre DuCalvet criticize the local judges. These setbacks were not entirely wasted, however, for Mesplet's The Montreal Gazette (est. 1785) was more restrained and sensibly stuck to subjects dearer to the hearts of Montreal merchants than Voltaire. By the 1820s Thomas Turner, one of the Bank of Montreal founders, and then the Armour family turned The Gazette into the Tory organ for the Scottish commercial community that was so antagonistic to French-Canadian nationalist aspirations. Today it is one of the oldest surviving newspapers in the world, and in its first hundred years its proprietors were among the most influential publishers and politicians in the country, men such as Robert Armour and his son Andrew; Brown Chamberlin, a son-in-law of Susanna Moodie; and the White brothers, Thomas and Richard. From the newspaper offices that proliferated after 1800 came publications that dealt almost exclusively with local commercial and political conflicts. American-born Naham Mower, who had been trained by Isaiah Thomas at Worchester, Massachusetts, and who printed sermons for the Anglican clergy at his Canadian Courant office, was accused, unjustly, during the War of 1812 of representing the interests of American merchants in Montreal. 84 While the fur companies were quarrelling over the ownership of the North-West, James Brown, the bookseller who now owned The Montreal Gazette, issued a French translation of Lord Selkirk's Sketch of the Fur Trade in North America (London 1816) as Esquisse du commerce de pelleteries des Anglois (1819). Other essays on the North-West came from the press of

42 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada

William Gray, the aggressive publisher of the reform newspaper The Montreal Herald ( 18 11-5 8), which won fame for its reports of hostilities during the War of 1812 and for its pamphlets by Samuel Gale (or 'Nerva') attacking the administration of Governor Sir George Prevost. Another topic that preoccupied Lower Canada was its emerging nationalism. James Brown, who was sympathetic to this movement, printed Denis-Benjamin Viger's Considerations sur les effets qu'ont produit en Canada, la conservation des etablissemens du pays, /es moeurs, /'education, etc... (1809), an analysis of French Canada's progress under British rule. The French-language press itself was established on a permanent basis in Montreal with the reform paper Le Spectateur (1813-29), whose printer CharlesBernard Pasteur was the mentor for the next generation of printers. Montreal, the largest city in British North America, was also the largest printing centre, with seven offices in 1820. The 1791 Constitutional Act, which divided the old province of Quebec into Lower and Upper Canada (the latter became the province of Ontario in 1867), ensured that the rich timber and farm lands southwest of the Ottawa and St Lawrence rivers would be English-speaking and Protestant. By 1820 the three oldest districts, Newark, York (renamed Toronto in 1834), and Kingston, had printing offices. Governor John Graves Simcoe arrived at the capital Newark (now called Niagara-on-the-Lake) in 1791, determined, as we have seen, to have a government printer and a public library in the town, 85 and, in time, a system of schools and a university for the new province. There was urgency first of all for a printer to do the proclamations, and to 'counter the baneful effects of the News Papers of the United States, disseminated with great Industry in this Province,' 86 which by 1795 were grievously annoying Simcoe. But the printers rarely came up to scratch; of the first one in 1793 Mrs Simcoe recorded in her diary: 'The only Printer to be met with was a frenchman named Louis Roy & he cannot write good English. ' 87 Nevertheless, Roy (d. 1799), a former apprentice of Samuel Neilson, was a good craftsman, and he issued the Upper Canada Gazette or American Oracle on 18 April 1793. But Simcoe did not think him 'loyal and respectable,' 88 and he was gone by the end of 1794, to be succeeded by Gideon Tiffany and then by Titus Geer Simons, both of them Loyalists. Simons printed the country's first essay on educational theory, Thoughts on the Education of Youth (1795), written by the local schoolmaster Richard Cockrel. Although Newark lost the government printer in 1798 when Simons moved his press to the new capital, York, the village still continued to attract printers who contributed to the cultural life of the Niagara district after other parts of Ontario were settled. At York, Simons and his partner William Waters lost their commis-

The Organization of the Pioneer Book Trade 43 sion to John Bennett, who told his former master John Neilson that Waters 'likes to take a hearty twist at the bottle when he begins. ' 89 Bennett's successor John Cameron had his office and press destroyed in 181 3 during the American attack on York, 90 but he was back in business by the end of 181 5. While Cameron's press was out of commission, the only press operating in Upper Canada was that of Stephen Miles at Kingston. The Vermont-born Miles (1789-1870) served his apprenticeship in Montreal at the Canadian Courant office of Nahum Mower, who sent him to Kingston in 18 11 to start The Kingston Gazette. At first it looked as if he would not have enough business to stay, until a group of Kingston businessmen gave him financial backing. 9 ' Miles's publications included Robert Gourlay's attacks on the clergy reserves and his views on emigration in the two pamphlets To the Resident Land Owners of Upper Canada (1818) and Address to the jury (1816). When Miles then issued John Simpson's reply to Gourlay, Essay on Modern Reformers (1818), his friendship with Gourlay came to an end, and the embittered Miles sold his newspaper the next year to John Macaulay and John Alexander, who soon had a rival in Hugh Thomson's Upper Canada Herald, which also began in 1819. Miles continued to print other newspapers in eastern Upper Canada for fifteen years, and then became an itinerant Wesleyan Methodist preacher until his death. Since there was no legal requirement for the deposit of publications in colonial libraries, it has always been difficult to determine accurately on the basis of what has survived, what the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century offices turned out. Much of our information about that period comes from modern compilations such as Marie Tremaine's A Bibliography of Canadian Imprints I7j1-1800 (1952), which drew on Canadiana found in the Colonial Office in London, the British Museum, the Public Archives of Canada, provincial legislative libraries, and other antiquarian collections in Canada and the United States. Of the 1,204 items which she listed and annotated (these exclude the individual numbers of newspapers and magazines), most of them appear after 1776, and 58 1 of them in the decade 1791 -1800. For works issued after 1800 there are several standard bibliographies, none of them claiming the completeness of Tremaine's work up to 1800, but they allow us to estimate the subjects which were issued by colonial presses. Much of the day-to-day jobwork, such as the advertisements for auctions, theatricals, and circuses, which Haliburton in The Old Judge ( 1849) said you could see on the walls of Nova Scotia inns, has not survived. Furthermore, Miss Tremaine found significant lacunae in her compilation. 'The bitter political struggles in Nova Scotia and Quebec are barely indicated by a few pamphlets ... The issues of the American, and later the French, Revolution are hardly stated,

44 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada

and not discussed in Canadian print of the time. Mainly they are to be inferred indirectly from the printed pronouncements of government and church. ' 92 THE EARLY COLONIAL PRINTING OFFICE

Colonial printing offices were very modest affairs, organized physically like shops in the United States, Britain, and France. Fleury Mesplet's house in Montreal, which was located either on the site of or near the old Sailors' Institute by the market place, combined business and domestic arrangements: the bookstore was on the ground floor, his living quarters on the second, and the printing room on the third floor. The same interrelation existed between family members and the printing staff. Lawrence C. Wroth explains in The Colonial Printer that when the American printing trade was 'still in the household stage of development, ' 93 the wives and daughters often helped, a tradition that began in Canada with Bushell's daughter in her father's Halifax office in the I75os. Ann Mott, 94 known to posterity as the first woman journalist in New Brunswick, kept her husband's paper going for several years after his death, and Joseph Howe's wife pitched in with the apprentices to get the paper out while Howe was on his fact-finding tours of Nova Scotia in 182.8 and 18 31. One of Howe's apprentices, George Fenety, said that in the Halifax offices during the 182.os the proprietor was a jack-of-all-trades: 'with one or two exceptions he was Editor, Reporter, News-Gatherer, and almost "devil" .' 95 In fact, it was the devil, the errand boy or apprentice who was bound from five to seven years, who probably bore the burden of hard work and long hours by delivering papers, collecting subscriptions, sweeping the office, and making ink from lampblack. The conventional apprenticeship, such as Henry Chubb's indenture of I December 1801 with his master Jacob Mott, set forth the obligations of each party. Young Chubb agreed that he faithfully shall serve, his [Master's] Secrets keep, his lawful Commands every where readily obey: He shall do no Damage to his said Master, nor see it to be done by others, without letting or giving Notice thereof to his said Master: He shall not waste his said Master's Goods, nor lend them unlawfully to any: He shall not commit Fornication nor contract Matrimony within the said Term: At Cards, Dice, or any other unlawful Game he shall not play, whereby his said Master may have Damage: With his own Goods, nor the Goods of others, without Licence from his said Master, he shall neither buy nor sell: He shall not absent himself Day nor Night from his said Master's Service, without his Leave; nor haunt Ale-houses, Taverns or Play-houses; but in all Things behave himself as a faithful Apprentice ought to do, during the said Term.

The Organization of the Pioneer Book Trade 4 5 On his part Mott agreed to use the utmost of his Endeavour to teach or cause to be taught, or instructed, the said Apprentice, in the Trade or Mystery of a Printer ... And procure and provide for him sufficient Meat, Drink, Apparel, Lodging and Washing, fitting for an Apprentice, during the said Term of Seven Years, and ... the said Henry Chub [sic], shall ... have four Quarters night Schooling, and that at the expiration of the said term of Apprenticeship, the said Master shall give him the said Apprentice a New Suit of Cloaths, suitable to such an Apprentice. 96

Much of his training consisted of learning to compose type, which involved holding the composing stick in the left hand, picking out type with the right hand, and inserting each piece upside down, from left to right, in the stick. Each line had to be justified, and every few lines of type were then transferred to the galley trays until the required number of pages were prepared for printing. After the type was used, it was distributed back into the proper compartments in the cases of type. By having one or more apprentices do this work efficiently, the printer got cheap labour, because journeymen compositors and pressmen had to be paid, and were in fact the highest paid craftsmen in the country. Besides, the journeyman was free to leave if the wages or working conditions were unsatisfactory, whereas the apprentice had to serve out his time or else bolt, which, judging by the many advertisements for runaway apprentices, happened frequently . The apprentice's lot was one of sheer hard work, as Samuel Thompson remembered of his apprenticeship in London, England - 'eleven hours a day usually, sometimes sixteen, and occasionally all night' 97 - and hardship might even result in death, as was the case with young Tom Forrester in Lewis Durant's Saint John office in 1839. 98 But many boys must have had experiences like Joseph Howe's, for colonial offices were not as busy as the ones in London. Young Howe read books - Shakespeare, Thomas Campbell, Mrs Hemans, and Byron 99 - had long talks with his father in the evenings, and explored the countryside around Halifax. 'The apprenticeship itself,' says Howe's biographer William Lawson Grant, 'was a process of self-education. He worked the press from morning till night, and found in the dull metal the knowledge and power he loved. ' 100 The central piece of equipment in the office, variously known as the Common or Old English or Old Fashioned press, consisted of a sturdy upright wooden frame with a table set into it, and these two sections held the two heavy surfaces which made contact during the printing operation. The stone surface of the table, known as the coffin or bed, contained the forme,

46 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada

that is, the device for holding the set-up type or a woodcut. Because several pages of a book were printed at a time on a large sheet of paper, the forme was divided into four sections, or multiples of four, depending upon the size of the printed page. The type forme was locked into an iron frame or chase, which held the type securely in place. The pages of type themselves were arranged within the chase so that later the printed pages would be in the proper sequence when they were folded. For instance, if both sides of the sheet were to be printed, the outer forme contained pages 1, 4, 5, 8, all printed on one side of the sheet, and the inner forme contained pages 2, 3, 6, 7, which were printed on the other side. The bed could be rolled out so that the frame of type could easily be placed within it, but the bed became a stationary surface during the impression. The movable wooden surface during the impression, the platen, was attached to the top of the upright frame, and lowered onto the bed by means of a screw worked by a lever. On the traditional presses the platen itself was about 12 x 18 although the bed might be as much as three times longer. Attached to the bed were two folding plates the same size as it, the inner one known as the tympan, and the outer one, the frisket. The shape of the openings in the frisket, similar to those on the forme, determined the size of the printed page. Operating the press was a slow procedure that required the efforts of two men. Once the type was set in the forme, there were approximately thirteen movements in the printing of a single sheet. While one man inked the type forme with two inking balls, the other man placed the sheet in the tympan. First, he folded the frisket on the tympan, and then the tympan itself was folded on the forme. The frisket and tympan ensured that even pressure would be applied from the platen and that excess ink would not spoil the margins of the printed page. Now the bed and its forme were rolled in under the platen, which was then lowered. This operation was known as the impression. The impression was then released by raising the platen, and the forme was either pushed in farther for another impression on the same sheet or was rolled out entirely. The tympan was raised, then the frisket, and the printed sheet was removed and hung up to dry. Two men could turn out from 100 to 150 sheets an hour on the older Renaissance presses, while on the later eighteenth-century presses, theoretically they could turn out a maximum of 240 sheets an hour, printed on one side. For four centuries, then, the construction of printing presses and their operation remained relatively conservative, and their output of newspapers and books relatively small when judged by the large press runs of the mid-Victorian period. At the end of the eighteenth century several improvements, often 11

11

,

The Organization of the Pioneer Book Trade 47 simultaneously developed by inventors working in ignorance of each other, brought the traditional hand press':• to its epitome. In 1772 Wilhelm Haas of Basie built the first iron bed and platen, and about 1788 the French printer Annison developed a more powerful lever. Both innovations were adopted by Adam Ramage of Philadelphia, who in 1807 enlarged the thread of the screw so that the lever-pull was shortened; this innovation doubled the impressing power of the platen but decreased the speed of operation.Joseph Howe's The Novascotian was first printed on an English 'Rammage' (sic) press. 101 Four other well-known presses found in colonial shops were the Stanhope, the Columbian, the Washington, and the English version of the Washington press, the Albion. The Earl of Stanhope's press, which was built around 1798 in William Bulmer's London office, had a solid iron frame that was cast in one piece, and it spelled the end of the old wooden screw press. Its combination of levers permitted a more powerful impression with less effort, and it could take double the size sheet normally used. The Stanhope press was particularly satisfactory for woodcuts. Between 1800 and 1816 George Clymer of Philadelphia developed the Columbian press, which also was all iron and had a large platen. Its distinctive feature was the replacement of the screw by a series of levers whose counterweight was an iron eagle, which was often trimmed with brass. Samuel Thompson remembered that when he was manager of Charles Fothergill's office in 18 38, The Palladium (Toronto) was printed on 'an old handpress of the Columbian pattern.' 101 The most popular press of all was the light yet strong Washington press, invented in the early 1820s by Peter Smith and perfected by Samuel Rust after the Hoe Company of New York City bought the patent in 1825. Its distinctive feature, borrowed from R. W. Cope' s Albion press of 18 23, was a toggle screw, whose two halves look like an elbow or knee joint. This device took one simple hand-pull of the lever to exert great pressure. This last major development of the hand press was reasonably priced from $230 to $275, according to an advertisement of 13 February 1832 in La Minerve (Montreal). The Washington press was also a participant in several historic occasions in nineteenth-century journalism. In 1840 William Cunnabell of Halifax attached steam power to his Washington press; 103 and in 1859 William Buckingham and William Coldwell carted a used Hoe Super-Royal Washington press from St Paul, Minnesota, to Fort Garry for The Nor'-Wester, ' 04 which was the first newspaper on the prairies. The Washington saw continued

*

Woodcut illustrations of traditional presses can be found in The Quebec Almanac for 1791 (the cut was engraved by J.G. Hochstetter), in the masthead of The Acadian Recorder (Halifax) for many years, and in The Colonial Advocate (York) masthead during 1833.

48 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada service throughout the century as a proof press and in the twentieth century took on a new role in photo-engraving. 105 Most, if not all, the presses in this country before the 1820s were made in Britain, even when they were brought from the United States, as had been those of Bartholomew Green, William Lewis, and Mesplet. 106 Possibly even the second-hand press which Joseph Willcocks bought in New York City in 1807 was British-made. 107 As early as 1769, Brown and Gilmore imported from Britain a press worth £26 (Quebec currency). ,:•108 Sower brought his press and paper from England, too, and remarked that his types were 'entirely new and cast by the most celebrated Letter founders,' which Marie Tremaine believes was the Caslon Company. 109 By the 1830s American-made presses had become common and easier to obtain than British ones. Joseph Howe imported a Wells press from Hartford, Connecticut in the early thirties, 110 and in 1836 ordered a 'first rate Smith Printing Press with a Platen at least 34 inches by 24' 111 from Richard Hoe. We get a clear picture of the furnishings in colonial printing offices from William Lyon Mackenzie's advertisement in The Colonial Advocate (28 November 1833) when he put his office up for sale. It included a 'Smith's Imperial Patent Press,' a ' Large and powerful Standing Press,' 112 a foolscap press made by Ramage of Philadelphia, and a second-hand Demi Ramage press, along with type, 113 cuts, and borders. Still advertising 'the finest, largest, newest printing establishment in the colonies' a year later, he offered the equipment for less than half the purchase price of £750. 114 Type was more expensive, for the printer needed five or six fonts in different sizes, in capitals and lower-case letters, and in roman and italic. Mesplet's type was worth $1,400, 115 almost ten times the value of a press. Constant use, particularly under the pressure of the screw, wore down the type after a few years. Until the 1820s most offices imported type from the London foundry of William Caslon, who single-handedly brought about a revolution in typefaces and the art of typography in the 1730s. Brown and Gilmore began their Quebec operation with £ 169. 9. 11 ½ worth of types and rules from Caslon. ' 16 John Baskerville's types, which were similar to Caslon's designs, may not have reached Canada, but his influence on layout and presswork, along with Benjamin Franklin's influence all over North America, can be seen in the elegant design of Canadian newspapers and official publications of this period. They were still a long way from the eclectic and fanciful mixture of fat and thin typefaces and the shoddy layout associated with mid-Victorian printing. ''

Quebec and Halifax currency was usually worth about one-third more than the £ sterling.

The Organization of the Pioneer Book Trade 49 After wages, paper was the single most expensive item in the office. The best paper was manufactured in Holland and England, and important government publications were printed on high-quality imported paper. At least a year's supply had to be ordered from Britain 117 because if an office ran short in mid-summer, it was usually too late to get a large order before winter. In such cases a printer had to buy supplies from another printer or get permission to import paper from the United States. The Atlantic provinces got their paper from Britain, whereas in the 1820s William Lyon Mackenzie complained of the large imports of printing paper (duty free) from the United States into Upper Canada. 118 After 1800 paper mills sprang up because there was a substantial market for wrapping, blotting, printing, and writing paper. In the hope that local paper might be as good as, but certainly cheaper than, the imported variety, provincial governments encouraged colonial mills. The first one was James Brown's Argenteuil [Quebec] Paper Manufactory (1804), whose first shipment in 1805 of seventeen reams of wrapping paper and fourteen reams of printing paper went to John Neilson, who had financed Brown. 119 Anthony Henry Holland's Acadian Paper Mill at Bedford, Nova Scotia, began producing in 1819, and the seventh anniversary issue of his newspaper The Acadian Recorder ( 11 January 1820) was printed on paper from this mill. In Upper Canada the government in 1826 offered a bounty of £125 to the first person to erect a mill. 120 In the race that ensued, James Crooks had the first one going at West Flamborough, near Niagara, that year, and in 182 7 Eastwood & Skinner opened their Don Valley Mill at York. William Lyon Mackenzie printed The Colonia/Ad1,•ocate (beginning 27 April 1827) and the 1827 Assembly journals on its paper. Situated by clear running streams, these mills produced handmade paper, one sheet at a time, in the traditional way. Because paper was composed chiefly of linen and cotton, the newspapers were always filled with advertisements for used rags, of which there seemed to be a permanent shortage. The rags were reduced to a pulp, mixed with water, and bleached in a vat known as a hollander beater. Eventually the pulp was strained onto a hand-mould, a rectangular frame whose base was made of fine wires running lengthwise and coarse wires running crosswise. When the paper was partly dried, it was lifted off this frame in order to be further dried and pressed between sheets of felt. Lastly, the paper was glazed to give it a smooth finish and sized to make it non-porous. Up to the late eighteenth century, paper made in this kind of mould was known as laid paper, so called because of the marks which the wires left, and it had a ragged or deckle edge. When it was held to the light, the paper showed many fine lines running its length while

50 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada chain lines, formed by the crosswires, ran through the fine lines. About 175 5 John Baskerville, who was a type founder, printer, and paper mill owner, commissioned James Whatman I to develop wove paper, so called because the foundation of the mould consisted of brass wires woven as on a loom. This paper's tighter texture and smoother surface was easier on type and, in time, permitted the use of types with strong contrasts of strokes and hair-line serifs. 121 Imported wove paper appeared in Canada in the 1790s, 122 and Crooks produced it at West Flamborough on moulds that he imported from the United States. 123 All-rag paper retained its quality and colour indefinitely, unlike later paper, which was composed primarily of wood pulp (first manufactured in Canada in 1866), and which contained acid and resin that discoloured the paper and made it brittle. Early Canadian and American paper was inferior to the imported product and was used for wrapping and for newspapers, but because it was all rag, it has stood the test of time better than Victorian and twentieth-century paper. Most printing was done in either the English or French language although some devotional books were printed in Latin. Occasionally primers like La Brosse's Nehiro-lriniui (1767, reprinted in 1817 and 1844) were printed in the Mohawk language, using the Roman alphabet, for Indian-character types were not used in Canada until the late 1840s. For the German settlers of Halifax and Lunenburg, Anthony Henry printed Der Neuschottlaendische Calender for 1788 and a newspaper Die Welt, und die Neuschottlaendische Correspondenz (1788-9), of which no copies survive. There was little specialized printing beyond the use of woodcuts for illustrations and copper-plate engraving. Woodcuts, which could be used on the conventional letter press, appear in our colonial books as the small cuts of ships or houses used in advertisements, and were probably imported along with other decorative motifs like flowers, geometric patterns, and coats of arms. The first locally made woodcut was a scene of Halifax Harbour in Anthony Henry's 1776 Almanac, and Mesplet's Le Petit Livre de vie (1777) contained a frontispiece of Christ on the Cross and several emblems throughout the text. One of the earliest known engravers was J. G. Hochstetter of Quebec, who executed the portrait of the late Cure Auguste David Hubert in 1793 and several illustrations for The Quebec Magazine. By 1812. there were copper-plate engravers in the larger towns, but they did not necessarily work in printing offices. The copper plate itself was engraved in intaglio, that is, the design was cut below the surface of the plate so that ink could be poured into the incised lines. Unlike the letter press, the copperplate press (which was often constructed of wood), had a horizontally moving bed on which the ink-filled copper plate was placed. The paper was placed on

The Organization of the Pioneer Book Trade 51 top of the copper plate and a felt-like material was placed on top of the paper. The bed was then moved forward between two revolving cylinders (functioning like the platen) which forced the paper to take up the ink. Engravers executed invitations, calling cards, bills of credit, and occasionally maps, money, and music. The first engraved map, 'of Canada, or the Province of Quebec,' was executed by Michel Letourneau for the 1791 Almanach de Quebec. The first piece of music was in Le Graduel romain (Quebec : Neilson 1800), which was a large volume of 'mass texts and chants in square notation on four-line staves, all printed from movable type. ' 124 One of the early music engravers in Quebec was Frederic Hund, who advertised his edition of The Berlin Waltz in The Quebec Mercury of II August 1818. Among the handsome engravings of Charles Torbett of Halifax was a reproduction of the House of Lords Chamber where Queen Caroline's divorce trial took place, an illustration prepared for The Acadian Recorder ( 17 February 1821 ). Torbett's engravings for Thomas Chandler Haliburton's An Historical and Statistical Account of Nova-Scotia ( 1829) annoyed its publisher Joseph Howe so much that Howe disclaimed any responsibility for their flaws. Bookbinding was a craft distinct from bookselling and printing, but might be conducted either on the same premises or in a shop by itself. Since everywhere most books and pamphlets until the nineteenth century were issued without cloth covers or with paper covers, buyers could select their own bindings. Bookbinders were kept busy with government documents, newspapers, ledgers, blank books, and account books. The binding press, the tools for cutting boards and for stamping letters, and the paste were imported from Britain. The Nova Scotia poet Oliver Goldsmith recollected that one of his false-start careers was a 'literary One ... I entered a Booksellers' Shop [in Halifax], where I learned to fold paper, stitch Pamphlets, and do a little in the Binding Line.' 12 S Very little has been written on the typographical appearance of early Canadiana although William Colgate and others have made tentative efforts in this direction. Neither John Bourinot in the late nineteenth century nor C.J . Eustace in 1970 were particularly taken by eighteenth-century printing, and indeed there were many examples of worn type, cramped lines, sloppy arrangements, and poor paper. Yet the newspapers and official publications of John Howe, Christopher Sower, John Neilson, and Nahum Mower reveal a happy marriage between the late eighteenth-century attention to proportion and elegance that they learned in American offices and their own innate sense of design. Everything Christopher Sower issued is marked with his style, and there are many discoveries awaiting the modern reader such as the advertisement for militia volunteers in William Gray's Montreal Herald of 3 1 October 1812.

52 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada Colonial printers were caught between the financially rewarding demands of the government they served and their quest for reforms, because the challenge of shaping a new society and fighting the abuses of the local family compacts had compensations that book publishing could not offer. Yet their newspapers made two important contributions to our emerging book trade. Their editorials and reprinted selections, and their encouragement of letters from contributors (often these were really essays) helped preserve traditions of education and culture that were the marks of the informed upper-middleclass ladies and gentlemen. Occasionally before the War of 1812 newspapers contained cautious discussions of political events, but the critical eye of government kept in check any extensive questioning of policy. Second, most of their productions consisted of local subjects by local authors, which would not have been printed elsewhere or, if so, only with great difficulty and little prospect of sales abroad. But no one could have foreseen that this custom, so appropriate for colonial printers, would be turned against them later as a means of keeping them from printing more profitable British and American best sellers. At the end of the second decade of the nineteenth century, British North America did not yet have a population that could support local publishing and bookselling. In three towns, namely Halifax, Montreal, and Quebec City, there was a large enough military, civil, and ecclesiastical elite to provide employment for printers, stationers, bookbinders, and even booksellers. Saint John, Kingston, and York were on the verge of giving similar support. Printers and booksellers did not think of themselves as book publishers, for their conservative and upper-middle-class readers thought of books and literature as items that came from Britain and France. Such readers were really the only segment of the population that could afford to buy printed materials: around 1820, for example, 15s. or $3.00 a year for The Acadian Recorder (Halifax); 12s.6d. for John Young's Letters of Agricola; or 7s.6d. for Torbett's Map of Nova Scotia; and only those works that were intended for a wide public, such as the Nova Scotia Calendar for 1822 at 9d., were cheaply priced. Yet this early phase of the book trade already gave clear evidence of the future growth and shape of the market. It would be stimulated by mass emigration, improved literacy, and modern technology. Its shape would be determined largely by the caution of native publishers and their neglect of native authors, and by booksellers who catered to the demand for imported textbooks, trade books, and magazines from Britain, and all manner of cheap works from the United States. Some of these drawbacks, to be sure, might have resolved themselves had not our lingering colonial status and our colonial mentality been manipulated so effectively by short-sighted British publishers and by aggressive American publishers.

2 The Quest for a Colonial Literature The Native Author and Newspaper Printer-Publishers

Halfway between the end of the Napoleonic Wars and Confederation in 1867 came the watershed decade of the 1840s that saw the collapse of the old colonial mercantile system and the shift to responsible government as a prelude to nationhood. These changes were due to a series of liberal reforms at the Colonial Office after 18.20 whose aims were mass emigration from the British Isles, colonial independence, and an increase in the sale of British manufactures in the colonies. The presence of so many newcomers, with their impressive variety of skills and education, acted as a bracing tonic on the descendants of earlier waves of emigration, people who were now expressing their separate regional identities. Their new self-consciousness also took the form of political unrest, which itself was a sign of dissatisfaction with the status quo that had existed since the last quarter of the eighteenth century. The clashes and tensions between the old and the new inhabitants, between French and English, between merchants and farmers, between popularly elected assemblies and their governors, were all compounded by the fact that several British North American towns were experiencing the first stages of urban industrialization. At the same time improvements in communications, changes in the book trade in Britain and the United States, particularly advances in the new printing technology, and a spectacular increase in the flow of cheap books and periodicals from the United States had their first impact on British North America with the spread of the newspaper press and a growing readership. The newspaper press itself had drastically altered in its relations both with government and the public. Even taking into account the perennial shortage of cash and the severe depression of the 18 30s, these circumstances aided a handful of ambitious authors and newspaper publishers in developing local book publishing. Their struggles were also crystallized in the 1840s.

54 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada Colonial authors were faced with three kinds of problems. The first was an artistic question: how could the serious writer use the present and the past in a suitable literary form? Second, in a more practical way, how could they get printed and published, and could they receive adequate remuneration for their labours? The third problem, in the words of the American literary historian William Charvat, who described a similar situation in the United States for the period 1790-1850, was 'the writer's struggle, in the immature economy of that time, to discover who or what his audience was. ' 1 After the 1820s it was possible to find hundreds of verses and sketches in newspapers and little magazines, and to find hundreds more pamphlets and books dealing with interpretations of the scriptures, local histories, politics, temperance, travel, emigration, and natural resources; but most of this activity by no stretch of the imagination could be called literature. The colonial author had to adjust the language and traditional literary genres to his experiences of the new world. Andrew Shiels, a Scottish blacksmith, eloquently explained in the preface to The Witch of the Westcott (Halifax : Joseph Howe 1831) how different were the language, manners, and customs of the Nova Scotia he came to from 'that poetical country,' the Scottish border, with its 'infinite associations of time, place and circumstance, ' and he complained of 'the apathy for poetry that exists in Nova-Scotia. ' 2 Catharine Parr Traill in her letters The Backwoods of Canada (London: Religious Tract Society 1836) called her new home a 'matter-of-fact country' where no ghosts, spirits, fairies, naiads, or Druids haunted the forests and streams that she had already come to love. Here, a friend told her (was it her sister Susanna Moodie?), there was 'no scope for the imagination, ' 3 and although she knew that such things did not bother unlettered and industrious labourers and artisans, she gave voice to a common situation among transplanted artists. Prose writers such as William 'Tiger' Dunlop, Catharine Parr Traill, and Susanna Moodie found that documentary genres, travel books, and emigrant handbooks were most congenial for their purposes. Susanna Moodie's emigrant autobiography was 'fictionalized' with sketches, anecdotes, 'humours' characters, and dialogue. In Haliburton's satiric hands, the fictional voyage to a new society became a complex weapon of social criticism. Haliburton and Peter Fisher and Fran~ois-Xavier Garneau, concerned with preserving the past and justifying their provinces' existence in the face of strong criticism, usually from Britain, wrote the first histories. Another approach to the past was the historical poem or tale, which mythologized an earlier stage in pioneer life and focused on unique local customs. Adam Hood Burwell, Joseph Howe, and Oliver Goldsmith all tried their hands at the ambitious epic poem of emigrant life. The historical romance, popularized by Sir Walter Scott's Waverley ( 1814), was domesticated in the United States by

The Quest for a Colonial Literature 55 James Fenimore Cooper's The Spy ( 1821 ). The first book-length historical romances about Canada were John Richardson's Wacousta (1832) and Philippe Aubert de Gaspe, fils' L'Infiuence d'un livre (1837). In their efforts to write distinctively about their immediate social and natural environment, our English-speaking writers turned to English novelists and poets. They and their fell ow colonials eagerly read the latest works of the authors who dominated the popular market - Sir Walter Scott, Lord Byron, Bulwer-Lytton, Dickens, G.P.R. James, Thackeray, Kingsley, and Tennyson. But it was hard to compete with writers of this stature, and even American authors had to struggle for recognition at home and abroad. Sidney Smith's famous remark in The Edinburgh Review Ganuary 1820), 'who reads an American book?' was reprinted in The Acadian Recorder (Halifax) on 6 April 1822. Ten years later a reviewer in The Montreal Gazette (Io June 18 32) turned from his discussion of new American poetry to ask 'whether it is that we alone in the world are destitute of the talent for making books, or that we want the necessary spur to exercise this talent?' With increasing frequency our journalists used the literary vitality of the United States as a measuring rod for British North America's situation, and they agreed that conscious efforts would foster literature, just as natural resources and local industry had to be developed. Present conditions, that Montreal reviewer predicted, would change when a more appreciative audience for literature emerged: 'If we had more readers, there would be no want of writers, and of good writers too. If we had taste or patronage enough to offer the slightest reward, either of fame or profit, to the intellectual effort, we should soon find that there is a sufficiency of the commodity in the country to remove the just reproach to which we are now exposed.' French-Canadian writers faced exactly the same problem, for six months before the Montreal Gazette article appeared, Michel Bibaud had complained in the introduction to his new Magasin du Bas-Canada Ganuary 1832) that a visiting man of letters would not find one literary and scientific journal in a province of half a million people, and would therefore conclude 'que parmi les Canadiens d'origine fran~aise, il n'y a pas un seul homme capable de conduire un journal de ce genre, ou pas assez de lecteurs instruits, ou amis de !'instruction, pour le soutenir.' By the end of the century rather glib parallels would be made between cultural and economic progress - we think of this as a characteristic Victorian view of the march towards perfection - but in 1832 at least the reviewer recognized that financial return, which is one way the author knows he has an appreciative audience, was a requisite for the existence of professional authorship. Within twenty years of his lamentation a handful of authors Haliburton, Richardson, and Moodie - had won international success as

56 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada purveyors of popular, light entertainment, having also discovered how limited were the opportunities for profits here. The route to publication in London and New York was through prior appearance in newspapers and magazines, which in Canada paid miserably if at all. The careers of colonial authors, then, had a similar pattern in their shift of allegiances from a local publisher to a foreign publisher, not always with happy results for the local entrepreneur, who often gave the author his first opportunity in print in the local newspaper. British North American newspapers after the War of 1812 differed from earlier papers, which simply reported news, by directly formulating public opinion, like the contemporary British and American press. 4 In Britain, despite the political shift from liberalism to repression, there was better parliamentary reporting, led by the Morning Chronicle and the Times . As journalists gained more social prestige, they were able to mingle with government leaders, and as circulation grew, the press increased its influence among the middle and working classes. There was more money to be made in the newspaper business than in the last century. By 1800 in the United States newspapers had become party organs, as had long been the case in Britain. Now British North American papers began to take a more critical editorial stand on government and public affairs ; they associated themselves openly with political parties and the churches; and they became increasingly vindictive and shrill. Reporting of the assembly debates appeared through the 1820s, and editors began to link popular causes with freedom of the press. Editors thus got into hot water with their readers as well as with the government, and reactions were often violent. The most famous of these events were the destruction of William Lyon Mackenzie's equipment at York in June 1826; the attack in May 1835 on Henry Winton of St John's, who was pulled from his horse, beaten up, and had his ears cut off by a mob of Irish Catholics; and the destruction in November 1837 of Louis Perrault's Vindicator office in Montreal in the riot that started the 1837 Rebellion. In this history there is no need to detail the political and religious conflicts that embroiled the papers and public in every province except to observe that many of these same principles and beliefs permeate the writings of Haliburton, Richardson, Moodie, Kirby, Bibaud, Viger, and Garneau. Was British North America to be British and constitutionalist, or American and republican? Would the provinces send representatives to Westminster, or remain independent of each other, or enter a federation? To what extent could society be populist? In dealing with such questions, the newspapers spoke to particular interest groups, although as Mackenzie pointed out they taught and moulded public opinion, 5 and at least one editor, Joseph Howe, was accepted as the 'voice' of his province.

The Quest for a Colonial Literature 57 In the twenties and thirties the newspapers still had a relatively small number of subscribers, due to the high cost of annual subscriptions, usually £1 or 30s., and to high postal rates on periodicals and books, the latter situation not being rectified until 1844 and 1851. In 1824 William Lyon Mackenzie estimated that only his newspaper, The Colonial Advocate, and Hugh Thomson's Upper Canada Herald had subscriptions of over 400 copies. 6 All the papers had many more readers, for they were passed from hand to hand in homes, taverns, and newspaper reading rooms. Anthony Henry Holland believed that his Acadian Recorder (Halifax) was read by all members of the community, and estimated in 1822 that its readership was between 12,000 and 15,ooo, many of whom read nothing else. 7 Another newspaper to gain a large readership was Egerton Ryerson's The Christian Guardian (1829), which was intended to serve the Methodists of Upper Canada. It had 300 subscribers its first year, but by 1832 the Guardian was the most widely circulated newspaper in the Canadas, with a subscription list estimated at 3,000; it was now obligatory reading for all classes and factions. 8 By 1815 the transformation of Britain into the world's leading industrial nation had caused the uprooting of the rural population into the new factory towns. They also crossed the Atlantic - Scots and Irish peasants, servant boys and girls, apprentices, mechanics, even poor gentry and half-pay officers and were encouraged to bring magazines and books with them, not only to stave off boredom on the voyage but to offset the well known scarcity of books in the backwoods. 9 Thousands of these emigrants were unschooled, but there were enough literate artisans, journalists, and writers among them to change the character of education and reading in British North America. They arrived just as colonial and Yankee settlers themselves were opening up new districts, particularly in Upper Canada. The newspaper press also began its first major spread of the century, first of all to those prosperous towns with good water or stagecoach links to the capitals, and which had small groups of citizens determined to have common schools and circulating libraries as well. These factors account for the appearance of printing offices in Brockville (1820), Miramichi (1826), Hallowell and Hamilton (1827), Pictou (1830), Yarmouth and Sherbrooke and London (1831), Harbour Grace (1833), Berlin (1835), Bytown (1836), and Peterborough (1837). Although individual newspapers had a struggle to survive, as a group they flourished and enjoyed a prestige that is hard for newspaper readers in our day, accustomed to radio, movies, and television, to grasp. Many newspapers carried 'literature departments' or columns for original contributions, but in the twenties and thirties two new departments gained popularity, book reviews and serialized extracts of best sellers. Joseph Howe's Novascotian (1 December 1830) quoted a correspondent who

58 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada required guidance 'in the expenditure of the few pounds which I save each year to stock my book case,' and Howe agreed to run reviews and extracts regularly. For readers unable to afford expensive British books or cheap American reprints, the serialized and abridged popular fictions were a way of tasting the latest literary fashions. Here is a sampling: Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Pelham (1828) in the Kingston Chronicle in 1829 Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol (1843) in The Palladium (Charlottetown) in 1844 Charles Dickens, Dombey and Son (1846) in The Globe (Toronto) in 1847 Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) in Haszard's Gazette (Charlottetown) in 1852 Charles Kingsley, Alton Locke (1850) in Mackenzie's Weekly Gazette (Toronto) in 1859 But it was above all in the departments for original contributions that editors demonstrated their support for local authorship, even if their intention was simply to fill space for want of other material. Joseph Howe claimed in The Novascotian ('A Glance at the Past,' 2J anuary 1840) that when he began his paper in 1828, 'there was not a single individual, with one exception, capable of writing a paragraph, upon whom we could fall back. Now we could at any moment call upon a dozen ... 'In other ways, however, the support of the newspaper proprietors, that is, the printer-publishers, for authorship was ambivalent, for their financial considerations and their views on copyright were not those of professional authors; and yet the first published evidence of colonial literature is directly due to those printers. PRINTERS, PUBLISHERS, AND AUTHORS IN THE MARITIME PROVINCES, I

820-67

Even before the Napoleonic Wars ended, one Halifax editor, Anthony Henry Holland (1785-1830), combined politics and literature in The Acadian Recorder ( 1813-1930), the newspaper that was the catalyst for the 'intellectual awakening'' 0 of Nova Scotia, a phrase used by D.C. Harvey to describe the cultural phenomenon whose chief figures were the province's most famous editor, Joseph Howe, and the country's most famous author, Thomas Chandler Haliburton. Holland's Recorder was the first English-language paper to criticize the government and to encourage its letter writers to discuss public affairs; it was modelled on William Cobbett's Political Register (London), which aimed at exposing the evils of government administrators

The Quest for a Colonial Literature 59 and educating the working man. The stepson of Anthony Henry, young Holland was aggressive and ingenious; during the War of 1812 he rowed out to a man-o'-war one Friday morning to buy the latest British magazines, brought them back to his office and worked all day at his press, and scooped his rivals John Howe and William Minns. ' 1 For several years after 1820 the Recorder set a literary standard that was only equalled two or three times that century, but in 1822, exhausted by fights with the government and court cases with his Tory rival Edmund Ward of The Free Press, Holland sold his office to his brother Philip and to Edward Moody, and spent his last eight years managing his paper mill near Bedford. On a late night drive home from Halifax in 18 30, he fell from his wagon and died on the road, but his energetic quest for reform had already impressed a younger Halifax editor, George Renny Young, who started The Novascotian in 1825. Holland's books and pamphlets, although not very numerous, raised the social consciousness of the province. From Walter Bromley, the innovative principal of the Royal Acadian School where Howe was educated, came the Second Address on the Deplorable State of the Indians (1814); in later years Bromley was one of the founders of the Micmac School at Shubenacadie. From another school principal, Thomas McCulloch, came the inaugural speech for Pictou Academy, The Nature and Uses of a Liberal Education ( 1818), which argued for a mix of humanistic and scientific training. Both men, like Holland, were opposed to Anglican control of politics and education, and led Nova Scotians towards reform and liberalism. The Recorder serialized three works whose subsequent history showed how hazardous was authorship, even with the advantage of a popular subject. George Renny Young's father, the Halifax merchant John Young, contributed a series of letters on modern farming methods ( 1818-21) that gained wide circulation all over British North America and were instrumental in the founding of agricultural societies and improving farming methods. In 1822 Holland published them by subscription as The Letters of Agricola in two handsome volumes, and they remained for many years a standard practical work on the subject. Less fortunate was the fate of the twenty-six 'Lectures on the Living Poets' (1821-3) from the pen of the Reverend James Irving, a flamboyant preacher and journalist who showed up in Nova Scotia pursued by rumours of a questionable past in Scotland. Irving hoped to pick up his literary activities in the New World, but the 'Lectures' never saw book form. They were the most sophisticated pieces of literary criticism in this country before the 1920s and are remarkable for their perceptive insights on Byron, Coleridge, and Wordsworth, much to the annoyance of Halifax readers, for

60 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada serious appreciation of the Romantics really dated from the 1840s when the Pre-Raphaelites popularized them for the Victorians. Not as unfortunate as Irving was Thomas McCulloch, who already had a reputation as a religious pamphleteer for the Secessionist Church of Scotland, but he hoped for a more lucrative career as a fiction writer. His 'Letters of Mephibosheth Stepsure' (1821-3), a satire on the pretensions, inertia, and grumbling of pioneer villages such as Pictou, took the province by storm; yet no Edinburgh publisher would publish them, 12 and The Letters of Mephibosheth Stepsure did not appear in book form until 1862 when Holland's successors, English and Blackadar, issued it. Instead, William Oliphant published two didactic tales, Colonial Gleanings: William and Melville (1826), in one volume, paying McCulloch 30 guineas for the copyright, 13 but its failure to win critical notice or sales did not encourage the firm to take any more contributions from the disappointed McCulloch. A year after George Renny Young began The Novascotian, J .S. Cunnabell published The Acadian Magazine (1826-8), the first purely literary monthly magazine in the country. Its editor, the lawyer Beamish Murdoch, aimed at advancing the 'literary standing of the Country' to counter the impression 'far too prevalent abroad, and particularly in the Mother Country, that we were comparatively ignorant and barbarous.'' 4 Because of the expectations raised by the Stepsure 'Letters,' the publication in London of Oliver Goldsmith's poem The Rising Village (1825), and Howe's elegy 'Melville Island' in The Acadian (his uncle Minns's newspaper), Murdoch was able to fill the first volume entirely with original contributions from Maritimers. In the middle of Volume 11, The Acadian Magazine stopped suddenly without explanation, although the likely cause was the lack of contributions and subscribers. Cunnabell and his brother William, who were the most active publishers in Halifax until the late 1850s, then confidently began The Halifax Monthly Magazine (1830-2), whose editor John Sparrow Thompson took over as proprietor in October 1831 . His suspicion of fiction led him to fill its pages with history and science, 1 s a preference dictated as much by the lack of contributions as by the availability of lectures from the new Mechanics' Institute. The literary magazines everywhere in British North America deliberately avoided sectarian politics and religion, and this admirable policy may explain why they lacked the liveliness of contemporary newspapers. The Cunnabells survived by catering to the dependable Methodist trade, 16 issuing sermons and periodicals, and by exploiting the growing market after 18 35 for temperance works - even advertising that year a series of temperance tales. The Cunnabells' activities were typical of that period, for each city had one or more printers whose day-to-day jobwork depended on the large market for

The Quest for a Colonial Literature 61 religious works, sermons, and conflicts over infant baptism. Occasionally a hymn book such as the Cunnabell's Psalmody Reformer (1853), which contained the first locally engraved music, transcended denominational lines. Thompson, who was according to contemporary accounts a kindly and well-liked man, found work as a lecturer and short-hand reporter in the Assembly. ' 7 Through his friendship with Joseph Howe, he assisted in editing The Novascotian; and Howe bought The Colonial Pearl (1837-40), a literary and scientific paper, for Thompson to run, and then helped Thompson to obtain the post of Queen's Printer in 1843-4. Howe bought The Novascotian from Young in 1828 and, like Holland and Young, he maintained a wide interest in literature, science, and politics, while turning out one of the handsomest papers in the country. Howe is now remembered as the editor who won the freedom of the press by his own defence and acquittal at his 18 35 trial for permitting a friend to criticize the local magistrates in The Novascotian. At the outset of his career, however, Howe considered publicly whether to follow a literary or political path; 18 and for over a decade he managed to juggle both, until he realized he must carry out in the Assembly the political and educational reforms which he had advocated as editor. He gave up publishing in 1841 (although he returned to the editor's chair from 1844 to 1848) when his reform party's election victory placed greatness in his grasp, but the publishing career like the political one was tinged with as many disasters as triumphs. Even during his first 'ramble' around Nova Scotia in 1828 - like Cobbett earlier in England, he wanted to savour the mood of the country at first hand he was planning his first speculative publishing venture with his friend, the rising young barrister and wit, Thomas Chandler Haliburton. Each one of Loyalist descent, each one a Tory with a touch of the radical, each one blessed with a sense of humour that could be polished or crude in the twinkling of an eye, each one proudly ambitious - for it was their disagreement over the political shape of the country as well as their incompatible temperaments that finally divided them - they both thought they had a winner with Haliburton' s local history, which was written to vindicate the poor opinion of the province back in England. Howe was so certain of the success of An Historical and Statistical Account of Nova-Scotia (1829) that he bought the publishing rights from Haliburton and borrowed $800 from him to produce it. But Howe burnt his fingers by printing 3,000 copies and went into debt for over a decade paying back the £1,300 it cost him. 19 He sent copies on consignment to Edinburgh, London, Boston, Quebec, and the Maritime towns, but sales were so poor that in 1837 he was still remaindering a thousand copies at half price (10s.). It is not quite accurate to call the Historical and Statistical

62 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada

Account the first disaster in Canadian publishing because Howe sold hundreds of copies by subscription and other sales, but it surely was an example of misjudging the market. Business sense was not one of Howe's strengths, but he loved to gamble on a long shot. Haliburton, determined to make a name for himself abroad in order to negotiate with London publishers, never got over his disappointment with the sales of the history. But Haliburton's touching description of the expulsion of the Acadians later provided Henry Wadsworth Longfellow with the germ for his narrative poem Evangeline ( 1847). By 1835 Howe had issued a small list of poetry, history, doctrinal works, and Beamish Murdoch's Epitome of the Laws of Nova-Scotia (1832-3, 4 vols in two). For the sake of amusement, Howe and his friends conducted a humorous series of 'Club' papers ( 1828-3 1) in The Novascotian, modelled on the popular dialogues known as 'Noctes Ambrosianae' in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine. From this experience Haliburton may have learned how to make Nova Scotia's condition palatable to his readers by polishing his gift for racy, metaphoric dialogue and far-fetched anecdotes. From September 18 3 5 to February 18 36 he contributed twenty-one sketches entitled 'Recollections of Nova Scotia,' whose travelling salesman Sam Slick, with his 'wisesaws' and 'soft sawder', proved so popular that Howe and Haliburton discontinued them in order to issue the book version, The Clockmaker, which was published on the last day of 1836. Of this first best seller in Canadian fiction, Howe later told Haliburton: 'It brought you reputation plate - Books - the means of earning thousands, a handsome sum in subsequent arrangements with Bentley, and it brought me about£ 35. ' 20 Once The Clockmaker's fame spread abroad, Howe's attempts to retain a financial stake in the London and Philadelphia editions of this and its two sequels created a breach with Haliburton and for the first time demonstrated the disadvantages of being a colonial publisher in the Anglo-American market. In London Haliburton's friend Colonel C.R. Fox showed the volume to Richard Bentley, who later said he thought the author was American, 21 and because The Clockmaker was not registered either in Nova Scotia or at Stationers' Hall, he proceeded to publish a 'first' edition, that is, a London edition, with a haste that was very suspicious. On 18 May 18 37 Howe told his readers that the pirated edition of 'Mr Publisher Bentley' was selling well and wondered if he should take court action. There was little Howe could do about the pirated American edition issued by Carey & Lea of Philadelphia in November (1,000 copies) and its reprint in December 1837 (2,000 more copies)2 2 except to negotiate with them the next time, but he did send Bentley a half-threatening proposal in October:

The Quest for a Colonial Literature 63 I was preparing to publish an Edition in London or Edinburgh when I found that you had already put the work to press. I presume that this step was taken on your part, without any intention to trespass on my private rights - either under the impression that the Colonies were not protected by the Copyrights Act, or that the work (as was stated in some of the papers) had first appeared in the United States. If I am right in this conjecture I presume that you will see the propriety of making such compensation for the appropriation of my property ... without putting me to the necessity of seeking redress before the tribunals of our common country .. . the Clockmaker seems to have secured a singular measure of popularity, and the sales, from the best information I can obtain, have been very large. Under the circumstances a verdict would probably bring with it handsome compensation, but I would prefer an amicable arrangement, dictated by your own sense of justice. It is probable that another vol. of the Clockmaker will soon be ready for the Press, and in that case, should the affair which forms the subject of this letter be arranged to the satisfaction of all parties, you may become the publisher in England of that also. 23

Several months before the two publishers met each other during Queen Victoria's coronation festivities in June 18 38, Bentley had already asked Haliburton to expand his new work, The Clockmaker, 2nd series, to three volumes, for which Bentley offered him either £250 for an edition of 1,000 copies or £ 300 for the copyright; otherwise he could give only £ 150 for two volumes. 24 But the 2nd series, aimed at a British rather than a Nova Scotia audience, was only one volume, and did not carry Howe's imprint on the title page although he had the colonial rights and paid £ 130 (Halifax currency) for his 2,000 copies. Of this amount, Howe believed that about 1,200 were sold in the colonies, 500 were shipwrecked, and between 200 and 300 remained unsold at the agencies. 'It was profitable - from my being in England expenses were saved, and the bulk of the overplus of too large an Edition were shipwrecked and insured. ' 25 It was a hectic summer for both men. While Haliburton corrected the sheets and was being lionized in London drawing rooms, Howe toured parliament and haunted the offices of Whig politicians, and visited printers and booksellers. Before the 3rd series appeared in 1840, Haliburton had published two vicious attacks on Lord Durham and The Letter-Bag of the Great Western (Halifax: Howe 1840), which used the new transatlantic steamship service as a unifying device for a series of comic letters. By now Haliburton was aware of the intrigues of international literary piracy, and he told Bentley in November 1839, 'Get it out soon, that the American edition may not interfere & get to England first, ' 26 and he deliberately delayed sending a manuscript to Carey & Lea until the packet had sailed to England.

64 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada Howe was squeezed out of negotiations for the 3rd series of The Clockmaker (London: Bentley 1840), evidently by Haliburton, who pained Howe by satirizing him in this book and then caused him serious financial loss. Howe went looking for the best deal among several American publishers, and had to soothe Lea & Blanchard, who got the rights, over fears of piracy by promising not to send a manuscript to England until the American and colonial editions had been prepared. 27 This was a way of preventing a prior English edition from being sent to Philadelphia, for resetting by a rival firm as a pirated edition to undersell the authorized American one. Stressing that he negotiated for Haliburton himself, Howe asked for at least $500 for the American market and arranged for Lea & Blanchard to print his edition, which did not carry the Howe imprint. Thus conflicting promises were made to the two foreign publishers. In June 1840 Howe had only 700 subscriptions for the 3rd series, and he suspected that Haliburton's reputation in Canada and the United States had been tarnished by his attacks on Lord Durham's Report. On I September Haliburton sent his own manuscript to Bentley and stipulated that if James Haliburton (a relative in London) were unable to check the proofs, that 'pains' be taken with them. 'Every succeeding edition of Slick has been more Anglicised than the last. Pray have pains taken in this particular,' he insisted. He had not yet sent Lea & Blanchard a manuscript, but asked Bentley to 'send them a copy in time, as on the last time they acted with much more liberality and seem disposed to continue to do so. ' 28 Ignorant of these negotiations, Howe soon found that Haliburton would not give him a manuscript, which meant that Howe would forfeit $400; 29 all he knew was that Haliburton was considering a £300 offer for the American and colonial markets, and was now insisting that a bookseller in Windsor, Nova Scotia, L.G. Geldert, share the colonial market with Howe. It is not clear why Haliburton sabotaged Howe, unless to have more profits for himself. About this time Haliburton was still uncertain about receiving a pension for his judgeship that was to be abolished. His dedication of The Letter-Bag to Lord John Russell, a piece of satire worthy of Jonathan Swift, was in effect a plea for money or another position. Possibly Bentley and Lea & Blanchard would only do business with the author and not with his colonial publisher: this was the line that American publishers later took with British authors, that is, to exclude the other publisher from the contract. Whatever the reason, at Christmas Howe told Haliburton that he refused to have any more dealings with Bentley because 'he has treated me so ill. ' 30 Thus Haliburton's friendship with Howe came to an end over the question of their expenses and profits. Even Haliburton's friendship with Bentley cooled and

The Quest for a Colonial Literature 65 they hardly communicated between 184 5 and 18 p; by then they agreed that things went smoothly as long as they met face-to-face. His publisher in the late forties was Bentley's former partner Henry Colburn, and the connection was kept up with Colburn's successors, Hurst & Blackett. Bentley's account of payments reveals that Haliburton was undoubtedly the best-paid author in nineteenth-century Canada.3' Thomas C . Haliburton - on account of The Clockmaker 1st ser. a piece of plate purchased for Augt. 38 Copyright of the Clockmaker First and second Series 1839 Copyright of Bubbles of Canada Nov. 39 Copyrt of Letterbag of the Gt Western Mch. 39 Copyright of the Clockmaker 3rd Series July 42 Copyright of Sam Slick in England The Attache First Series Oct. 44 Copyright of Ditto Second Series

£300 . 0 . 0 £200 . 0.0

£500.0.0

£500.0 . 0

£500.0. 0

£650 . 0 . 0

Howe's last scheme before retiring from his newspaper was to announce on 14 January 1841 plans for a Nova Scotia Library, to be composed of two uniform editions a year, and to be edited by himself and Richard Nugent, his successor at The Novascotian . The Library, described as an 'imitation of those cheap and highly popular works, which are produced at home [Britain] ... might have the effect of setting a good example, by showing how much can be done, by a few active minds, from merely colonial resources,' never came to fruition . It was one more pipe dream from a man with too many fish to fry. Besides, Haliburton had already shown that a 'mere' colonial author could run with Charles Dickens, although he consciously changed his material in order to amuse an international public, and in 185 6 he left Nova Scotia to settle permanently in England in order to fulfil his dreams of political and literary greatness. Across the Bay of Fundy the New Brunswickers enviously watched cultural developments in Nova Scotia. In 1825 there seemed to be a similar awakening when Henry Chubb, the proprietor of The New-Brunswick

66 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada Courier in Saint John, issued the first local history, Sketches of NewBrunswick, containing an Account of the First Settlement of the Province by Peter Fisher, and the first book of poems, James Hogg's Poems Religious, Moral and Sentimental. There were several attempts to start magazines in the 1820s and 1830s, but these lasted from one to six issues, dying from lack of interest and contributions. One correspondent to the Courier (24 December 18 3 1) told Chubb that a literary society was needed because New Brunswick lagged behind Nova Scotia in cultivating the Muses. Chubb opened his pages to the belle-lettrists, the most remarkable of whom was Moses Perley ( 1804-62), a lawyer, business agent, and civil servant whose fascinating Report on the Sea and River Fisheries of New Brunswick (1850, extensively revised 1852), a first-hand description of fishermen's lives that is buried in a government document, is entirely unknown to twentieth-century readers. Then in 1840 Robert Shives of Saint John printed an historical romance of the Roman Empire after the style of Edward Bulwer-Lytton's novels, Alethes, or the Roman Exile, by the young journalist John K. Laskey. Neither man had any further involvement in book publishing after this promising venture, although Shives the following year went ahead with the first successful literary monthly in New Brunswick, The Amaranth (1841-4). For two years he had no trouble obtaining sketches and poetry, lectures from the Mechanics' Institute, and even a serialized historical romance by Douglas Hughyue ('Eugene'), Argimou; A Legend of the Micmac, which in the next decade was again serialized in New Brunswick and the United States, and issued in volume form (1847) in Halifax. This story, set in the 1760s, is in the vein of popular melodramas about Europeans captured by Indians, but here the protagonist Argimou is a dignified and sympathetic figure. Perley, Hughyue, and Mrs F. Beaven were the Amaranth's most gifted and dependable authors. Perley had a modest reputation for his sporting sketches of New Brunswick once the fashion for this genre was established in Britain and the United States by mid-century. Hughyue, an emigrant whose philosophical essays and fiction briefly illuminated New Brunswick in the forties, moved on to Australia at the end of the decade, like many other Maritimers who were lured to California and the South Pacific by the discovery of gold. Mrs Beaven was a backwoods journalist, but so encumbered by the hardships of pioneer farming that, apart from Sketches and Tales Illustrative of Life in the Backwoods of New Brunswick (London: Routledge 1845), her few published pieces appeared only in the Amaranth and other New Brunswick papers. The Amaranth, however, went downhill quickly in its third and last year as contributions and subscriptions stopped coming in. James Hogg lamented its demise in his Fredericton newspaper The

The Quest for a Colonial Literature 67

New-Brunswick Reporter (1844-66).32 When the Assembly was not in session, Hogg for the first several years filled its pages with an abundance of tales and poems by himself and other contributors. As in Nova Scotia, authors frequently used local settings and historical episodes as a basis for their literature, and although New Brunswick writers at mid-century are now hardly known or read, they provided a fertile literary soil for two native sons in the eighties, Charles G.D. Roberts and Bliss Carman. A curious situation, nevertheless, prevailed in the literary magazines: they usually had a wealth of original contributions in the first year and then the springs of creativity dried up. Newspapers carried poems and sketches as space permitted, but they did not have to rely on these exclusively to fill four pages each week. After the promise of a literary flowering in the 18 30s, the two middle decades of the century were bleak in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Apart from Mary Jane Katzmann's excellently edited The Provincial; or Halifax Monthly Magazine (1851-3), which her publisher James Bowes (1802-63) supported with the same faith that he promoted the poetry of Andrew Shiels and Clothilda Jennings, there were no more literary magazines or literary works of any significance until well after Confederation. Katzmann herself, by concentrating on contemporary affairs and complaining publicly that Haliburton would not contribute to her magazine, was aware of this change. There were several reasons for this vacuum.Joseph Howe had left publishing to enter the legislature, and once Haliburton achieved international attention, he turned his back on Nova Scotia audiences although he made amends with The Old Judge ( 1849 ). Since authorship did not pay, book publication was almost an act of faith. 'I publish the work with no expectation of pecuniary profit. Books published in the Colonies have never been a very pecuniary speculation ... ,' 33 said George Renny Young in On Colonial Literature, Science and Education ( 1842), although Young, like Haliburton, had private means to support himself. Furthermore, the printers themselves got into the political ring, often in the expectation of financial reward. A case in point was Young's publisher, John Crosskill, who offered prizes to encourage literature in his Halifax Morning Post in 1840; he then published John McPherson's temperance poem In Praise of Water (1843), Young's (anonymous) political satire on Lieutenant-Governor Falkland, The Prince and the Protege (1844), and Hughyue's Argimou ( 1847). But Crosskill, one of the new-style journalists of the forties, 34 was less interested in literature or principles than in catering to the public and increasing the circulation of his penny newspaper, and he deserted his reform friends to join the Tories when he was offered the lucrative Queen's Printer's commission in 1844. Thereafter he crossed

68 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada

swords, unfortunately for himself, with Howe, Young, and Charles Annand, thereby dragging journalism into the gutter, and lost money in his patronage office. Undoubtedly the violent political quarrels of that decade, as also happened in Quebec, exhausted and diverted the energies and talents of authors and publishers alike, who in other circumstances might have turned to imaginative literature. But there were strong pressures against imaginative literature, especially the evangelical distrust of fiction all through the Maritimes and the Canadas. From the late forties until the end of the century, there was an ongoing fight to make fiction-reading respectable. Pointing to the moral intentions of Scott, Dickens, Thackeray, and Charles Kingsley, colonial apologists such as Mrs Moodie in The Literary Garland, Mary Jane Katzmann in The Provincial, and John Ross in Charlottetown's first literary paper, Ross's Weekly, gave their readers an appreciation of both the ethical and emotional value of contemporary fiction. Biographies and confessions fared better. One of the most popular books in the Maritimes was a sensational biography of Henry More Smith, the protagonist of The Mysterious Stranger by Walter Bates ( 1760- 1842 ). Born in Stamford, Connecticut, Bates arrived in Saint John with the spring fleet in 1783, and was for many years the respected Sheriff of King's County. His prisoner from 18 12 to 18 16 was Smith, a horse thief and con man who told his fantastic, and possibly untrue, story to Bates, who wrote it down and issued it as a book in 18 17, which was printed in Connecticut. A reprint appeared in London the same year, and at least seven more editions appeared from Maritime presses. The leading newspaper publisher in Saint John at midcentury, George Day, issued five editions numbering up to 15,000 copies between 1854 and 1877.35 Andrew Spedon, a Montreal journalist who toured the Mari times in 1862, was puzzled by the dearth of literature itself although he found plenty of newspapers, Mechanics' Institutes, and literary societies. Why, he cried to the New Brunswickers, do you 'allow your noble rivers to roll on year after year - "unlettered and unsung"?' 36 He knew from his own experience that authorship did not pay, ironically telling subscribers to his Rambles among the Blue-Noses (1862) that by reading it they would 'derive considerable profit, which is more than I expect from the sale of it. ' 37 But the reason was not only the small market; it was, as Mary Jane Katzmann said back in 18 52, the 'hopeless condition' in which colonial literature was placed by the Imperial Copyright Law of 1842. It was well known that American piracies of British 'copyrights' (the contemporary way of referring to such books) hurt American authors such as Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville.

The Quest for a Colonial Literature 69 Katzmann's hypothetical example was the New Brunswick author who could get local protection but could be pirated in other British territories! 'We leave the reader to imagine what amount of capital he would be likely to invest in publishing the work in question, under these circumstances. ' 38 Like William Lyon Mackenzie, who twenty-six years earlier had envisioned an imperial copyright act for all the colonies, she proposed an interprovincial copyright, seeing it as one more argument in favour of a legislative union for British North America. As we shall see in the next chapter, she was a generation ahead of her time in British North America. One venturesome literary editor in Saint John in 1867 found both a philanthropic publisher and a group of authors from Newfoundland to the North-West who willingly took up his challenge to offset the flood of demoralizing American trash by encouraging Canadian literature. George Stewart, jr (1846-1906), barely out of his teens and already the editor of the first philately magazine in Canada, was able to run Stewart's Literary Quarterly Magazine (1867-72) because Henry Chubb's son John George Chubb, the 'John Murray' of Saint John, as Stewart later explained, 'offered me every facility which his large publishing house then possessed. When we talked about terms, he cut the Gordian knot in two by saying he would take no profit out of the venture. This liberal arrangement continued from the first number to the last. ' 39 As the only literary magazine at Confederation, Stewart's Quarterly had more than a lack of competitors or the fervour of nation-building to sustain it; the country, richer than in the 1840s, more complex socially, more specialized industrially, also had more authors to draw on and a more stable market. PRINTERS, PUBLISHERS, AND AUTHORS IN LOWER CANADA, I

8 20-40

Although the reviewer in the Montreal Gazette of 18 32 stated that the Canadas were deficient in literature, there was no shortage after 1820 of literary papers and magazines, which came and went with amazing rapidity. The first of the English-language literary weeklies was The Scribbler (est. 1821 ), which its proprietor Samuel Hull Wilcocke modelled on contemporary London society papers. An experienced English journalist long before he showed up in 18 17 to place his pen at the service of Edward Ellice and the North-West Company, Wilcocke (1767-1833) and his lady friend 'Louisa' (Mrs Ann Lewis) launched The Scribbler with help from their printer James Lane. Wilcocke's enemies took him to court on a charge of embezzlement in order to discredit him, but he was acquitted and soon after began his satiric

70 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada gossip about Montreal society. 40 He kept his readers abreast of literary events in Britain and provided a running commentary on local and American literary news. His most important discovery was Adam Hood Burwell ( 1790-1 849 ), who once told J oho Macaulay of The Kingston Chronicle about his vision back in 181 8 that predicted that he would be the great poet to emerge from Upper Canada. 41 The son of a Loyalist and a member of the Talbot settlement on the north shore of Lake Erie, Burwell was the first native-born poet - but not, in spite of his claim, a great one - to mythologize pioneer life during the War of 181 2 in his long, eulogistic poem 'The Talbot Road,' in which British genius civilizes the forests. His poems caught fire when he wrote of his beloved Niagara peninsula, yet his eighteenth-century diction and verse were often at odds with his subject-matter. Burwell published widely in newspapers and magazines, but apart from a one-poem pamphlet, he issued only two books, both of them apologia for the lrvingite sect that he joined after his defection from the Church of England. He briefly edited the Anglican newspaper The Christian Sentinel (1830-1) at Trois-Rivieres, and included in it some of his own poetry, but thereafter he apparently stopped publishing verses until the last year of his !ife. The Scribbler, which struggled on until 1828, or possibly as late as 1831, was soon joined by two magazines issued by Scottish intellectuals on the model of The Edinburgh Review and Blackwood's. Both of these Montreal magazines cause confusion because of their shift in editors and the similarity of their names. The earlier one was The Canadian Magazine and literary Repository Ouly 182 3-J une 182 5), published by bookseller Joseph Nickless. Its first editor, David Chisholm, departed in a huff at the beginning of Volume II due to a reduction in his salary, 42 and he founded The Canadian Review and literary and Historical Journal Ouly 18 24-September 1826). This was published for Chisholm by H.H. Cunningham, a rival bookseller. The new editor of The Canadian Magazine was Dr A.J. Christie, who years later served as editor of The Montreal Gazette. In the promotion of literature, history, and science, both editors fared better with articles and reviews than with fiction and poetry. Shouldering most of the writing and editing themselves, they shunned direct confrontations on religion and politics but hurled shafts at each other over the condition of local libraries and reading habits. After reviewing a number of The Canadian Magazine, William Lyon Mackenzie concluded: 'We are afraid that the time has not yet come, in which colonial periodicals strictly literary can command encouragement commensurate to the expense of their publication and to what is due to their compilers. ' 43 And indeed they were ambitious;

The Quest for a Colonial Literature 71 each number of The Canadian Magazine, which was finally discontinued for want of support, was about ninety-six pages, and The Canadian Review, about .240 pages, 'a scale too extensive for the wants of the reading public in Canada,' said Newton Bosworth in 1839. 44 In the midst of these activities, the Canadas got their first taste of locally authored books. Julia Beckwith Hart, the wife of a Kingston bookseller, wrote St Ursula's Convent; or, The Nun of Canada (18.24, .2 vols), which was published by subscription (165 copies) and printed by Hugh Thomson of Kingston. Its story of Gothic intrigue in a Montreal convent and the fact that it was the first novel published by a native-born Canadian gave it a modest notoriety, but as The Canadian Magazine observed, owing to its 'mass of incidents, all borrowed from other works of imagination,' it should have been called 'The Quintessence of Novels and Romances. ' 45 Mrs Hart was not destined to be the creatrix of Canadian fiction; instead Gothic fiction writers throughout the century took their lead from Maria Edgeworth and Sir Walter Scott and James Fenimore Cooper. Next, three volumes of poems appeared to somewhat better reviews, George Longmore's The Charivari (18.24), published by Joseph Nickless, Margaret Blennerhasset's privately published The Widow of the Rock ( 18.24), and Levi Adams' jean Baptiste: A Poetic Olio (18.25). Longmore and Adams were heavily indebted to Lord Byron, whose style was not incompatible with their ironic yet kindly treatment of French-Canadian material. Thus by 18.2 5 the vogue was under way for the local incident with its distinctive note, and in at least one case skilful marketing produced a minor best seller. Adam Kidd claimed in 1831 that his The Huron Chief and Other Poems (Montreal: The Herald 1830), a sympathetic treatment of the Indian, had gained 1,500 subscribers. 46 Montreal's French-language literary activity went through the same stirrings in the 18.20s, much of it instigated by Michel Bibaud (178.2-185.2), who taught for several years after he left the College de Montreal in 1806, but who spent the rest of his career founding journals. He contributed to The Canadian Spectator, and then in 1817 he founded L'Aurore with the printer Joseph-Victor Delorme, at whose office a generation of Montreal printers were trained. Bibaud reprinted scientific and philosophical items from the Bordeaux periodical La Ruche d'Aquitaine in an effort to sharpen his readers' curiosity.47 His literary monthly La Bibliotheque canadienne (18.25-30), which began with .200 subscribers, was modestly successful; he contributed to it his own Histoire du Canada (1837). But Bibaud had less success with his short-lived Magasin du Bas-Canada (183.2), printed by Ludger Duvernay, possibly because the political climate was no longer conducive to purely literary periodicals.

72 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada The activities of J oseph-Ludger Duvernay ( 1799- 18 52 )48 were typical of many journalist-printers, and his career parallels those of Howe in Halifax and Mackenzie in Toronto during the same years. He began the first newspaper at Trois-Rivieres in 1817, and came to Montreal ten years later to print La Minerve for its editors and proprietors, Augustin-Norbert Morin and Denis-Benjamin Viger. These men and Papineau had learned how the British parliamentary system might be adapted to their country, but in order to win control of the Assembly and Executive Council for their habitant compatriots, who were the majority of the population of Lower Canada, they had to fight the increasing tide of British emigration and the hordes of Scots merchants who set up banks and then clamoured for canals, improved roads, and other expensive schemes requiring public money. Hence Duvernay's publications in the 1830s included political pamphlets such as Viger's Observations ... contre la proposition faite dans le Conseil legislatif (18 35) and some textbooks. Literature in French took the form of sketches and poems in the periodicals, most of it in 18 37-8 being distinguished more by its political emotion than by artistry. Duvernay's own confrontations with the authorities landed him in jail three times by 1836, and his close connection with Louis-Joseph Papineau's Rebellion in 1837 forced him into exile in Vermont for five years. When there was a better climate for literature in the 1850s, his sons issued fiction, songbooks, and local histories, and in 1868 Duvernay Freres were appointed the first Queen's Printer in the new province of Quebec. In 1830 Duvernay printed Michel Bibaud's Epitres, satires, chansons, epigrammes, which contained satires on the four Quebec follies of avarice, envy, laziness, and ignorance. Because it was the first book of poems to be published by a French Canadian, La Minerve (20 October 1831) and the Magasin du Bas-Canada 0anuary 1832) both reprinted a favourable review from La Revue encyclopedique de Paris, which expressed polite astonishment at colonial verses in the manner of Boileau but criticized Bibaud for not describing sufficiently the customs of his society. Bibaud replied that he had not written them 'pour l'horison de la France, mais pour celui du Canada.' The Epitres had no direct literary descendants because the young writers of French Canada would soon model their poetry on Romantic writers such as Alphonse de Lamartine and Victor Hugo, but first of all the intellectual energies of young men between twenty and thirty years old went into politics and nationalism. Two of Duvernay's friends, the bookseller Edouard-Raymond Fabre and his brother-in-law Louis Perrault, also shared his determination to give French Canadians a more active role in public affairs. Fabre began his career in

The Quest for a Colonial Literature 73 the bookstore established by his other brother-in-law, Hector Bossange (1795-1862), who was sent out from Paris in the summer of 1815, soon after hostilities ceased in Europe, to open the Montreal branch of his family 's bookselling firm . Bossange was briefly in partnership with Denis-Benjamin Papineau, the brother of the more famous Louis-Joseph Papineau. By the time Joseph-Victor Delorme had printed their Catalogue in 18 19, the partnership was dissolved because Papineau wanted to look after the family seigneury at Montebello on the Ottawa River, and Bossange had returned for good to Paris, taking with him his young Canadian wife Julie and her brother Edouard-Raymond, who served his apprenticeship in the Paris firm. After Fabre (1799-1854) came back to Montreal in 1823 (the bookstore had been managed in his absence by Theophile Dufort), his shop became a meeting place for intellectuals and politicians. He became the major French-language bookseller and publisher in the 1830s and 1840s, and at the time of his death from cholera had been mayor of Montreal for six years. Fabre's children also played key roles in the life of the country throughout the rest of the century. Edouard-Charles became archbishop of Montreal. Hector (1834-1910) was a well-known journalist who founded L'Evenement of Quebec in 1867; he later served in the Senate and then resided in Paris, where he conducted the French-Canadian newspaper Paris-Canada. Hortense married George-Etienne Cartier, the wily politician who brought Quebec into Confederation. Fabre is the only nineteenth-century bookman to be the subject of a full-length biography in our own day, by JeanLouis Roy, the McGill professor who became editor of Le Devoir in 198 I. 49 Fabre and Duvernay founded the nationalist cultural organization La Societe Saint-} ean-Baptiste in 18 34, and Fabre organized La Maison canadienne, a warehouse intended to break the English monopoly in commerce, which Robert Rumilly calls 'le premier effort d'emancipation economique tente par les Canadiens fran~ais . ' 5° Fabre and Perrault formed their partnership in 183 3 when they bought the radical newspaper The Vindicator and Canadian Advocate, and it was the attack on Perrault's printing office in 18 37 that touched off the troubles in Montreal. During the thirties the Fabre & Perrault publications consisted of agricultural and religious books, and reprints of French textbooks. After the Rebellion Fabre sent money to several of his exiled friends in the United States. On his own after 1842, Perrault printed the second French-Canadian novel, Joseph Doutre's Les Fiances de 1812 : Essai de litterature canadienne ( 1844 ), and two of the earliest devotional books to be printed in Indian syllabic characters, the Cree Chemin de la croix (1856) and the Chippeway Prieres, cantiques et catechisme en langue

74 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada montagnaise ou chipewayan (1857). These two books are now among the rarest of Canadiana. At Quebec City two noteworthy books appeared in 1837, each of them anticipating the awakening interest in the Quebec past, and each published by bookseller William Cowan, who previously had been in partnership with John Neilson's son Samuel. One of them was antiquarian Georges Faribault's Catalogue d'ouvrages sur l'histoire de l'Amerique, the first bibliography to include a list of Canadiana as distinct from Americana. Faribault, the permanent secretary of the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec, compiled his list from the Society's holdings; he himself collected Canadiana for the Assembly Library and twice had the misfortune to see those precious collections go up in smoke, once in the 1849 riots in Montreal over the Rebellion Losses Bill, and again in the 18 54 fire that destroyed the parliament buildings in Quebec City. The other noteworthy volume to appear in 1837 was the first French-Canadian novel, written by the younger Philippe Aubert de Gaspe, L'Inftuence d'un livre, which wove popular legends and superstitions into a tale about the protagonist's search for the philosopher's stone. A Gothic story that grieved over the loss of the unique customs of Quebec and firmly rejected the materialism of American life, it was the harbinger of similar attitudes found in nineteenth-century Quebec literature, and was a telling contrast to Haliburton' s The Clockmaker of the previous year, with its characteristic Nova Scotian envy of and longing for New England's commercial success. PRINTERS, PUBLISHERS, AND AUTHORS IN UPPER CANADA,

1820

TO MID-CENTURY

There was little literary publishing in Upper Canada before mid-century. As in the Maritimes, newspaper proprietors who encouraged the arts were also actively engaged in the political and religious issues of the day. Mrs Moodie stated that in the early 1830s 'Canada was not in a condition to foster a literature of her own, and the Upper Province had not given to the world a native-born author of any distinction' ;5 1 and elsewhere she noted the 'abusive manner' in which local newspapers were written. 52 At Kingston, the most active newspaper and bookselling centre until the 1840s, Hugh Thomson of the Upper Canada Herald printed in 1822 the first volume of verse to be published in Upper Canada (no copy has been located), and the second volume, A Poetical Address to the Liege Men of Every British Colony and Province in the World (1822), by 'A Friend to His Species,' possibly Thomas Dalton. n Thomson also printed Julia Beckwith Hart's novel St Ursula's

The Quest for a Colonial Literature 75

Convent (1824), but these appear to be the only imaginative works from his press. More urgent for Thomson, after he became a member of the Legislative Assembly, was his opposition to some of the Reverend J oho Strachan's proposals to strengthen the position of the Church of England. In 1828 Thomson issued Egerton Ryerson's The Claims of the Churchmen and Dissenters of Upper Canada, which had first appeared as a series of letters in the Herald. Both author and publisher took pains for a work they believed would have good sales, and 1,200 copies were printed at a cost of £115 . 12.0, which included the paper, typesetting, presswork, and stitching. Thomson agreed to sell 500 copies if Ryerson would take 700. But Ryerson would only pay £ 55, and that amount very slowly, while Thomson stood to lose over £60, besides having had all the inconvenience of an error-ridden book that had swelled to half again (232 pages) the number of pages originally agreed to (150 pages). 54 James Macfarlane filled his Kingston Chronicle with original essays, sketches, and poetry, and kept the townsfolk and garrison informed of literary events in London. He printed the New Testament from imported stereotype plates in 1829 and again in 18 30, also reprinted popular textbooks from stereotype plates, and issued an early cookbook The Cook Not Mad; or, Rational Cookery ( 18 3 1). When Kingston served as the first capital of the united Province of Canada from 1841 to 1843, local printers had a field day with government contracts; and Armour & Ramsay of Montreal and Henry Rowsell of Toronto opened branch bookstores. During this decade Dr Edward Barker's The Kingston Whig (est. 1834) was the leading newspaper, and in 1849 it became one of the first dailies in the province. Barker published Barker's Canadian Monthly Magazine (1846-7), which almost bankrupted him, for he ambitiously printed 1,ooo copies although he had only 400 subscribers. ss It soon folded for lack of support. Charles Sangster (1822-93), the most important literary figure to emerge from this city before the 1880s, would liked to have lived by his earnings as an author but was forced to fall back on various clerical and journalistic jobs. Of a nervous and frail constitution, he was born in the Navy Yard, the grandson of a Loyalist and the son of a British Navy carpenter. He worked briefly as a teenager in the garrison, then edited the Amherstburg Courier for one year (1849), returned to Kingston as a bookkeeper and proofreader at the Whig from 1850 to 1861, and later did a stint as reporter for the Daily News. In 1868 he was given a sinecure in the Post Office at Ottawa, the first of several nineteenth-century poets to end up in that department. Sangster had published his poems in newspapers and magazines, including The Literary Garland of Montreal, for some years before his first book The St

76 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada Lawrence and the Saguenay (1857) was issued jointly by the Kingston booksellers John Creighton and John Duff, and by the New York publishers Miller & Orton (who also printed it). Encouraged by favourable reviews, Sangster began preparing Hesperus and Other Poems (1860). Although this book bears the joint publishing imprint of John Creighton and John Lovell of Montreal, presumably it was Sangster who raised the production costs. After the government rejected his petition for a grant, 56 he diligently gathered 1,178 subscriptions ranging in price from 50¢ and 75¢ to $1.00, while the Montreal bookseller Richard Worthington agreed to take 5oo copies at 20¢ each. Other orders came from Peter Sinclair of Quebec for 12; the Education Department for 10; and from Toronto booksellers James Bain (8), William Chewett (9), Rollo & Adam (6), and Ramsay & Armour (7 ). Sangster collected $5 04. 6 5 and paid Lovell $297, and thus may have kept $207, which was hardly all profit. 57 A small edition was also published in London by Trubner from the Canadian sheets. Sangster is often considered the first 'good' poet in English Canada; more accurately, he was one of the first to write poetry in a colloquial British North American style, as in the poem 'I've almost grown a portion of this place' from the Orillia Woods sonnet sequence. Others of his generation, Clothilda Jennings, James De Mille, Thomas D' Arey McGee, Charles Heavysege, and Octave Cremazie, also captured that distinctive North American voice in their verses, having assimilated European Romanticism. Kingston's place as a political, commercial, and publishing centre was pre-empted by Toronto, for the loss of the parliament in 1843, on its peripatetic movements to Montreal (1844-50), Toronto (1851-4), Quebec (1854-65), and finally to Ottawa in 1865, was a heavy blow. Nevertheless, Kingston had a lively community of journalists and writers in the last two decades of the century, among them Principal George Monro Grant of Queen's, the poet George Frederick Cameron, and Agnes Maule Machar, whose half-brother Grant Allen was a popular London novelist in the 1890s. Long before Toronto became the publishing and distributing centre of the Dominion of Canada, its newspapers and magazines set a standard for rigorous enquiry and analysis in politics and religion, and these characteristics were carried over into the seriousness with which cultural affairs were conducted. The city was blessed with brilliant journalists of all parties, from the time of Charles Fothergill, William Lyon Mackenzie, and Egerton Ryerson in the twenties and thirties, to the era of Hugh Scobie and George Brown in the forties and fifties. Up to mid-century this small town (9,256 population when it was incorporated in 1834), chiefly famous for its muddy streets and a few handsome Regency-style buildings, turned out jobwork,

The Quest for a Colonial Literature 77 pamphlets on politics, education, and religion, and far fewer literary works than Halifax, Quebec, or Montreal. The literary magazines that appeared in Toronto and nearby towns were even more short-lived than those of Halifax and Montreal. The earliest one in Ontario was J.M. Cawdell's The Roseharp ( 182 3) at York, for which Cawdell himself provided most of the material. Three literary fortnightlies flourished in Hamilton in the early thirties, The Canadian Casket ( 1831 -2), The Voyager (1832-3), and The Canadian Garland (1832-3). The Voyager was edited by Stephen Randal, a former teacher who at that time was editing the Hamilton Free Press; and in 1837 he issued Randal's Magazine at Hallowell (Picton). In Toronto two competing magazines appeared in 1833, The Canadian Magazine, edited by Captain William Sibbald and published by the King's Printer Robert Stanton; and The Canadian Literary Magazine, which was edited by John Kent, published by George Gurnett, and printed by Irish newspaperman Thomas Dalton. Kent included selections by Susanna Moodie, Dr William 'Tiger' Dunlop, and Henry Scadding, but his Canadian Literary Magazine lasted only two issues. All the periodicals aimed at promoting 'the cause of Canadian literature,' 58 as Captain Sibbald put it. One of the most intellectually active newspaper editors, William Lyon Mackenzie (1797-1863) of The Colonial Advocate, issued polemical pamphlets such as The Legislative Black List of Upper Canada (1826) and Catechism of Education (1830) as part of his mission to reform Upper Canadian politics along the democratic lines of President Andrew Jackson's United States. Like Howe, he wished to develop his book-publishing ventures, but he was more successful as a bookseller and literary patron, for he organized the York Mechanics' Institute ( 18 30), promoted the Scottish publishers' home education libraries by importing them in cheap American reprints, prophesied an imperial copyright law, supported the local paper manufacturers, and wrote the first analysis of the colonial book trade, 'On Printers & Publishers,' in the Advocate (6 April 1826). Hugh Scobie (18II-53), whom Egerton Ryerson called 'the leading bookseller, stationer, and publisher in Toronto,' 59 took an active role in scientific societies, but his liberal-conservative newspaper The British Colonist (est. 1838) was his first love, just as the Reform-liberal newspaper The Globe (est. 1844) was for George Brown, another Scot whose office did a large amount of job printing during the rest of the century. Besides issuing textbooks, Scobie published Paul Kane's Catalogue of Sketches of Indians, and Indian Chiefs, Landscapes, Dances, Costumes ( 1848) and William Smith's Alazon, and Other Poems (1850), but he was chiefly praised for the Canadian Almanac, first issued in 1848,and for being the driving forces behind The

78 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada

Canadian Journal ( 18 52-78), whose first volume he printed. The Canadian Journal was successful because its subscription was tied to the memberships of the Toronto Canadian Institute, and its emphasis on canals, railroads, and engineering ventures gained the attention of business and government. Its first editor, geologist and college teacher Henry Youle Hind, later edited the Journal of the Board of Arts and Manufactures for Upper Canada from 1861 to 1863, and the British-American Magazine in 1863. Furthermore, The Canadian Journal, along with its contemporary, Thomas Maclear's AngloAmerican Magazine (1852-5), which was founded to offset the flood of American magazines, began a mid-Victorian trend away from purely literary subjects and towards a mix of cultural and scientific articles that was to characterize the national magazines that were published in Toronto from 1870 to 1900. The London-born Henry Rowsell ( 1807-90) has a better claim than Scobie to be called a 'leading' bookseller and publisher. He opened a bookstore soon after he came to Canada in 1833, added a printing office and bindery to his operations, and had a branch bookstore in Kingston. His first partner was his brother William, and the next was Samuel Thompson, from 1848 to 1853. One of Rowsell's first literary publications was Richard Ryland's historical romance The Coiners of Pompeii (1845), and in 1847-9 Rowsell published a promising but short-lived literary annual The Maple Leaf or, Canadian Annual, which was edited by the Reverend John McCaul, the professor of classics who became president of King's College, Toronto, in 1849. When William Kirby offered him the narrative poem The U.E.; A Tale of Upper Canada, Rowsell rejected it in words that must have been heard by many authors: Book publishing & especially [poetry] is not by any means a profitable speculation in Canada. The only way in which such a publication would stand any chance of even paying its expenses, would be by getting a sufficient number of responsible persons to put down their names as subscribers, before the work went to Press. This is an arrangement which could be carried into effect, only through the personal influence of the Author & his friends, & you only can therefore decide whether or not it would be worth the attempt. Should you decide upon its publication, I should be happy to make arrangements with you respecting it, but as a speculation at my own risk, I feel it necessary respectfully to decline undertaking it. 60

Under such circumstances, an author determined on publishing imaginative works needed great perseverance as well as cash of his own. Twelve years later Kirby had the poem printed at his own expense at the Niagara Mail office. He

The Quest for a Colonial Literature 79 was more successful with his attack on the Tory businessmen of Montreal when they turned against Lord Elgin, set fire to the Parliament Buildings, and advocated annexation with the United States. His Counter Manifesto to the Annexationists of Montreal (Niagara: Davidson 1849), published under his pseudonym 'Britannicus,' so pleased the government that it ordered 8,000 copies to be printed by Alexander Davidson and distributed these around the province. 61 Kirby gained the reputation as the Loyalist defender of an independent Canada within the British Empire but got little money out of his fame. Rowsell did much of his business as a printer for the Church of England and for the University of Toronto. With his next partners, John Ellis from 1857 to 1863, and Henry Hutchison, who joined him in 1872 and carried on the firm after Rowsell's retirement in 1880, he became more active in trade publishing although his lists were always characterized by scholarly works such as the Reverend John McCaul's well-received archaeological study, Britanno-Roman Inscriptions ( 1863), the sheets of which were sent to London for the Longman edition of the same year. What also ensured Rowsell's survival was his evolution into an agency for imported magazines and books in the 1860s, when he and other Toronto booksellers began extending their wholesale business over a large region rather than, as formerly, confining it to one city. LITERARY PUBLISHING IN MONTREAL AND QUEBEC CITY,

1840-67

Despite Halifax's claim to Haliburton, the literary centre of the country in I 840 was Montreal, where a spirit of renewal was taking place on the assumption that the difficulties that provoked the 1837 Rebellion would be sorted out. While Lord Durham's mission did not in the long run really clear away the antagonisms between French and British, Durham: himself was committed to implementing cabinet, or 'responsible,' government as in Britain. In the wake of the Rebellion a London Times correspondent arrived in Montreal with the purpose of discrediting Durham as part of the Times's Tory attack on the Whig administration in Britain. But a sea change took place, and the reporter, a Canadian-born ex-professional soldier, Major John Richardson, endorsed Durham's reforms when he saw at first hand the true state of the Canadas. Richardson ( 1796-185 2) was born in Queenston and raised in the Windsor area, saw action as an adolescent in the War of 181 2, was briefly held prisoner in the United States, and then left Upper Canada in 1818 to pursue a military and literary career in Britain, with postings in the West

80 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada

Indies and in Spain. In both professions he proved to be a temperamental and impetuous man, not however without wit and imagination; he had come close to being court-martialled while on duty in Spain in 1837 and was saved only by influential friends. Richardson's first novel, £carte; or, The Salons of Paris ( 1829 ), encouraged him to issue a sequel, Frascati's; or, Scenes in Paris ( 18 30), which was written jointly with Justin Brenan; both novels were published by Henry Colburn, the purveyor of fashionable fiction . Richardson got £100 for Frascati's, but it was not a success. 62 More important, he was the author of Wacousta; Or, The Prophecy: A Tale of the Canadas (1832), an historical romance of the Pontiac War written in imitation of James Fenimore Cooper's historical romances of the American revolutionary period. This Gothic tale, filled with family curses, disguises, and violence, was the first artistically successful Canadian novel. W acousta was published in London by Thomas Cadell to favourable reviews; the most popular of his works, it went through twenty-three editions up to 1967. Thus Richardson arrived back home at an opportune time for Canadian literature, an established author who intended to place his country and himself in the literary firmament. Although the Times job soon evaporated and with it the £400 salary, Richardson had struck up a friendship with the dashing Lord Durham, from whom he hoped to secure a political reward. But Richardson's enemies from his old regiment and his quirky behaviour in Montreal cut him off from a social and political career in that city, and he spent the next fourteen years in a restless search for a living. 63 His only sinecure was as Superintendent of Police on the Welland Canal. Meanwhile, he hoped to get into book publishing by running newspapers in Brockville, Kingston, and Montreal. In 1838-40 he tried to interest booksellers in publishing his Personal Memoirs, and he completed the sequel to Wacousta, entitled The Canadian Brothers; Or, The Prophecy Fulfilled (Montreal: Armour & Ramsay 1840), a haunting semiautobiographical tragedy of two brothers destroyed by lust and treachery in the War of 18 12 . Portions of The Canadian Brothers were given to editor John Gibson for his Literary Garland in 1839, and when the novel was being printed the following year at John Lovell's plant, Richardson came to Montreal to see it through the press. It was a landmark occasion, for The Literary Garland, which itself was trying to lay 'a cornerstone to Canadian literature, ' 64 predicted that The Canadian Brothers would establish 'a literary character in the country. ' 65 For Richardson this edition was, as he told William Hamilton Merritt, the springboard for an English edition. 'I shall thereby more readily make my own terms with a London publisher ... ' It was a financial failure although it got good notices, and Richardson later said he might as well have published it in Kamtschatka. 66 There was no English

The Quest for a Colonial Literature 8 1 edition but there were several American ones, pirated and otherwise, under the title Matilda Montgomery, which were 'edited' for American readers who might not sympathize with Richardson's strong British sentiments. He kept hoping for a break, either another sinecure or profits, but apart from a small payment for The Canadian Brothers and for the Literary Garland articles, all he got from the Canadian government was £250 for the War of 1812 (published by himself at Brockville in 1842 ), a work he planned to enlarge into two more volumes had the education department been willing to adopt it. In his Eight Years in Canada, published by H.H. Cunningham in 1847, he bemoaned his fate: of the 250 subscribers for The Canadian Brothers, two-thirds took the book and the other third begged off, some of them complaining that the price was too high. He blamed its failure on the American system of piracy: Accustomed as the American bookseller is to pounce upon every new English publication, and to reprint from it forthwith, he is ... enabled to sell the work at very little more than the cost of paper and printing, and, until very recently, these re-publications found their way into Canada, where they have naturally created a desire for cheap literature. That an author should be paid for the fruit of his brain, or indemnified for the hours of application devoted to his composition, are considerations foreign to their purposes. 67

Finally the magnet of New York drew him from Canada, and from 1848 until his miserable death in 1 8 52 in a Chelsea district boardinghouse, Richardson engaged in hack journalism and the revision of his novels for DeWitt & Davenport, and frequented the bookstores along Broadway. It was a rotten end for a man who gave his country two popular novels and three fine contemporary historical accounts. John Lovell, who printed The Canadian Brothers for the Montreal booksellers Armour & Ramsay, was the most famous printer-publisher in nineteenth-century Canada. Born at Bandon, County Cork, Ireland, Lovell (1810-93) came to Canada in 1820 and served his apprenticeship with E.V. Sparhawk of Montreal. Lovell formed a partnership in 1836 with Donald Macdonald to publish The Montreal Transcript, but they dissolved the arrangement by mutual consent in April 1838. Lovell, a lifetime conservative and protectionist, had briefly served in the milita during the 1837 troubles. Next he formed a partnership with his brother-in-law John Gibson, who persuaded him they could compete with American magazines. For over a decade they were relatively successful. While Lovell managed the ever-growing printing plant, Gibson devoted

82 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada most of his energies to The Literary Garland (1838-51). The Garland carried original sketches, tales and poetry, reviews of new publications at home and abroad, and literary criticism, and even offered its subscribers music and engravings. In its final year Mrs Eliza L. Cushing acted as editor, and then, ironically, the Garland was done to death by the success in Canada of Harper's New Monthly Magazine (est. June 1850), and it folded in December 18 51. The Literary Garland was the first magazine in this country to pay its contributors. Mrs Susanna Moodie estimated that during the 1840s she earned annually from £20 to £40 from The Literary Garland, 68 and she recorded with gratitude in Roughing It in the Bush (1852) that when her life was at its lowest ebb in late 18 37 Lovell offered to pay her £5 a page (that is, a sheet) for contributions. 69 As a struggling writer with her sisters in England in the twenties, she had witnessed the birth of the new seasonal, popular book trade in London; and in Canada she and her sister Catharine Parr Traill (they both married half-pay officers) hoped to emulate the prosperous career of their other sister Agnes Strickland, the author of the popular The Queens of England. Susanna and Catharine are the best known of that large group of educated English gentlefolk who emigrated to the Canadas between the twenties and the sixties, and whose writings acutely registered their culture shock when their ideal of a genteel, cultivated life ran headlong into the ignorance and crudity of pioneer townships. While the Moodies and Traills spent the years 1833 to 1840 'roughing it' as pioneers near Lakefield, both women sold sketches and poems in Canada, the United States, and England. Catharine (1799-1898) had the first success with her letters The Backwoods of Canada ( 18 36), for which the Religious Tract Society gave her £100 and an additional £50 in 1842.7° Catharine loved rural life and lived most of her life on farms, until as a very old lady she was given the gift of an island on Rice Lake. After the Moodies moved to Belleville, where the Colonel had been appointed the sheriff of Hastings County, Susanna (1803-85) found writing easier and the markets somewhat better. The goal was always London publication, just as it was for Haliburton and Richardson. As early as 1842 she told John Lovell, in a note thanking him for shipping her a piano: 'If I had time I would try Moodie's publisher Bentley of London. My sister Agnes's name would be a great help to me now in selling a book of my own. ' 71 By 1847-8 she had six sketches of her bush life serialized in The Literary Garland; these were augmented, revised, and her husband added some sketches, and the completed manuscript was sent to Richard Bentley in London under the care of her friend John Bruce, who saw the MS through the press. Recognizing a winner, Bentley asked Bruce to cut out some of the

The Quest for a Colonial Literature 83 poetry, and he offered Mrs Moodie an advance of £20 on the half-profits to come. 71 This was the start of a warm correspondence. He was so pleased with the sales of two editions of Roughing It in the Bush, or Forest Life in Canada ( 18 52) that he gave her an advance of£ 5o for Mark H urdlestone ( 18 53), 73 and she entered the most productive years of her career. On 29 June 1852 he suggested she should prepare a contemporary portrait of 'Society in the large towns & cities of Canada, ' 74 which may have been the origin of, or the impetus to finish, Life in the Clearings ( 18 53), part of which was based on her 1848 trip to Toronto. Roughing It in the Bush was pirated by Putnam of New York, where the editor of Putnam's Magazine, Charles Frederick Bruce (who signed himself 'C.F.B. '), edited it for American readers and thus angered the reviewer in The Anglo-American Magazine,7 5 for it was the slightly altered pirated edition that circulated from Nova Scotia to Canada West. Bentley told Mrs Moodie in 18 53 to negotiate directly with Putnam as long as the London edition were published first. But he arranged to send advance sheets of Matrimonial Speculations (1855) to Robert DeWitt of New York, who by 1858 advertised in his edition of Geoffrey Moncton (1858), 'By special arrangement with Mrs Moodie we are now the sole publisher of her works in America.' These were Susanna Moodie's good years; altogether she received from Bentley over a five-year period about £258.9.0, of which Roughing It in the Bush cleared the most profit, at least £100.7 6 This work had its first Canadian edition by Thomas Maclear in 1871, and has been in print every generation since its first appearance. In gauging the tastes of her English public, Mrs Moodie was at her best dealing with the Canada that she began by hating and slowly came to love, while her sentimental, bland fictions set in Britain obscured her unique gifts, and these novels sank without a trace into the sea of Victorian minor fiction. With Mrs Moodie, the genteel tradition arrived full-fledged in The Literary Garland. Although Lovell printed several important literary works in the 1840s and 1850s, usually the financial risk was taken by someone else. He built up his establishment by his quality printing in both languages of newspapers, magazines, directories, and government publications. In 1849 he married Sarah Kurczyn, the daughter of a local merchant, and most of their twelve children married into the book trade. All six sons became printers, and the eldest boy, Robert, inherited the firm, which is still in the hands of his descendants. When Lovell got a major ten-year printing contract from the government in 1850, Gibson went to Toronto to manage their new branch plant. Gibson's wife and sons ran the Lovell & Gibson firm until 1868, after which Gibson Brothers conducted a printing office for some years. By the 1860s Lovell was well known as the Canadian publisher, and he

84 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada

received numerous tributes to his kindness and generosity. Sarah Lovell's Reminiscences of Seventy Years ( 1907 ), privately printed for her children, tells how the Lovells looked after the Confederate president Jefferson Davis after he fled from the South in 1865, and of their entertainments for the factory staff, as well as for the Moodies, the Leprohons, the McGees, Charles Sangster, William Lighthall, and Frederick George Scott at their fashionable St Catherine Street home, on the site where The Bay department store now stands. Lord Durham's presence also stimulated French-language writing. His Report recommended the union of the two Canadas and the assimilation of the French into Anglo-Saxon society. If that were not bad enough, his reason itself was a slur on the French Canadians as a 'people with no history and no literature, ' 77 which spurred the intellectuals to action, in particular the two writers who were called the fathers of French-Canadian literature, the historian Fran~ois-Xavier Garneau and the poet Octave Cremazie. Garneau (1809-63), who already was known as a journalist and poet, was the son of a carriage-maker and innkeeper. He took his law training in the Quebec office of Archibald Campbell, who gave the young man full access to his fine library of French and English works. Soon after he had passed the bar exams, Garneau made his pilgrimage to London and Paris in 183 1-2, savouring literary and political life and finding a perspective on his homeland. While serving as private secretary to Denis-Benjamin Viger, who was the provincial agent in London, Garneau observed closely the workings of the British political and commercial system, which gave him important insights for his Histoire . Garneau came home to pursue a literary career, founded several cheap papers, L'Abeille canadienne (1833-4) and L'Institut (1841), which were intended to educate artisans, and in 1837-8 he published poems in the newspapers in honour of the patriotes. These paid no money, but in 1842 he was appointed French translator to the new Province of Canada Legislature at Kingston, Canada West, where he began a careful study of his country's past. After three years of meticulous research during which he ruined his health (he was subject to epileptic fits), he returned to Quebec and was appointed Clerk to the city council. He also had completed the first two volumes (down to 1790) of his Histoire du Canada depuis sa decouverte jusqu'a nos jours (Quebec: N. Aubin, Vol. 1, 1845; Vol. 11, 1846), for which he advertised for subscribers through 184 5. The Histoire was not only one of the most carefully written books but one of the most carefully edited and revised. In January 1845 his friend Augustin-Norbert Morin, now one of the members of the Lafontaine-Baldwin ministry, offered advice on the mechanics and style of

The Quest for a Colonial Literature 8 5 the book after he and P.-J .-0. Chauveau had read the proofs. 78 The book was printed at a cost of £27. 10.779 by Garneau's friend Napoleon Aubin, the Swiss journalist who published the satiric newspaper Le Fantasque (1837-45). As the publishing event of the decade, the Histoire was well received at first, including a favourable review in 1847 in the Nouvelle Revue encyclopedique of Paris. Before the third volume appeared in 1848 (Quebec: J .-B. Frechette 1848), Garneau found archives everywhere opening up for him, including the New York State Archives through the courtesy of the archivist Edmund O'Callaghan, the former editor of The Vindicator now in exile; the records of the bishops of Quebec; and the papers of the early governors, through the courtesy of Lord Elgin. Yet in spite of its good reception, the Histoire's publication costs could not be met by subscriptions and even the first edition was issued by two different publishers. Garneau turned to the government, which agreed in 1847 to buy 150 copies, and on 25 May 1849 voted him $1,000 to continue research. 80 He had hoped to use the grant for publishing an edition in Paris, but had still not received the money in December when he told O'Callaghan that 'les travaux de ce genre rapportant peu de fruit d'aucune espece en Canada.' But he was pleased that 'je me crea une existence fort interessant dans les scenes agitees du passe.' 81 Two months later (18 February 1850), he was saddened to tell Etienne Parent that the third volume had sold even more poorly ('encore plus mal') than the others. 82 By December of that year he had given up the idea of a Paris edition, or even an English one in London, because the expenses of mailing the manuscript, correcting proofs, and other delays seemed insurmountable. 83 He was very pleased when Fabre sent him £48. 10. 7 as his share of sales, in July 18 53. 84 The second edition, revised and enlarged, of the Histoire was issued in three volumes in 1852 by John Lovell's Quebec branch. Garneau had been criticized for the first edition's liberal and Gallican anti-clericalism, which was now softened, and this was moderated even more for the third edition of 1859, particularly as his friendship with the ultramontanist man of letters l'Abbe Casgrain ripened in the 1850s. The 1859 edition was printed by Pierre Lamoureux, who inherited Lovell's Quebec branch, and this time the government of Canada took 150 copies. 85 What really popularized the Histoire was its adoption as a textbook once the anti-clericalism was removed; Garneau prepared an abridged question-and-answer version in 1856, Abrege de l'histoire du Canada, published by Augustin Cote of Le journal de Quebec. The Abrege appeared in a second revised and corrected edition from Cote in 1858, and another printing of this edition by Jean Rolland of Montreal in 18 58 was called the third edition. Within twenty-five years Cote had issued over 30,000 copies of the Abrege. 86

86 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada

Unfortunately, the English translation that Garneau in 1859 arranged with John Lovell was inaccurate, and was the source of many misunderstandings. Part of the trouble was the translator whom Lovell engaged, Andrew Bell, a Scottish journalist who venerated General James Wolfe and who was currently editor of The Pilot, a Reform newspaper in Montreal. The translation was not faithful, for Bell gave his own interpretations of a number of events. This Lovell edition appeared in 1860, followed by a revised second edition in two volumes in 1862., a third edition by Richard Worthington of Montreal in 1866, and another 'third' edition by Belford Brothers of Toronto in 1876. 87 When Garneau heard about the 1862. edition, he politely suggested that Lovell should 'donner une petite part de vos profits a l'auteur,' 88 and asked if he might contribute improvements. Lovell evidently agreed, but two weeks later Garneau, having examined the Bell edition, withdrew his offer saying that he simply did not have the time to correct Bell's mistakes and additions. 89 The impact of Garneau's Histoire was almost immeasurable. It went through further editions in Canada and France down to our own day, and although new evidence has come to light, its scientific and carefully documented approach, its dramatization of the past, and its placing of New France's problems in the larger European and American contexts have made it a classic. Garneau's Histoire encouraged two other large-scale ventures which also got swamped until they were rescued by government grants. The first work was Robert Christie's Tory reply to Garneau, A History of the Late Province of Lower Canada (3 vols, 1848-50), which was printed and published by Thomas Cary, jr, of Quebec, but Cary went bankrupt and had to drop the project even though he was soon back in business. The final three volumes of Christie's History (1853, 1854, 1855) were therefore printed by John Lovell. Although Lovell was not its publisher, Christie praised both Cary and Lovell for their help, and he himself persuaded the government to 'guarantee him against pecuniary loss by engaging to take of the publishers' 1,000 copies of Volume IV for £250.9° The other project drew on the efforts of a host of copiers (among them was Louis-Joseph Papineau, who during his exile in Paris copied documents for Garneau and the Canadian government), editors, and publisher Augustin Cote for a three-volume edition of the Relations des Jesuits (1858). A reprint of the Relations was first broached in 185 1 by the Reverend Louis-Edouard Bois, who told Cote, '!'execution de cette oeuvre patriotique donnerait du relief avotre maison. ' 91 Cote (1818-1904), who published many historical and religious works on Quebec during his long career, and who was the first

The Quest for a Colonial Literature 87 publisher to prepare a retrospective Catalogue ( 1896) of all his publications, agreed to this undertaking. Bois began his editorial work but even after four years there were still not enough subscribers to cover the cost of printing. Then in 185 4 the fire in the Legislative Library at Quebec City destroyed priceless editions of the Relations originally issued in Paris between 1632 and 1673 by Sebastien Cramoisie and other booksellers. In October 1854, P.-J .-0. Chauveau, now the provincial secretary, petitioned the House on the importance of having these documents in print in Canada, but there was foot-dragging until George-Etienne Cartier, the next provincial secretary, provided funds for the production of 1,000 copies of the Relations. This edition, apart from Lovell's Canada Directory issued in 1857, was the largest publishing venture to date in the country, and cost $6,448, about $848 more than was anticipated. 92 'Done tout fait bien qui finit bien,' an elderly Cote sighed many years later. 93 Cote's firm, which was established in 184.2 to print Le Journal de Quebec, is the least known of the major nineteenth-century offices, for as Raymond Tanghe observed in 196.2, 'II est vraiment dommage que l'on connaisse peu de choses sur cet homme qui, pendant plus de cinquante ans a joue un role si important clans l'histoire culturelle de notre pays.'94 Garneau's efforts soon had an impact on literary men as well. One of the first 'realistic' novels about Quebec appeared in Louis-Octave Letourneau's monthly magazine L'Album de la Minerve through 1847, P.-J.-O. Chauveau's Charles Guerin, roman de moeurs canadiennes, which examined the problems implicit in the narrow range of professions open to the graduates of the classical colleges - the Church, law, and medicine: The appearance in book form in 18 53 of this popular work was also a landmark in Quebec publishing. At this time Chauveau was Solicitor-General in the Hincks-Morin ministry, and in two more years he would be Superintendent of Education for Canada East. It was printed by John Lovell and had a title page engraved by John Walker; its publisher, Georges-Hippolyte Cherrier, congratulated himself in the 'Avis de l'editeur' for his 'acte de courage et de hon exemple, en achetant ... une oeuvre litteraire. ' 95 He decided not to seek for advance subscriptions and arranged for a deluxe edition priced at 7s.6d., but took the precaution of issuing the novel in six parts in 1852-3. Between the serialization and book publication of Charles Guerin, James Huston issued the first anthology of Canadian literature, Le Repertoire national (1848-50), for which he rescued sketches, tales, poetry, and essays scattered throughout fifty years of periodicals. Huston wrote in his introduction that Canadian literature was not yet composed, for what already existed was 'pour la plupart !'oeuvre de jeunes gens dont le gout n'etait pas encore bien forme, et que les etudes et la

88 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada connaissance du monde n'avaient pas encore muris. ' 96 This work also came from] ohn Lovell's presses and was issued in monthly parts, which was a tried and proven way of reaching a wider market than an expensive volume could reach, as well as a useful way of keeping a printery supplied with work over a period of months. The Chambers brothers of Edinburgh issued their Library of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge in parts in the 18 30s, and Dickens and Thackeray issued several novels in parts as a way of fighting the London publishers' marketing of three-volume novels in small editions at 31s. The major poet of this generation was Octave Cremazie ( 1827-79), whose problems as businessman and artist were perhaps even more tragic than Richardson's. As a young man he was one of the earliest members of the Quebec City lnstitut Canadien in 1847, the year in which he and his brother Jacques moved their bookstore to the rue de la Fabrique in the Upper Town, which became the first literary salon in French Canada. Cremazie took great pleasure travelling to France, visiting the Bossanges in Paris, and bringing home the latest books along with a good supply of wines and cheeses for the men and smart new parasols for the ladies. To mark the alliance between France and Britain in the Crimean War, Napoleon III sent a goodwill mission to Canada in 18 55, and the French flag - now the tricolour rather than the lilies - was flown officially for the first time in almost 100 years when the frigate La Capricieuse under Commandant de Belveze sailed up the St Lawrence to an enthusiastic reception. The event sparked two of Cremazie's most popular poems, both filled with the echoes of a glorious French past, the 'Chant du vieux soldat canadien' and 'Le Drapeau de Carillon.' But Cremazie did not have much of a head for business, and the accounts and loans were in such a mess by the autumn of 1862 that rather than face bankruptcy and possibly a jail sentence, he panicked and fled the country, only to spend the last seventeen years of his life in a France that had little relation to the land of his imagination. The Bossanges looked after him and his Quebec friends tried to encourage him, but his career as a poet was finished . In a despairing mood he once told Abbe Casgrain, 'I have been a bad merchant and a mediocre poet,' forgetting the great help he had been to the students and young priests who 'bought works of real value and devoted their slim savings to the masterpieces of literature. ' 97 Cremazie published no books during his life, but after his death Casgrain andJ.-H.-B. Chouinard issued his Oeuvres completes in 1882, published by Beauchemin & Valois of Montreal. By the late fifties the circle at Cremazie's bookstore had evolved into l'ecole patriotique, clustering around the imposing and energetic Abbe Henri-Raymond Casgrain (1831-1904), who never forgot the thrill of excitement when he first read Garneau and Cremazie as a

The Quest for a Colonial Literature 89 young man, so inspired that he set out to 'create Canadian literature. ' 98 Casgrain and his group stage-managed the flowering of French-language writing in 1861 when they persuaded Brousseau Freres of Quebec to 'publier une Revue litteraire anos (that is, Brousseau's] risques et perils, ' 99 the famous Les Soirees canadiennes: Recueil de litterature nationale ( 1861-5 ), which took as its motto Charles Nodier's statement, 'Hatons-nous de raconter les delicieuses histoires du peuple avant qu 'il les ait oubliees. " 0 ° Four friends F.-A. Hubert Larue, Joseph-Charles Tache, Antoine Gerin-Lajoie, and Casgrain - all acted as editors and shared a common interest in popularizing legends and historical subjects. The most famous work to come from Les Soirees canadiennes was Gerin-Lajoie's novel Jean Rivard le defricheur, which eulogized the land, the Church, and the traditional agricultural ways as the model for Quebec rather than American life. It was published in book form in 1874 by J .B. Rolland & Fils and has remained in print through successive editions in French and English. Casgrain made the first attempts at literary criticism, and his correspondence with Cremazie helped clarify his approaches. In a famous passage Cremazie told him: The more I think about the fate of Canadian literature, the less chance I find of its leaving a trace in history. What [French] Canada lacks is a language of its own. If we spoke Iroquois or Huron our literature would live. Unfortunately we speak and write in a pitiable way, it is true - the language of Bossuet and Racine. It is useless to say or do anything; from the literary point of view we shall always be a mere colony. ' 0 '

At the beginning Les Soirees canadiennes had a subscription list of 850 (1,500 copies were printed), but the editorial committee decided in 1862 that they were the proprietors and demanded a share in the profits. (Cremazie wrote from France advising Casgrain to pay contributors.) During the prolonged fight that ensued with the Brousseaus - the most famous literary squabble in French Canada in the century - Casgrain and Gerin-Lajoie proposed a new magazine to George Pascal Desbarats and his son George Edouard Desbarats, who wished to become patrons of literature. They published Le Foyer canadien ( 1863-6) for its first two years, and the editorial board, except for Tache, deserted the Brousseaus, and Gerin-Lajoie published the second part of his novel jean Rivard, economiste (1864) in Le Foyer canadien. This magazine started off with 2,000 subscriptions while Les Soirees canadiennes, under Tache's editorship, almost immediately dropped to 400. 102 As Deputy Minister of Agriculture in the seventies, Tache played an important role in formulating dominion copyright legislation. The Desbarats up to this time had specialized in printing official

90 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada publications and legal works. Pierre Edouard Desbarats, the first of the family to settle in Canada, served as the King's law printer from 1798 to 1815. His son George Pascal Desbarats (1806-64) was apprenticed to Thomas Cary, jr, and briefly in the thirties was Cary's partner. In the forties George Pascal and Stewart Derbishire formed a partnership as Queen's Printers in Kingston, Montreal, Toronto, and Quebec City. In the 1860s after George Edouard (1836-93) entered his father's firm, and with the shift towards trade publishing, one of their first publications was the second edition of the elder Philippe Aubert de Gaspe's Les Anciens Canadiens (1864), which had been privately printed in 1863. Aubert de Gaspe (1786-1871), a survivor from a long-gone era, included in this semi-autobiographical historical novel all the aspects of social life he could recall, telling the fictional story of the Scotsman Archibald Cameron of Locheil and Jules d'Haberville, whose friendship is tested by the Seven Years' War. One of the most influential novels of the ancien regime, it appeared the same year as Rosanna Leprohon's romance of the post-Conquest years, Antoinette de Mirecourt (Montreal: Lovell 1864), and it influenced later historical romances by Joseph Marmette, William Kirby, Charles G.D. Roberts, and Gilbert Parker. Encouraged by its reception, Aubert de Gaspe began his Memoires (1866), a more free-flowing account of his recollections than the novel. This was also published by George Edouard Desbarats, whose other publications included Pamphile Lemay's first book Essais poetiques ( 186 5), and the first manual of Canadian literature, Bibliotheca Canadensis ( 1867), by the young and indefatigable compiler Henry J. Morgan. The literary magazines found it as hard to survive as the authors. Garneau's L 'Institut ( 1841) did not appeal to workmen. The temperance public in Nova Scotia did not save Sarah Herbert's The Olive Branch (1843-5). The Literary Garland enticed subscribers with steel engravings and new music. The Moodies issued The Victoria Magazine (1847-8) to improve the artisans of Belleville, who did not stampede the booksellers for copies, even though the Moodies were certain they could have made a financial go of it had not their publisher Joseph Wilson got into financial trouble. The Provincial (1851-3) and the Anglo-American Magazine (1853-6) branched beyond literature to deal with current affairs, but the former could not get subscribers, and the latter was done in by subscribers who would not pay up and by the depression of 1856. Others, such as John Ross's Ross's Weekly (1859-63) of Charlottetown, vainly tried to ignore politics, but Ross finally had to report on the Civil War when other contributions stopped coming. The Saturday Reader (1865-7), a gossipy literary magazine published by W.B. Cordier of Montreal, ingeniously tried to bolster its sagging circulation by offering a

The Quest for a Colonial Literature 91 sewing machine to each subscriber who brought in ten more subscribers. Most damaging of all were the British and American magazines which poured in everywhere. Yet the demise of The Colonial Pearl, The Amaranth, and The Literary Garland were widely reported and remembered for years. The literary magazines pursued a goal as yet far more uncertain than those of the agricultural and church magazines, and struggled to give readers and writers alike a sense of the necessary place of literature in nation-building. As Hector Fabre, the journalist son of the bookseller, observed in 1866: 'Avant les Soirees Canadiennes, nos ecrivains n'avaient point encore ose arborer un drapeau separe, distinct; ils etaient aisement confondus avec la foule des journalistes; leurs ecrits etaient perdus, ala premiere page des journeaux, au milieu des nouvelles etrangeres et des correspondances locales. " 03 It is no wonder that Andrew Spedon in his Rambles among the Blue-Noses was gloomy about authorship. Heavysege's Saul (1857) was not supported; James Croil's Dundas; or, A Sketch of Canadian History, the first county history in Canada, got no patronage; Ebenezer Clemo's Canadian Homes did not do well; Susanna Moodie was censured by her Canadian critics even though she won favour abroad; Catharine Parr Traill fared no better; and Sangster was resolving not to write any more. Alexander Mclachlan, 'the Upper Canada bard,' Spedon reported, 'was determined not to yield to the vicissitudes of literary misfortune, and he became the travelling salesman of his own work; but at length he finds that lecturing to intending emigrants is a more lucrative employment.'' 04 In 1826 William Lyon Mackenzie explained that 'very few books of any sort are printed in the colonies,'' 05 partly because readers depended upon imported cheap American books. This importation grew so enormously between 1840 and the 1860s that E.H. Dewart in the preface to his Selections from Canadian Poets (Montreal: Lovell 1864) accused the booksellers of ignoring native writers 'because they made good sales and large profits on British and American works, which were already popular, and seldom pushed Canadian books.' He concluded that 'our colonial position ... is not favorable to the growth of an indigenous literature. ' 106 Between 1840 and 1867 the limitations on authorship and native publishing were crystallized into patterns that would last into the twentieth century. In order to survive, authors had to be journalists and had to find markets abroad, as a local audience slowly manifested itself. Works such as Joseph Bouchette's The British Dominions in North America (1832), Mrs Traill's The Backwoods of Canada (1836), and Haliburton's The Old judge (1849) were never issued in their authors' lifetimes in Canada. Authors who did publish in Canada

92 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada were frequently expected to pay for their own works, even when these were subscribed for in advance. Provincial governments occasionally gave publication grants or agreed to buy a stipulated number of copies of a book, although they preferred to support literary and scientific organizations. There were signs of specialized markets too; newspapers had already reached out beyond party supporters to farmers and mechanics.Joining the never-ending spate of religious publications were scientific and philosophical treatises by such university scholars as John William Dawson and Daniel Wilson; from the 1850s, pamphlets on canals, railways, industry, and western development; and from the 186os, local histories. While these problems of authorship were defining themselves, three other events were changing the market for books. One was the struggle of booksellers to get cheap reprints into the country after the Imperial Copyright Law of 1842 prohibited them; another was the emergence of a textbook trade, a boon to booksellers and to some printers ; and the third was the revolution in printing technology.

3 Bookselling from 1820 to 1867 Libraries and Mechanics' Institutes; Foreign Reprints and Imperial Copyright; the Textbook Trade

The efforts of newspapermen, clergy, and educators to encourage reading, and thereby enlarge the market for books, received impetus from two related events abroad. The adult education movement in Britain saw the introduction of educational books for adults and children, and in fact this era was noted for the quality of books written for children. The importation of cheap books from Britain and especially from the United States prepared the way for a mass reading public later in the century, but in the 1840s it drew British North America into international copyright disputes. By the mid-sixties wholesale and retail bookselling was of sufficient volume to warrant its own statistics and annual reports. One of the first indications of vigour in the nineteenth-century market was the sharp rise in the number of titles published annually in Britain after 1820 1 as a handful of London houses concentrated on light reading, chiefly novels, for the seasonal trade. This was the market that Richardson, Haliburton, and Moodie wrote for, in which books were issued in small, expensive editions aimed at the carriage trade and at the two major subscription circulating libraries, which usually bought three-quarters of an edition of 1,000 copies; hence that familiar Victorian product, the three-volume novel at 3 1s., the price that became standard with Sir Walter Scott's novels and that was artificially maintained - as the critics of the high price of the 'three-decker' novel argued - until 1894. But other trends and tastes also accounted for the flood of new books, among them self-help guides, practical works on economics and railways, and scientific works on electricity and chemistry. Often these books were issued in a 'library,' an easily identifiable series of volumes with uniform bindings and prices, and packaged to attract poorer buyers. Frontier and colonial readers, with their obsession for improvement and upward mobility, placed great emphasis on the utilitarian knowledge

94 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada imparted by these books, which in the form of British editions, or their American reprints, appeared on local shelves almost as soon as they were launched in Britain. In addition to these books were the organs of political and intellectual discussion, the great nineteenth-century 'reviews' and 'quarterlies' that helped change Victorian life as much as industrial technology did. The oldest of these periodicals were The Edinburgh Review and Critical journal (1802), which espoused the Whig view of things, and its Tory rival, the Quarterly Review (1806). They were followed by the milder Tory Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine (1817); the short-lived liberal London Magazine (1820-9), which took up the cudgels for the Romantic poets; The Westminster Review (1824), founded by the Philosophical Radicals; and by the liberal Fraser's Magazine (1830). 1 British literature was avidly read in the United States and British North America, but not in the costly British editions. As the Lesslie Brothers of Toronto explained to a government committee in 1843, British publications 'are got up too expensively for the general class of readers in this country, and the sales of them are consequently very limited,' 3 while importation charges (postal rates from Britain and differences between sterling and Halifax currency) added to their cost. But in the United States, which had the largest reading public in the world and the greatest hunger for books in history, aggressive publishers turned out cheap pirated reprints of British books and periodicals, and these found thousands of ready buyers north of the border. The competition among the American pirate publishers increased after the depression of 1834 and intensified after the financial panic of 183 7, reaching a peak in 18 39. 4 The supply of cheap reading, as well as the demand for it all over North America, attained such crisis proportions in the 1840s that practically everything from production and marketing to postal rates and copyright legislation had to be revamped. Although this country still did not have a 'mass' market, there was evidence in that decade that a new phenomenon, the struggle •or universal literacy, was intricately intertwined with the struggle for cheap books and the survival of booksellers and printers. The first benefits of this revolution were for readers and booksellers, and it established a pattern that affects our book market to this day, the dominance of American firms in Canadian territory. 'Dominance' is perhaps a strong word to describe the modest dealings between dozens of American firms on the one hand and British North American booksellers or individuals on the other, for these arrangements existed as a convenience to the British North Americans. No matter where these editions originated, however, British North Americans wanted British literature in cheap editions, and even before the cheap-book revolution got under way, they had developed an appetite for reading.

Bookselling from 1820 to 1867 95 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF LIBRARIES, MECHANICS' INSTITUTES, AND LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES

In the days before improved roads, railways, and steamships, the book problem in this country was one not merely of cost but of accessibility. The good collections of books belonged to the legislative assemblies and professional societies. As early as 1791 and 1792 parliamentary libraries were established at Quebec and at Newark, while others were organized in 1826 at Charlottetown and in 1832 at St John's. Supplying these libraries was a dependable source of income for booksellers. Medical libraries were set up in 1823 at Montreal, in 1826 at Quebec, in 1839 at Toronto, and in 1844 at Halifax, while the first law libraries were founded in 1838 at Halifax and Toronto. Since these collections were closed to the general public or available only to citizens of the provincial capitals, readers therefore had to find other ways of getting books and sharing their costs. In 1820 Robert Gourlay reported in his Statistical Account of Upper Canada (1822) that the continued lack of books finally created a desire for them. 'Books are procured in considerable numbers ... social libraries are introduced in various places; and subscribers at a small expence thus enjoy the benefit of many more volumes than they could individually afford to purchase. ' 5 There were in fact several kinds of organizations available: public subscription libraries, literary and scientific societies, reading clubs, and mechanics' institutes. Public subscription libraries were opened at Newport (1810), Yarmouth (1812), and Halifax (1824). Like the earlier ones in Quebec and Newark, they had stiff membership fees; the Halifax Library required £5 for a transferable share and a yearly subscription of 30s., and due to the social prominence of its members had no trouble getting a room in Province House and an annual grant of £50. 6 As interest developed in the history, antiquities, and geology of the country, several societies appeared that were modelled on the Royal Society in England or the French Academy in France. The most famous of these was the Quebec Literary and Historical Society, founded in 1824 by a group of English-speaking gentlemen and merchants under the patronage of Lieutenant-Governor Sir James Kempt. In 1827 a group of French-speaking gentlemen established a 'Societe pour le progres de la litterature, de la science, des arts et des recherches historiques au Canada,' but by 1829 both societies were amalgamated and given a £250 grant by the provincial Assembly, with annual grants in later years ranging from £50 to £300.7 In 1847 the Quebec Literary and Historical Society had 4,000 volumes, many of them later destroyed in the parliamentary fire of 1854. In 1827 Dr Andrew Holmes and

96 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada some colleagues at McGill College began the Montreal Natural History Society, assembling the first collection in the country devoted to the sciences, with a concentration in chemistry and geology. This Society also received annual grants (usually £50) for books and apparatus, 8 and it had about 1,000 volumes in 1851. Frequently several friends in a district would form a reading society, a somewhat more informal arrangement than a subscription library. One such group was formed at Thornhill, north of Toronto, in late 1828 by Mary Gapper, a very recent arrival who was soon to marry the local rector Edward O'Brien. She and six others collected funds to order books from England, but for an unknown reason the books did not arrive until October 18 30. Meanwhile, she recorded in her journal (for her family back in England) that she read Don Quixote, the Quarterly Review, and Scott's Guy Mannering for the third time 'with renewed delight and admiration. ' 9 How successful were some of the smaller library associations? One of Thomas McCulloch's 'Stepsure Letters' to The Acadian Recorder (Halifax) satirically described the trials of a group in Pictou in 1822 at whose first meeting McCulloch himself presided. After the members grumbled over money subscribed for the sake of the town's youth and bickered over the selection of books, McCulloch's persona, Mephibosheth Stepsure, concluded, The only readers are a few religious old people, who still make it a point of conscience to read so many pages to their family, upon the Sunday evening; and it generally happens that the young people, when the reading begins lay themselves back upon their chairs and are soon fast asleep. Saunders Scantocreesh says, that it !S no wonder, though the young people in our town be as ignorant as his stots, for the most of their parents have just as little sense: they encourage their children in card playing and frolicking, and every kind of folly; but where is there one of them that ever bought for them a diverting story book to entice them to read? Saunders further affirms that almost every village in Scotland has its library, and that the thing speaks for itself. Everybody, he says, reads, except ne'er do well vagabonds ... ' 0

'Saunders Scantocreesh' was James Dawson, who began the first bookstore in Nova Scotia outside Halifax, and whose fledgling business depended on teachers like McCulloch. Yet these societies were incubators for genuine intellectual achievement because among the half dozen future scientists and engineers who belonged in the Pictou Literature and Scientific Society ( 18 34) was Dawson's son John William Dawson, a youngster who was busily examining the fossils of the country. Twenty years later John had established

Bookselling from 1820 to 1867 97 the Department of Education in Nova Scotia and had assumed the principalship of McGill College, whose science and engineering departments he then helped develop into the best in the country by the time of his death in 1893. After the Napoleonic Wars there was a movement in Britain to improve the lot of the workers by encouraging them to study practical subjects. For some years the Bible societies had distributed edifying literature in the hope that the poor would gain respect for order, hierarchy, and what we call today the Protestant work ethic, but now the tendency was to place reading matter connected with the sciences and technology in their hands. Although British institutions such as Dr George Birkbeck's working men's colleges were not contemplated here, another development, the Mechanics' Institute, 11 founded by J.C. Robertson and Thomas Hodgskin at London in 1822, was brought to Canada that same decade. In Britain the popularity of the Mechanics' Institutes gave rise to one of the most important cheap-publishing revolutions of the century, whose social and educational impact was also as rapid and profound in British North America as the Institutes themselves were. The implications of this movement were grasped as early as 1827 by the Scottish radical journalist at York, William Lyon Mackenzie, who remarked in The Colonial Advocate (12 July 1827) several months after a proposed subscription library for York fell through: 'What a pity it is that a mechanics' and agricultural society is not established in this colony on liberal and extended principles! In the promotion of designs like these, more than in governing an ignorant and bigotted mob at the point of a bayonet, consists true patriotism.' He then announced that he was the agent for the New York firm of Carvill, which imported from London the cheap books published by Charles Knight on behalf of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. Founded by the philanthropist Henry Brougham, this society aimed its books at the artisans, clerks, and working men who flocked to the Mechanics' Institutes. The success of the books encouraged Knight to begin his Penny Magazine in 1831, the prototype of cheap magazines. Soon other far-sighted publishers, most of them Scottish, had their own series on the market: John Murray's Family Library (1829), Oliver & Boyd's Edinburgh Cabinet Library (1829), and Colburn and Bentley's National Library (1830). The most influential series came from William and Robert Chambers, with their Edinburgh Journal (1833), the Chambers encyclopedias, and other cheap libraries. Thus cheap British publications were available in British North America, but they were for edification and instruction rather than for diversion. Like Mackenzie, the booksellers and journalists were at the forefront of

98 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada this new adult education movement. In 1828 Robert Armour of the Montreal Gazette helped organize the first Mechanics' Institute in British North America, while John Neilson (Quebec, 1830), Joseph Howe (Halifax, 1831), Dr Edward Barker (Kingston, 1834), and Moses Perley (Saint John, 1837) all phiyed an active role in their local Institutes. Each winter the Institutes held evening classes and public lectures on literature and music, optics and chemistry (lectures in Montreal in 1837-8 were restricted to self-defence) ; they collected scientific apparatus, and their libraries later in the century became the nuclei of public free libraries. They too received government grants, and in the 1850s the Canadian government gave £50 annually to institutes, 12 athenaeums, and public free libraries. Here budding politicians had their first chance to speak in public; in Saint John the young Leonard Tilley used to debate in the Mechanics' Institute and the Sons of Temperance hall. In the amusement and instruction they provided, the Mechanics' Institutes did as much for sobriety and progress as the temperance movement. It is debatable whether the Mechanics' Institutes managed to hold the artisans and workers who came to the organizational meetings because in spite of modest subscription fees the Institutes gradually turned into meeting places for the middle classes and the wealthier artisans, as had happened in England. After all, the promise of a lecture on electricity at the end of a hard day's work must have deterred all but the most ambitious worker, who would then find himself in company with local society leaders. Nevertheless, in a century when the pulpit and the political platform provided the chief outlets for oratory, the Mechanics' Institute lecturers such as John Sparrow Thompson of Halifax attracted large appreciative crowds and they helped create a taste for travelling lecturers and authors such as Charles Dickens and William Chambers. The 'Canadian Institutes' founded in the 1840s were also a by-product of the trend towards adult education, but there were significant contrasts between the institutes of French-speaking Canada East and English-speaking Canada West. The Montreal Ins ti tut Canadien was founded in 1844 by a group of young lawyers and professional men to discuss literary and philosophical topics. The members set up a library and organized evening classes for artisans and workmen, but gradually the discussions centred on reform and advanced liberal views, especially after Louis-Joseph Papineau returned from exile in 1848. The lnstitut's rouge politics and secularism, particularly in educational matters, as expressed in its organ L 'Avenir, in 18 51 brought down the wrath of Bishop Bourget of Montreal, the leader of the ultramontane Catholic movement. ' 3 The Quebec Institut Canadien (est. 1847) was more interested in historical studies. By contrast, the Canadian

Bookselling from 1820 to 1867 99 Institute ( 1849) established in Toronto by Sandford Fleming and John Henry Lefroy primarily encouraged the study of surveying, engineering, and architecture, although its purpose was also to advance the arts, manufactures, and the sciences. ' 4 THE IMPACT OF AMERICAN CHEAP BOOKS ON THE BOOKSELLING TRADE IN THE I

8 30s

AND I

840s

In the 1820s bookselling was relatively unspecialized, and establishments in the larger towns engaged in their own wholesale and retail operations. Because bookselling was organized to sell imported books and periodicals, two problems affecting distribution arose from this situation. First of all, there was a choice in the source of supply; either the bookseller suffered delays caused by importing expensive, authorized books from Britain or he opted for obtaining quickly the competing, pirated editions from the United States. 15 Second, operating costs and prices were adversely affected by high duties and high postal rates. Overseas publications destined for the Canadas in winter had to come overland from Halifax, but in spring and summer they came by ship up the St Lawrence in larger quantities, to be sold on consignment. E.R. Fabre on one occasion announced his new arrivals in La Minerve ( 17 September 1827): '[Ils] viennent de recevoir par la Mary Anne, Quatre nouvelles Caisses de Livres Fran~ais qui jointes a leur fonds, formerait une superbe collection tant en litterature qu'en piete.' Three weeks later Fabre advertised over seventy titles that included Latin books, biographies of Napoleon, travel books on Greece and Egypt, and theological works by Fenelon, l'abbe Barruel, de la Mennais, St Fran~ois de Sales, and Prince Hohenlohe!. Over the years Fabre and his partners Louis Perrault and J .-A. Gravel developed friendly relations with Paris houses, first of all with Fabre's brother-in-law Hector Bossange, and then with Freres Gaume, and with the Librairies Garmer, Basset, and Aubert. As business grew, Fabre ran into a problem over market rights because the Quebec clergy sometimes ordered duty-free books direct from Paris, which Fabre & Perrault complained of (in an undated letter, c. 1828-35) to Gaume: Vous sentez que ce n'est pas agir tres loyalement avec nous. Ces Messrs. [ie, the clergy] obtiennent du Gouverneur permission de passer ces livres sans payer Jes droits et de la ii arrive qu'ils viennent crier que nos livres sont trop chers . . . . Vous risquez notre fortune et vous engagez ce dont nous vous sommes debiteurs.

Fabre then advised Gaume : 'Nous osons vous dire qu'il est de votre devoir de

100 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada refuser toute commande directe de ces MM. ' 16 In fact, clergy in every province often got the duties on religious books returned to them. Booksellers advertised their occasional trips abroad so that customers could place special orders. There were trips to France by Fabre in 1823 and 1843, by Louis Perrault in 18i8, and by Octave Cremazie in 1852 and 1856; trips to Britain by Henry Stamper of Halifax in 1832, Egerton Ryerson in 18 33, Joseph Howe in 1838, and by Andrew Armour in 1843. William Lyon Mackenzie's trip to New York in 1837 was only one of many such visits by booksellers all over the eastern provinces to American firms and auctions, and these excursions became more frequent with the establishment of railway connections in the 18 50s. Sometimes a local bookseller, then, having established contacts with the foreign bookseller or publisher, agreed to act as the local agent if he were well placed geographically to supply inland booksellers. Such may have been the case with George Clarke of Aberdeen, who gave Neilson & Cowan of Quebec the agency for Patterson's two-volume History of the Church in 1830; and who a year later promised to do all his Quebec business in one line of paper through Neilson & Cowan by refraining from opening accounts with other firms in the province. 17 The precariousness of 'agency' arrangements was demonstrated by Neilson & Cowan's sale of Sir Walter Scott's Life of Napoleon (1827). This was issued in an authorized reprint edition by Carey & Lea of Philadelphia, who were the major American literary publishers in the 1820s; they also handled James Fenimore Cooper. They paid Scott for the advance sheets of his new books, for under the system known as the 'courtesy of the trade,' other respectable American publishers usually refrained from pirating British books arranged for publication in this manner. Neilson & Cowan ordered thirty-four copies of Napoleon, then wrote to Philadelphia on 9 October 1827, complaining of poor sales and competition: We are sorry to say we have as yet only sold 2 copies. Some person here had previously collectd subscriptions for 8 or 10 copies and supplied them with the work. This circumstance is perhaps one cause of our selling so few. But in truth we have but very few [undecipherable word] readers in this place ... our people are satisfied with what they get from Reviews, or if they require more, they resort to the public Libraries. On this account we would not venture to ask for any of [Cooper's] Red Rover. 18

Neilson & Cowan ordered extensively from Carey & Lea, whose catalogue they would check carefully and show to their customers. Three to four copies of a tide was an average order; thirty copies was a large one. Carey & Lea

Bookselling from 1820 to 1867 101 mailed their packages from Philadelphia to Burlington, Vermont, where Chauncey Goodrich, a bookseller and broker, shipped them by water to the customs port of entry at St Jean, south of Montreal. Because British postage rates were higher than American ones - this was still in the days when the receiver often paid the postage - Carey & Lea paid the full postage and were reimbursed by Neilson & Cowan. Neilson's and Carey's problem with a competitor collecting subscriptions in the same territory was to become widespread, particularly because it was difficult to have a legitimate territory when competing American firms sent in reprints. (Legally, the British North American territory belonged to British publishers.) The fact that one bookseller had the agency for the Carey & Lea edition of Napoleon would not stop another bookseller from importing Napoleon in the Harper Brothers edition issued the same year. An aggressive firm established in New York in 1817, Harper's often ignored 'courtesy of the trade' arrangements; but by the mid-thirties when Harper's themselves had become the chief literary publishers, other pirate firms turned the tables on them. Although British visitors such as Captain Moorsom in Halifax (1829) and Mrs Jameson in Toronto (1836) lamented the condition of libraries and the lack of up-to-date bookstores, ' 9 their comparisons were with cosmopolitan cities such as London and Edinburgh or even with cities such as Bristol, Bath, or York. In fact, there was a variety of bookstores but their stock all too often consisted chiefly of almanacs, reference books, the classics, religious works, and textbooks to suit the provincial tastes of a rural and still frontier society. There was little specialization. The depositories of the Anglicans, the Baptists, the Presbyterians, and the Methodists handled religious works and texts, and some uplifting fiction. Several of them, such as the Wesleyan Book Room in Halifax and the Methodist Book Room in Toronto, w.ere wholesalers for clergy, teachers, pedlars, and country merchants. Private firms also specialized in religious or temperance materials; in a sense they too were depositories and often served as agents for British and American societies. In Halifax there was Kenney's Catholic Book Store (1824); and in Saint John, George Blatch's Religious Book Store (1832). The Reverend Very's Colporteur Bookstore (1851), also in Saint} ohn, carried the works of the American Tract Society and the Sunday School Union. In Fredericton The Olive Branch Book Store (1860s) specialized in temperance literature. In Montreal the Sadliers catered to Irish Catholics, and French-speaking Protestants were served by Laurent-Edouard Rivard who carried, in the 18 50s, evangelical books, the eighteenth-century philosophes, and books on the Index.

10.2 The Beginnings of the Book Tr'ade in Canada Only the larger cities could support 6ther kinds of specialist bookstores, In the 18 30s George Blatch conducted the Saint John Music Store. Abraham and Samuel Nordheimer established a music store in Kingston to the early forties but soon moved to Toronto, and by Confederation were the largest music publishers and supply house in the country, with branches in Montreal and other towns. 20 In the 186os William Chewett of Toronto carried a large stock of legal and medical works, while Dawson Brothers and Rollo & Adam also carried a good selection of scholarly, medical, and legal works. Cheap American reprints accounted for so much business in the 18 30s that bookstores incorporated this term 'cheap' into their names. In Montreal Fisher's Cheap Stores in 1833 had a stock of 2,000 new and secondhand books together with 1,ooo volumes of novels and romances. The Armour & Ramsay Catalogue of 1836 contained several thousand new and used books. After a major buying trip to New York in the spring of 1837, William Lyon Mackenzie had some 20,000 volumes in his bookstore, and his last full-page advertisement for them (The Constitution, .2 7 September 18 37) contained new music, novels, and scientific books; unfortunately Mrs Jameson was no longer in Toronto to browse through them. Mackenzie had made large purchases from Harper Brothers and visited them in 1838 during his exile to discuss settling the debt. 21 In Saint John, which was conveniently close to the New England markets, J.P. Coldwell ran a Cheap Book Establishment in 1840. The cheap-book revolution really caught fire with the appearance of two innovative New York newspapers in 1839. The first of them was Brother Jonathan Quly 1839), founded by Park Benjamin and Rufus Griswold with the backing of a printer, and it serialized the pirated novels of British authors although it contained little or no news. Thus it was a newspaper in size and layout only, in order to take advantage of the cheap postal rate for newspapers in both the United States and British North America. When Benjamin and Griswold lost control of their paper, they founded a competitor in October 1839, The New World, and a month later they began to issue 'supplements' or 'extras,' sometimes called Leviathans due to their enormous size, which contained a complete novel for 50¢. (Their Christmas Leviathan of 1841 was six feet, four inches by four feet, four inches!) By 1841 The New World cost 6¢ a copy in New York or $3.00 annually, and had fifty-two agents throughout the United States and five in Canada. Brother Jonathan followed suit with a .2 5¢ 'extra,' also containing a complete work. John T ebbel calls these 'supplements' the 'prototype of the paperback book in America. ' 22 The New World's authorized agent for the 'Eastern half of Upper Canada, including the Newcastle District,' was John Creighton, the publisher of the Kingston

Bookselling from 1820 to 1867 103 Chronicle and Gazette. Appointed in late 1841, a year later he had eighty subscribers. He supplied The New World for the same price as the annual subscription in the United States, while the 'extras' usually cost 1s.3d., or 1s. 1o½d. for special works such as the Christmas annuals or Agnes Strickland's edition of the Letters of Mary Queen of Scots. Most of Creighton's offerings were light reading such as the novels of Charles Lever, Captain Marryat, G.P.R. James, and Dickens, but there were also prestige general works such as Archibald Alison's History of Europe, Liebig's Animal and Agricultural Chemistry, Thomas Arnold's Lectures on Modern History, and George Borrow's The Bible in Spain. It was these titles that provincial governments stressed were the reprints required to raise the educational level of the British North Americans. Soon there was a glut of reprints on the American market, and prices dropped so low that no profit could be made on 20¢ to 25¢ books, even in editions of 10,000 copies. Certainly American and Canadian authors suffered like British authors from this state of affairs. By 184 3 the more respectable pirates, led by Harper Brothers, were forced to join the price-cutting war in an effort to destroy the newspaper reprinters. In British North America the public was confused when two different agents claimed the same territory for a British publication. In 1840 W. Dunbar advertised that he was the 'Sole Agent for New-Brunswick and Nova Scotia' for W.H. Bartlett's Canadian Scenery and American Scenery, published by George Virtue of London. In the same newspaper and on the same page was an advertisement by George Hardy, who also called himself the 'sole agent' in the two provinces for Virtue's 'Splendid Illustrations of Canadian and American Scenery, Uniform with Scotland, Switzerland and the Waldensis.' Hardy warned of 'speculators from New York' posing as 'Sub-agents for this work. ' 13 The question of duties remained a sore point throughout the century, and booksellers such as Joseph Howe and William Lyon Mackenzie claimed that a duty on books was a tax on knowledge. Until 1842 the duty on books from Britain was 2½ per cent and the duty on all American books was 30 per cent (some provinces added 5 per cent to this). In 1836 the Upper Canada Assembly, faced with a cash shortage in the depression, petitioned King William 1v for a removal of duties on English goods, including books and printed materials, that entered Canada through the United States. But the duties did not hinder the north-south trade, partly, it seems, because British North Americans received discounts of 30 per cent to 40 per cent on books and up to six months' credit from American wholesalers, similar to the arrangements American country booksellers received. Ironically, another reason for the wide circulation of American publica-

104 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada tions in British North America was that the high British and colonial postal rates favoured items sent from the United States. Until the late 1840s the colonial Post Office was conducted by private contractors, namely, the Deputy Postmasters-General John Howe, jr, in the Maritimes and F.R. Stayner in the Canadas. Postage on books and periodicals mailed from Britain was a prohibitive letter rate to the limit of 16 oz. for packages, while stamped newspapers got a cheap rate of one penny per printed sheet.2 4 In 1843 the postage alone on Alison's History of Europe (Edinburgh: Blackwood 1835-43, 6 vols) was £18 from Britain to Canada West. By a dispensation of the Deputy Postmaster-General, American newspapers - the real ones and the apparent ones - came in at the cheap rate. And because colonial postmasters had franking privileges, American publishers encouraged local postmasters to act as their agents, as was done in the United States. During the 1830s Moses Perley advertised himself as the sole agent in New Brunswick for the New York Albion, one of the most popular and respected Anglophile papers that carried pirated British copyrights. Carey's Library of Choice Literature in 18 3 5 offered a commission of 20 per cent or a year's free copies to colonial postmasters or agents who sent in five cash subscriptions. Harper Brothers and Godey's Lady's Book advised Canadian subscribers to send cash direct to the United States in return for packages mailed 'free' to those subscribers, as did the New York republisher•:• of the English quarterlies. 25 Besides, American postage rates on parcels to British North America were cheaper than our rates either to the United States or within British North America itself. Thus Alison's History, either in its New World 'newspaper' edition or in the Harper reprint edition, could be mailed cheaply to British North America, to the satisfaction of readers and of Stayner, who reputedly made an additional £1000 a year from the pirated editions, and much to the chagrin of copyright owners in Britain. 26

THE IMPERIAL COPYRIGHT ACT OF I

842 AND 847

THE FOREIGN REPRINTS ACT OF I

Although some American firms paid British authors for advance sheets, there were no royalties on pirated editions. Stories reached England through * This business passed successively from Peck & Newton to Theodore Foster (1835), to William Lewer (1837), to Lewer's widow Jemima (1838),to Jemima and her second husband Joseph Mason ( 18 39), and ultimately into the hands of their employee, Canadianborn Leonard Scott (1844). Their advertisements are found in the British North American newspapers of the day, and Scott's from the late 1840s into the 1870s.

Bookselling from 1820 to 1867 105 travellers such as James Buckingham 27 that these works entered British North America in great amounts in spite of the duty or were smuggled in. An International Copyright Act was passed in 1838 in Britain, but it had no impact on piracy in the United States nor did it reduce the entry of those editions to Canada. Since 181 o British authors and publishers had been trying to replace the old Literary Copyright Act of 1709 to reflect changes in professional authorship, technology, and distribution. By 1842 the new Imperial Act was ready, and the disputes it caused in British North America focused on the urgent need for cheap books from the United States; as such it was a matter of vital concern to our booksellers and readers. The term 'copyright' has two meanings, the right to own and dispose of the manuscript (that is, intellectual property), and the right to make copies of it. Copyright protects the form in which ideas are expressed; as such it is a kind of monopoly, and since the eighteenth century there have been many arguments to determine whom copyright serves, the author, the producer of the printed copy, or the public. Ever since the invention of mechanical printing, the printer and bookseller traditionally had more protection in law than the author. In 1518 King Henry VIII granted a monopoly, or the sole right, to print certain books to his two King's Printers, and in 1557 Queen Mary granted a Royal Charter to the Stationers' Company whereby their members had the exclusive monopoly to print books, provided that these books were submitted for official approval and entered in the Company's register. This Charter and later statutes limiting the freedom of the press continued until the Licensing Acts lapsed in 169 5. The unrestrained piracy of the next decade resulted in the first copyright act in 1709, An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by Securing the Copies of Printed Books in the Authors or Purchasers of such Copies, during the Times Therein Mentioned (8 Anne, cap. 19). This statute established two important principles of copyright, the author as the chief beneficiary of protection, and protection of printed works for a limited term, initially a maximum of twenty-one years. Two other questions remained unresolved, first, the Crown's power to grant licences for a term of years that might or might not correspond to the statutory period; and second, whether printers and booksellers who purchased the right to print an author's work held perpetual rights under common law. The famous court case over Thomson's The Seasons (Miller v Taylor) decided in favour of the booksellers' perpetual rights in 1769, but a 1774 appeal to the House of Lords in a case involving the same work (Beckwith v Donaldson) reversed the previous decision of 1769. One of the intentions of the 1842 Literary Copyright Act was to extend the author's period of protection to forty-two years from the date of publication or seven

106 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada

years beyond the life of the author, whichever was the longer. In practice the author still gave his 'monopoly' (this was the term commonly used in nineteenth-century Britain) to his assignee, the publisher, who purchased the 'monopoly' either for an outright sum or for a half share in the profits, such as Bentley offered Haliburton and Moodie. In Britain the custom of giving a royalty percentage on each copy sold was rare until the end of the century, although it was common in the United States by the Civil War. Although the 1842 Act recognized that copyright was a protection for the author and although American and Canadian law nominally stated the same thing, printers and publishers on this continent for many years more acted as if copyright were essentially for their benefit. Before 1842 little was heard about copyright protection in this country because so few books were published, and the small number of British copyrights that were pirated or legally reprinted did not reach London. One of the few deliberate attempts at reprinting was Henry Chapman's publication at Niagara-on-the-Lake of four popular works in 1830, including Robert Southey's Life of Lord Nelson (1813) and John Gait's Life of Lord Byron ( 18 30). These were printed by Samuel Heron and may have been intended for American sale. Apart from these and Andrew Armour's 1834 reprint edition of William 'Tiger' Dunlop' s Statistical Sketches of Upper Canada ( 183 2), most of the other reprints were local editions of textbooks such as Mavor's English

Spelling Book.

Colonial British North America was governed by two sets of copyright laws, imperial and local. In Britain and its overseas possessions, the old Literary Copyright Act of 1709, along with its amendments and court interpretations, was in force until 1842. In that year it was replaced by the new Literary Copyright Act (5 & 6 Viet., cap. 45) - which is usually called the 'Imperial' Copyright Act of 1842, to distinguish it from colonial acts - and it served as the basis of copyright law in Canada until 31 December 1923. In 1924 a new Dominion Copyright Act (1921) repealed the 1842 Imperial Act, for the consolidated Imperial Copyright Act of 1911, which had replaced the 1842 Act in the United Kingdom, was never in force in this country. The 1842 Act gave protection throughout the Empire to works first published in London or Edinburgh, and made provision for prohibiting unauthorized foreign reprints of British copyright works into British territory. There were, in addition, two kinds of local copyright acts, the first of which provided only local protection for a work produced in that province, and usually one of local authorship. Such acts were passed by Quebec in 18 32, Nova Scotia in 1838, and the united Province of Canada (1841), 28 and the Dominion of Canada in 1868. The second kind of local act was actually a

Bookselling from 1820 to 1867 107 colonial version of an amendment to the 1842 Imperial Act; this was the Act to Amend the Law Relating to the Protection in the Colonies, of Works Entitled to Protection in the United Kingdom (10& 11 Viet., cap. 95), which is known as the Foreign Reprints Act of 1847. It permitted the importation and sale of pirated British copyright works, and was in force in Canada until 1894. This chapter explains why the British North American booksellers actively canvassed for this act, while the rest of this book deals with its blessings and penalties, which forever changed bookselling, publishing, and authorship in Canada: it 'created the anomaly of a foreigner having the right to supply a market,' J oho Lovell said simply in 1872. 29 The British North American book trade, then, was subject to two sets of acts and two sets of court interpretations. Furthermore, as the Europeans moved towards the Berne Convention (1885), which guaranteed international reciprocal copyright protection among its adherents, the British and the Americans strove on their own to work out a mutually satisfactory reciprocal copyright agreement. The Canadian trade was both influenced by, and was itself an influence on, Anglo-American negotiations from the 1840s onward, and many Canadian copyright problems up to the present day begin to make sense in the light of these conflicts. In 1842 Charles Dickens came to the United States on behalf of British authors, who wanted to negotiate with the pirates. He stopped briefly at Halifax on 20 January where Joseph Howe showed him the legislature, and he continued on to Boston to begin what was expected to be a triumphal tour of the United States before visiting Toronto, Kingston, and Montreal in May on his way home. When he raised the question of international copyright, by advocating payment for authors' works, at a dinner in Boston on I February, the press violently attacked him as mercenary, 30 and thereafter the hostility between Dickens and the American booksellers, along with his growing dislike of American society, soured the trip. His disappointment was evident in American Notes (1842) and Martin Chuzzlewit (1843) although he did not mention copyright in these works. He sought protection for British authors or at the least a promise of 'gratuities' from the pirate publishers, while at the same time Lord Palmerston, the Prime Minister, tried to persuade the American government to agree to a reciprocal copyright arrangement. Dickens hoped to strengthen his hand with a memorial from the British authors (including a separate, strongly worded letter on literary robbery from Thomas Carlyle); this was published around 9 May by the New York Evening Post and other newspapers, and by the Montreal Gazette (18 May), which supported Dickens on international copyright. Dickens got nothing because the American printers and booksellers were adamantly opposed to

108 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada concessions to foreign authors. Curiously enough, it is often forgotten that British publishers in the 1840s and 1850s pirated American books, of which the most famous piracy was Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852).3' Even as the 1842 Act was being given second reading in the House of Lords in June, Thomas Wilson of Upper Canada warned the Colonial Office of the dangers of the new act to the reading public of Canada, 32 and his fears were soon borne out. In order to end a similar crisis in the British trade over the importation of cheap books from the Continent, the Act, along with changes in the customs regulations, prohibited foreign reprints of British copyrights from entering the British Isles, and this prohibition worked so well through the summer that Dickens, G.P.R. James, and the Publishers' Association requested the government to invoke Sections 15 and 17 to ban reprints from the colonies. On 29 August the British Post Office and the Colonial Post Office were ordered to exclude foreign reprints (specifically mentioning The New World's 'newspaper' edition of James's Morley Ernstein) from the colonies as well, and to place a staggering 35 per cent duty on original American publications. 33 All this threatened to wreck the book trade in British North America, and for the first time brought to public attention the differences in bookselling and reading habits between Britain and its colonies. The crisis was dealt with by a combination of government intervention and free enterprise, but the years 1842 and 1843 were marked by confusion. Some of this can be explained by the fact that official directives from Britain were deliberately given conflicting interpretations by the Colonial Post Office and the Customs department. The Imperial Post Office was ordered to instruct the Colonial Post Office to place a complete ban on pirated British copyright works, including the 'newspapers,' to begin on I October 1842. However, the Americans, with the aid of their British North American agents, found a way around the prohibitions from the very beginning, which was to send parcels through the mails to individuals rather than parcels that were sent through the Customs department to booksellers. The New World on 1 October 1842 arranged for General Agents such as John Creighton to collect subscriptions and forward the money to New York, while The New World and its 'Supplements' would be mailed direct to subscribers from New York. The Post Office ban was partially lifted on 3 March 184 3 to allow in pirated 'newspapers' at the expensive letter rate, and on 15 April 184 3 Creighton announced in the Kingston Chronicle and Gazette that The New World would enter at the newspaper rate. 34 Meanwhile, on 6 July 1843 Lieutenant-Governor Colebrooke of New Brunswick complained to Lord Stanley about the postal service mess,

Booksellingfrom 182oto 1867 109 referring to the 'sensation' that had been caused in his province. He suggested that a moderate duty be placed on the pirated reprints as a compensation for British publishers. 35 On 24 July the Montreal Gazette interpreted the new Post Office regulations to mean that American reprints of English periodicals could not be brought in by the Halifax packets, but that they could be ordered direct from Boston at cheap postal rates. The August Literary Garland reported that the individual numbers of the American reprint of Dickens' Martin Chuzzlewit had stopped coming, disappointing readers who had got the introductory chapters, and the Garland hoped that British publishers could be persuaded to issue competitive cheap editions for colonial circulation. In March 1844 the Albion reprint of Martin Chuzzlewit was allowed into British North America. But the 'newspaper' reprints also hurt the American trade, and in mid- 1843 the United States Post Office decided to charge pamphlet rates for the 'newspapers' and their supplements in an effort to destroy private express carriers. This move was supported by the Harpers and other book publishers, and it was the death knell for Brother Jonathan, which was sold to The New World in January 1844, and The New World itself folded in May 1845. 36 Once news of the colonial crisis reached the British trade, one of the few publishers who tried to help the colonial trade was John Murray m. He began his Colonial Library in 1843, he told Sir Francis Bond Head, who had been Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada during the 1837 troubles, in order to offer 'a substitute to the Canadas and other Colonies for the Yankee publications hitherto poured into them and which besides damaging the copyrights of British Authors by the piracy of their Works, are sapping the principles and loyalty of the Subjects of the Queen by the democratic tendency of the native American publications.' 37 In the autumn of 1843 a Select Committee of the Canadian Assembly presented five resolutions on the cheap-book crisis as the basis of an Address to the Queen, stating that 'the advancement of Useful Knowledge is of such primary importance as to merit the attention of every Government ... conducted on the principles of the British Constitution. ' 38 Singled out for particular attention was the injustice of a heavy duty on religious, literary, and legal books that were imported from France for French-language readers. The Committee then sought the views of booksellers. 39 Did they prefer importing American or British editions? Had the Imperial Act changed importing patterns? Would the culture of the province be affected for the worse by the Imperial Act? Hugh Scobie said the colonists could not afford new British books, and would get the American reprints one way or another, because 'the exclusion

I IO

The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada

of these Reprints is a short-sighted policy which can benefit nobody, while it deprives many of the greatest mental enjoyment they have been accustomed to rely upon in the Colony ... ' 40 Thomas Cary, jr, agreed and pointed out the ironic blessings of piracy, which 'has done more to create a literary taste in Canada than English legislation has done since the country became an appendage of the British Crown. ' 41 But some Tory businessmen still championed trade with Britain. The Rowsells of Toronto claimed they could import from Britain Joho Murray's Quarterly Review, specially printed for the colonial market, at 3s. per number, which was far cheaper than either the 8s.6d. of Murray's expensive English edition or the 4s.4Y2d. (including postage) of the American reprint of the Quarterly. William Greig of Montreal, however, pointed out that most of the titles in Murray 's Home and Colonial Library were those whose demand was exhausted, and their 2s. price was the equivalent of 3s. in Canada, whereas the 25¢ American reprint sold for only IS . 10½d. in Canada. Thus the American reprints were still a bargain, although Greig admitted the British-made 'colonial editions••:• would be cheaper in Canada except for the absurd postal rates on all unstamped printed matter. 42 The Report was a tribute to the perceptiveness of colonial legislators, and its conclusions, particularly the third section, clearly placed the crisis in its economic and cultural perspective: 1st. That the importation of English Literature direct from Great Britain, has not at all increased under the operation of the English Copyrights Act. 2nd. That the free admission into this Province of American Reprints of English Works of An and Literature, could not lessen the profits of English Authors and Publishers; because, although the reading population of the Province is great in number, yet the circumstances of the population generally are so limited in their means, that they are unable to enjoy English Literature at English prices; that owing to that inability to pay for such Work of Art and Literature there has never been a demand for those Works, and consequently no supply. 3rd. That the exclusion of American Reprints of English Literature, if possible, would have a most pernicious tendency on the minds of the rising generation, in morals, politics, and religion; that American Reprints of English Works are openly sold, and are on the tables or in the houses of persons of all classes in the Province; that a law so

* In the nineteenth century the term 'colonial edition' was used to describe a book manu-

factured in England for sale only in the colonies. It was usually a cheaper reprinting of the first, expensive edition (which could also circulate in the colonies). The term was used in Canada with this meaning as well, and it is used in this history with that nineteenth-century meaning.

Bookselling from 1820 to 1867 111 repugnant to public opinion cannot and will not be enforced; that were that exclusion possible, the Colonists would be confined to American literary, religious, and political Works, the effect of which could not be expected to strengthen their attachment to British Institutions, but, on the contrary, is well calculated to warp the minds of the rising generation to a decided preference for the Institutions of the neighboring States, and a hatred deep rooted and lasting of all we have been taught to venerate, whether British, Constitutional, or Monarchical, or cling to, in our connection with the Parent State. 43

The annoyance over the prohibition was the same in New Brunswick, or even worse, since ready money for books was scarcer than in the Canadas. In Fredericton, Colebrooke's private secretary, A.F. Reade, wrote to the committee that the total amount for books of all descriptions imported into New Brunswick from England in a year would not amount to £500, while the value of new books only would be under £loo. And because New Brunswickers had to get their English books from Halifax, the carriage overland created extra postage and further delays. Reade's main charge was that educational and cultural progress was severely damaged by these arrangements. It was not, he concluded, 'a question of cheap or dear readingbut of cheap reading, or no reading at all. ' 44 'Cheap reading' became the cultural battle cry of that decade. However, Armour & Ramsay of Montreal did not wait for the government to act but turned directly to Murray, William Blackwood, and Thomas Cadell for agency and reprint rights, and was the first firm to benefit from the new situation. Robert Armour, a businessman and insurance broker, purchased the Tory Montreal Gazette in 1827, and took his son Andrew (1809-59) into partnership in 18 3 1, while another son, Robert, jr, edited it along with David Chisholm. In 1835 Andrew formed a partnership with Hew Ramsay (1811-57), a young lawyer who married Robert's daughter Agnes. Besides publishing the Gazette, Andrew and Hew opened a new and second-hand bookstore in the Post Office building on the corner of St James and St Lambert Streets. By 1843 they had built up a business through the northern United States and the Canadas, with branch stores in Kingston and Hamilton. In August that year they sold the Gazette to Robert Abraham, having decided to develop their book and periodical department. Their plan was to secure the agency for the cheap 'colonial editions' of British publications, and they may have been inspired to act by The New World's announcement in February 1843 to sell a new Double Extra reprint of Blackwood's Magazine for 1s.3d. in British North America. With this in mind, they wrote privately to William Blackwood on 7 March, suggesting that he ship a 'colonial edition' to Canada,

112 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada

timed to arrive ahead of The New World's pirated reprint, and priced competitively with it. If it were printed on one sheet of paper and stamped, it could be carried free through the colonies.

If the English law requires something more to bring it under the benefit extended to newspapers a short monthly summary of events principally relating to the Colonies might easily be added. It would be well perhaps if the Publishers of the other leading Magazines joined with you in this step. As to the cost to the Public you are the best judges what it ought to be. You will of course bear in mind that your leading charges will all have been paid to authors and printers - since the new edition will consist of the same types differently arranged, and your most series [sic] charges will be for paper, stamps and throwing off. The Nos. could be despatched monthly by the mail steamer from Liverpool to Halifax. They would thus reach the hands of Colonial subscribers quicker than even the reprints. Previously to commencing the issue it would be well to call the attention of the Postmaster General in London to the singular anomaly existing here of his Deputies admitdng large numbers of pirated editions through the mail while another Department (the Custom House) prohibits them, and conclude by calling upon him to enforce the law. 4S

In order for Armour & Ramsay to succeed, the Post Office would first have to prohibit American reprints of magazines and lower the local rates, and the British publishers would have to be persuaded to issue cheap editions of periodicals. For a short period these conditions operated. The colonial edition of Blackwood's, which was distributed by Armour & Ramsay, began as an experiment in January 1844 when the Post Office reduced its rates for newspapers and periodicals, but directed that subscribers now pay those rates instead of the publishers. 46 A year later at least ten British magazines and reviews were being offered in British North America at prices competitive with their American reprint editions. ,:-The inexpensive colonial editions were run off on cheap paper after the regular run, were intended expressly for colonial circulation only, and were shipped early enough to arrive before the American reprints. In 184 3 Armour & Ramsay also secured the agency for the cheap edition of Sir Walter Scott's works known as the People's Edition of the Waverley Novels, which was issued in sixty parts by Thomas Cadell of Edinburgh.

*

These included The Quarterly Review, the Edinburgh Review, the Foreign Review, the Westminster Review, Blackwood's, Bentley's Miscellany, and the Dublin University Magazine .

Bookselling from 1820 to 1867 11 3 They also handled the more expensive Abbotsford Edition, issued in 100 parts, with 114 engravings and 2,000 woodcuts. In 1844 they arranged to sell John Murray's Home and Colonial Library series at 2s.6d. (local currency), which brought these prices in line with the 2s.6d. (sterling) price in the United Kingdom. It was easier, however, to get the agency for 'colonial editions' produced in Britain than to get colonial reprinting rights for trade books, which is why the majority of British North American reprint editions before Confederation were textbooks. In 1845 Armour & Ramsay began their British American School Books series, which were rep~ints of the successful series originated by the National Board of Education in Ireland, and the first group of textbooks to be reprinted as a series in this country. To publicize their importations, they began in September 1845 the first book trade circular in the country, Armour & Ramsay's Literary News-Letter, and General Record of British Literature, 47 which listed current British works and carried the literary on dits of the day, culled, no doubt, from the columns of The Publishers' Circular and the British reviews. After 1846 Armour & Ramsay republished local editions of standard British series such as The Naturalist's Library (Edinburgh) and The National Atlas, both of which were issued in inexpensive monthly parts. The Literary Garland (October 1846) was full of praise for these activities: 'The Canadian public do certainly owe to Messrs Armour & Ramsay a very heavy debt of gratitude for their unwearied and persevering efforts in providing for the million such an abundance and variety of cheap reading, and thereby preventing the further spread of that ephemeral trash with which we have been lately overwhelmed. ' 48 Andrew Armour and Hew Ramsay were active in all aspects of Montreal life. Both were members of the St Andrew's Society; Armour was secretary of the Natural History Society; Ramsay was a councillor on the Montreal Board of Trade and helped develop McGill College. When their partnership was dissolved in 18 51, Armour moved to Toronto, and two years after his death in 1859 his bookstore passed into the hands of Thomas Maclear. Ramsay ran the Montreal firm until his death in 1857, and his widow wound up the business the following year. At his funeral the Reverend William Snodgrass said, 'of amiable and gentle manners, he was accessible to all - kind and sympathizing, much of his time and means was devoted to the service of others. ' 49 But it was Ramsay's 'many good and useful labours in the cause of our Provincial literature, ' 50 as the Gazette put it, that give him and Armour an important place in our book trade. Armour & Ramsay were the most famous of a considerable group of booksellers in the forties who established periodical depots and conducted a

114 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada

wholesale trade in magazines and books. Among the others in Montreal was Robert McKay, who began his New Periodical and Newspaper Agency Office in 1842, after eight years' experience in New York, and who issued the Montreal Directories. J.H. Tebbetts, by his own account 5 1 one of the largest importers of cheap books and periodicals, ran the New Reading Room and Select Circulating Library (1843). Robert Lay's Periodical Agency (1848) advertised itself as the exclusive agency for all of George Virtue's illustrated books. The same kind of firms were found in other cities. A former Halifax editor, Edmund Ward, after spending several years as a journalist in New York City, set up a cheap book and periodical agency in Halifax in 1849; and in Toronto Thomas Maclear and William Chewett imported British editions of periodicals, while the Rowsells imported the American editions of British copyrights. Yet prices remained high. In 1845 George Renny Young, 52 the leading proponent of cheap reading in Nova Scotia, asked Halifax bookseller Arthur Godfrey to compare Halifax prices with those of London and New York for a copyright memorandum that Young intended to send to Britain (see Table 1). 53 Although Godfrey did not specify where the editions sold in Halifax originated, the Halifax prices were all higher than the lower price in the other cities. Despite petitions and memoranda from colonial legislatures, the British government was cool to any change in the new copyright law. On 21 December 184 3 Lord Stanley pointed out that the imperial duty on books was now 7 per cent ad valorem, an improvement over the recently repealed 30 per cent ad valorem duty, and he required more evidence before further remedies could be made. 54 Certainly the reduction in duties was a stimulus to the import book trade, and explains why so many new firms appeared at this time. Two years later he told the Nova Scotians, in reply to their Address to the Queen (30 April 1845): 'Even could it be established that English Authors TABLE 1

Bentley's Miscellany Bulwer-Lytton, Zanoni Byron, Complete Poems Dickens, American Notes Halibunon, The Attache

London

New York

Halifax

Retail price £.s.d.

Retail price £.s.d.

Retail price £.s.d.

1.10.-. 1.11.6. 1. -.-. -. 10.6. -.10.6.

1. -. -. -. -.

5.-. 1.3. 7.6. -.7½. -. 7½.

2. 2.-. -.15.-. 1. 6.-. -.15.-. -. 15.-.

Bookselling from 1820 to 1867 11 5 have not been benefitted by the enforcement of the Copyright Laws, it is felt that it would be impossible to sanction a departure from the principle laid down, as it is conceived to be a principle not of expediency but of justice.' 55 For several years the provinces circulated among themselves their reports and memoranda on copyright. Then a surprise event took place; the British election of 1846 returned the Whigs to power, and new hopes for copyright adjustments were raised with the announcement that Britain would implement free trade. For several years William Gladstone, as President of the Board of Trade, had sympathized with the colonial predicament; now, as Colonial Secretary, he advised the London publishers to be more flexible on the needs of colonial readers. In this regard Lord Grey told the provinces on 5 November 1846 that the imperial Parliament would prepare an amendment to allow the colonies to get cheap reprints 'on easier terms than it is at present,' 56 but he warned that British proprietors must be protected. The amendment to the 1842 Act was the [Imperial] Act to Amend the Law Relating to the Protection in the Colonies, of Works Entitled to Protection in the United Kingdom (10 & 11 Viet., cap. 95), or the Foreign Reprints Act of 1847, which required each colony to pass its own act to supervise the collection of a special duty to be placed on each pirated reprint, which would then be paid to the copyright owner. Although this legislation was intended to serve only the North American provinces, British colonies around the world quickly took advantage of its provisions. Due to the efforts of Lemuel Wilmot, New Brunswick sent the first provincial Foreign Reprints Act to the Colonial Office, but the Board of Trade rejected it with schoolmaster severity 57 and circulated its criticism to the other provinces. There were conflicts over wording, over the way that lists of excluded books would be prepared, over the collection of duties, whether the rate should be determined by the price of the British or the American edition, and even disagreement over the definition of book in order to cover those American 'newspapers' that were actually reprints of books. In 1848 the New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island Foreign Reprints acts came into force, Nova Scotia's in 1849, and Newfoundland's in 1850. The Province of Canada took four years to prepare a satisfactory Act. In 1847 the Assembly passed An Act to Extend the Provincial Copyright Act to Persons Resident in the United Kingdom on Certain Conditions, whose intentions were a taste of the protectionist laws to come in the next thirty years. It required republication in the colony as a basis of copyright protection, and included a manufacturing clause as a requisite for copyright. 58 It was of course rejected because it was framed upon a 'totally different principle' than the Imperial Foreign Reprints Act. The Privy Council for Trade could not

116 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada perceive the justice of the distinction which the Canadian Legislature make between Works printed and re-published in England only, and Works re-printed and published in Canada . So far as they have the means of judging, they are of opinion that an edition for the Colonial market could be printed here more cheaply than in Canada . To protect Works re-printed there, and to leave all others unprotected would therefore fail to secure the advantages which are desired on all hands, namely, cheap publications of a legitimate character for the Colonists, and the repression of the illicit importation of pirated editions. 59

The matter was laid aside for two more years while the Canadian Assembly dealt with riots, fires, the Rebellion Losses bill, amnesty laws, threats of annexation, and the transfer of the government from Montreal to Toronto. In the Assembly Francis Hincks tried twice again in 1850 before he produced an acceptable Foreign Reprints Act. Until that time the Customs officials were in an awkward situation because delays in receiving updated lists of books under copyright meant that booksellers quickly received and disposed of those American reprints that were likely to appear on the lists of prohibitions. In 18 51 the imperial government transferred to the colonies the collection of customs duties and the management of the Post Office, and cheap rates for colonial newspapers were introduced. The shipments of 'colonial editions' of British magazines, begun with so much ballyhoo in 1844, had not proved financially successful, and when Leonard Scott of New York became the authorized reprint publisher of the British magazines in 1848, booksellers throughout British North America soon became his authorized agents, their names appearing as such on the paper covers of the magazines they distributed. Unfortunately, Murray's Home and Colonial Library was discontinued in 1849, but in the 1850s the cheap standard libraries and railway novels (so called because they were sold in magazine stalls of railway stations) of two new British publishers, George Henry Bohn and George Routledge, appeared in colonial bookstores. THE IMPACT OF PROVINCIAL COMMON SCHOOL SYSTEMS ON REGIONAL BOOKSELLING

In the same decade that the booksellers were benefiting from the changes in the copyright law affecting importing, each province was planning to expand its common school system, which would make fundamental changes in society as well as in bookselling. It was an axiom that better education brought social and economic progress, and that schools were absolutely necessary if responsible government were to triumph. Industrialization was

Bookselling from 1820 to 1867 117 drawing more people to the cities, where conditions were aggravated by the arrival of poverty-stricken and ignorant Irish peasants after the potato famines of 1846 and 1847. So after decades of disputes over funding and educational theories, the provinces were forced to give money grudgingly for schools and public libraries, and to adopt the principle (if not the practice) of free common school education. Now education was centralized and institutionalized by the organization of departments of education, state-run schools, and teacher-training. With these came compulsory assessment of property, compulsory schooling up to a certain age, and authorized texts so that students could be graded according to a province-wide standard. Up to this time there had been great freedom in the choice of textbooks. Pupils sometimes brought their own books to school, and individual boards and teachers used what was cheapest or available. In 1847 a great variety of textbooks was used in the schools of Canada West: 13 spelling books, 107 reading books, 35 arithmetic books, 2 1 history books, 16 grammar books, and 53 miscellaneous books. 60 Printers and booksellers therefore had similar latitude in the texts they reprinted or imported, but now they stood to profit directly from the increased sales of authorized textbooks. By Confederation the new educational market was in fact several regional ones for which the local booksellers stocked school libraries, offered group discounts to literary societies, and then sought contracts for the authorized textbooks. In the Maritimes several large firms began in a modest way by importing textbooks and the cheap British 'libraries' or their American reprints. Andrew and William Mackinlay were the Halifax agents for Chambers' Edinburgh journal in the 18 30s, and their success with the cheap libraries allowed them to expand their bookstore, established in 1826, into printing and blank book manufacturing. Meanwhile, attempts in the Assembly to establish free schools were frustrated by the strong aversion to the compulsory assessment needed to finance them, but when Joseph Howe's Reform party formed the first responsible government in 1848, its legislative program included the appointment of John William Dawson as the first Superintendent of Education from 1850 to 1853. In his brief tenure Dawson placed the provincial education system on a solid foundation; he visited New England schools and then toured the province to win support for his plan for free schools, and in 1855 a Normal School was opened in Truro. In the early 1840s strong dissatisfaction had been expressed throughout British North America with the strident republican and anti-British tone of American textbooks, 61 and in the years before any native-authored series existed, the free gift by the Commissioners of National Education in Ireland of their copyrights to colonial printers and booksellers solved the problem of

118 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada having cheap readers, with their additional advantages of being British, non-denominational, and graded. Mackinlay Brothers in the 1850s got the rights to reprint the Irish National Series of school books in stereotype editions. Yet other American books were very welcome. Andrew Mackinlay (1800-87), who had supported the local Mechanics' Institute as patron and lecturer, and had served as mayor of Halifax in the turbulent forties, visited the United States in 1856 with a grant of £500 from the province to buy books for school libraries. 62 In 1864 the Conservative premier Sir Charles Tupper passed the Free School Act requiring compulsory assessment, and the Mackinlays launched their Nova Scotia Series of Readers, which consisted of textbooks from Nelson's of Edinburgh and locally written textbooks. With this base the wholesale department was able to cover the Maritimes and parts of Quebec, and in 1904 A. & W. Mackinlay was capitalized at $100,000. 63 Andrew's son A.K. Mackinlay and later his grandsons Andrew and Charles carried on into the 1930s. Their lists were almost entirely composed of educational and doctrinal works, along with government publications such as the journal of Education (1858-60) and the journal of Agriculture (1865-85). Because of its small size and a population almost equally divided between Protestants and Roman Catholics, Prince Edward Island's education problems were inseparable from its politics, religion, and the land tenure question. When demands for educational reform became more frequent in the 1840s during the fight for responsible government, Edward Whalen, Howe's former apprentice, led both fights in his Palladium and Examiner. After Whalen's colleague George Coles formed the first responsible government in 1851, their Reform party passed the Free Education Act, but another quarter-century of conflicts ensued before this Act was actually implemented throughout the province. However, by mid-century the Haszard firm had responded to the need for educational materials. It was founded by James Douglas Haszard ( 1797- 1875 ), who began The Prince Edward Island Register in 1823 and succeeded his uncle James Bagnall as Queen's Printer in 1830. When Haszard's son George T. Haszard joined the business in 1852, their bookstore was enlarged and a more active publishing program, which included John LePage's The Island Minstrel (1860) and Edward Whalen's speeches The Union of the British Provinces (1865), was undertaken. Finally in 1876, three years after the Island entered Confederation, the Dominion government agreed to buy out the absentee landlords, and Premier Louis H. Davies was able to set up free non-sectarian education schools under a Chief Superintendent of Education and a revamped Board of Education. George T. Haszard's son George H. Haszard (1851-1905), in partnership with Stewart Moore, now received far more educational business from the government,

Bookselling from 1820 to 1867 119 and besides reprinting textbooks, they issued their own Prince Edward Island School Book Series in the 1890s. The Haszards probably issued the largest number of titles among Island firms during the nineteenth century. 64 Although New Brunswick did not have a free, non-sectarian education act until 1871, even during the corruption-ridden 1840s there were attempts to improve the school system. Under the provisions of the 1847 Act to Provide Support and Improvement of Parish Schools, Joseph Marshall de Brett Marechal ( 1811-71) was brought from Britain to run the Normal School, but as the first Superintendent of Education ( 1848-5 8) he was frustrated in getting support for many of his ideas. He was fired and replaced by Henry Fisher, the brother of the premier, but the reorganization of King's College as the non-denominational University of New Brunswick and the fights over the use of the Bible in the schools forestalled any changes until 1871 when Theodore Harding Rand, fresh from six years of implementing free schools in Nova Scotia, became the new Superintendent of Education. In Saint John, J. & A. McMillan and R.A.H. Morrow enlarged their business due to these changes. The Belfast bookseller John McMillan (1761-1847) opened his bookstore in 1822, and occasionally published books and pamphlets, including the first edition in Canada of Oliver Goldsmith's The Rising Village (1835). His oldest son, David (d. 1846), took over the business in 1837, and a printing department was added some time before his other sons, Alexander (d. 1849) andJ ames, sr (1810-86), inherited the business in the mid-184os. The first two sons died young, and James, who was always on the move, spent as much time in the United States as he did in Saint John. After a very short apprenticeship in New York, he worked at the Lawrence Johnson Type Foundry in Philadelphia, published a Presbyterian paper, The Standard (1831-4), in Cincinnati, and then ran a bookstore in Madison, Wisconsin, from 18 34 to 1844. For the next eleven years he managed the Saint John business, and from 1855 to 1860 he ran Adam Hart's Philadelphia bookstore, which was formerly Carey & Hart's firm. In 1860 James, sr, took his son John (1833-1905) into the firm and almost immediately went back to Philadelphia to settle the estate of his wife's brother-in-law, Lawrence Johnson. 65 Back in Saint John, James, sr, managed the printing and publishing department, and devoted his time to philanthropic works and the temperance movement. Under the management of James, sr, John McMillan, and their partner George W. Whitney, the McMillan list of publications was the largest and the most distinguished of any nineteenth-century Maritimes firm. Besides printing temperance, business, and denominational papers, they were joint publishers with A. & W. Mackinlay of Halifax of The Maritime Monthly

120 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada (1873-5), the last important literary magazine in the Atlantic region until The Dalhousie Review appeared in 1920. They published textbooks, scholarly works, and local histories by Rand, Loring W. Bailey, John Murdock Harper, James Hannay, and the antiquarian David Russell Jack. Two of their volumes of poetry achieved national critical recognition, John Hunter Duvar's De Roberval (1888) and W.W. Campbell's Lake Lyrics (1889). The firm expanded beyond the provincial borders, despite the destruction of the premises in the Great Fire of 1877 and near bankruptcy in 1894. More than any other bookseller-publisher in the Maritimes, J . & A. McMillan came closest to securing national markets, except that by the mid-188os Toronto's trade book and textbook firms had the edge over firms from other cities. By 1907 J. & A. McMillan had forty to fifty employees and commercial travellers, all under the management of John's son Colonel Alexander McMillan. It was housed on four floors at 98-100 Prince William Street: the retail book and stationery department was on the street, the wholesale department on the second floor, the bindery on the third, and the printing plant on the top floor. 66 Today their bookselling and publishing operations have disappeared, and the firm concentrates on stationery and office equipment. Following the union of Upper and Lower Canada in 1840, two separate school systems were created for the Province of Canada in 1841, and as in Nova Scotia, the first superintendents of education were men of exceptional vision and executive power. Canada East's first Superintendent, Dr JeanBaptiste Meilleur (1796-1878), was a man of science who courageously undertook a drastic overhauling of the provincial system in the face of jealousy and intrigue. Born near Montreal, he studied classics at the College de Montreal and graduated in medicine from Middlebury College, Vermont, in 182 5. For fifteen years he practised as a country doctor at L' Assomption near Montreal. Here he wrote a textbook, Cours abrege de lerons de chymie (Montreal: Duvernay 1833), helped found a college (ie, a secondary school), and after his election to the Assembly in 18 34 he quickly became recognized as an expert in educational matters. As soon as he was appointed Superintendent in 1842, he visited schools in Britain, Europe, and the United States, and returned to sponsor the 1846 School Act for Canada East, which provided for the first common schools in the country (although the habitants were as reluctant as English-speaking farmers to pay taxes to support state-run schools), and established boards to examine teachers and to supervise local schools. Both of these acts were a direct encouragement to the bookstores of the province. Another person who helped the textbook trade was the new bishop of

Bookselling from 1820 to 1867 121 Montreal, Mgr Ignace Bourget (1799-1885), a brilliant administrator of conservative and authoritarian temperament, who introduced into the province the religious revival of France in the 1830s, and who became the leader of the ultramontanist movement. In 1841 Bourget visited France in order to recruit personnel for new churches and missions. When the new religious orders set up schools and colleges, they overcame the lack of textbooks by importing works from France, but they also decided to write and publish their own books. According to Georges Laberge and Andre Vachon, they 'succeeded so well that by the turn of the century almost all organized publishing in Quebec was concentrated in their hands, while all secular publishing was still, with only a few exceptions, at the "printerpublisher" stage. ' 67 In Montreal the dominance held in educational books by E.R. Fabre was challenged by C.-0. Beauchemin and J .R. Rolland, who both began bookselling in 1842. For many years Beauchemin's importations from France were chiefly theology, history, law, and medicine. He added a printing office, but Beauchemin did not develop the publishing side until after Confederation. Rolland ( 1815-88), whose name survives in the paper company he founded, was one of Canada's success stories, for he arrived in Montreal as a penniless orphan boy, to be trained as a printer. He specialized in educational and juvenile works, and his small list of publications included the first edition of Antoine Gerin-Lajoie's]ean Rivard le defricheur (1874). In 1881 Rolland and his son, having observed that no paper mills in Canada produced high-quality paper, built the first of their mills at St Jerome, and eventually they sold the bookstore to concentrate on manufacturing fine papers. Along with Armour & Ramsay, the most important English-language educational booksellers in the 1840s were Robert and Adam Miller, two Ulster brothers who printed some of the Irish National School Books. When they dissolved their partnership in 1863, Robert (b. 1810) continued the Montreal business and, as a relative of the Lovells, served as a director of the Lovell Printing and Publishing Company; while Adam (1811-75) took over their Toronto branch, which in 1876 was transferred by his widow to their young employee William Gage. When Meilleur ran into problems with his reforms by 18 53, Jacques Cremazie, the brother of the poet, supported him by advising a legislative committee on education to upgrade teaching skills and to supervise the teachers, and to cut out the inefficient variety in texts. By this time Meilleur was exhausted from fights with the clergy, members of the Assembly, and even the public; he resigned in 18 55, and his successor as Superintendent from 185 5 to 1873, P.-J .-0. Chauveau, was able to implement these changes. Like

122 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada so many public men of his generation, Pierre-Joseph-Olivier Chauveau (1820-90) began as a lawyer and journalist with his hopes set on a literary career. Born in the Quebec suburb of Charlesbourg, he was orphaned and raised by his uncle and grandfather. After he left the Petit Seminaire de Quebec, he studied law and at eighteen published his first poem, 'L'lnsurrection.' During the 1840s he was the Quebec correspondent for Le Courrier des Etats-Unis, a New York City newspaper, and contributed to Le Fantasque. In 184 3 he joined La Societe canadienne d' etudes litteraires et scientifiques, founded by his friends Napoleon Aubin, J .-C. Tache, Telesphore Fournier, and Marc-Aurele Plamondon, who was the owner and editor of the short-lived literary weekly Le Menestrel (1844-5); and over a decade later Chauveau was associated with the famous Cremazie-Casgrain literary circle. Although he remained sympathetic to Joseph Papineau, when Chauveau defeated the elderly publisher John Neilson in 1844 he joined the reform party of Louis Lafontaine and Robert Baldwin, which a decade later became the Liberal-Conservative party of John A. Macdonald and George-Etienne Cartier. In the early 1850s Chauveau served as Solicitor-General and Provincial Secretary, but resigned to become the Superintendent of Education. Chauveau began the journal de /'instruction publique (1857-79) and set up the Council of Public Instruction, one of whose tasks was to select authorized texts, maps, and globes, as well as to set higher standards of professionalism. Chauveau constantly sought bigger budgets, and encouraged reading among adults and children by insisting upon libraries for every parish, an official library for the educational department, and libraries for the normal schools. During his regime the trade schools, known as Schools of Arts and Manufacturing, were introduced, and the government underwrote two Journals of the Board of Arts and Manufactures (one for Upper Canada and one for Lower Canada), whose subjects covered all the technical and scientific inventions of the decade, including developments in the printing and paper trades. But the Roman Catholic Church, particularly its conservative element, wanted the schools under stricter clerical control, and the new Ministry of Public Instruction that was set up in 1867 on the creation of the Province of Quebec lasted only until 1875, when a new school act split the Quebec system into independent Protestant and Catholic branches that survived until 1959. Chauveau himself, as Premier and Provincial Secretary, also held the education portfolio from 1867 to 1873, as did his successors Gideon Ouimet and C. -E. Boucher de Boucherville. From 1850 to 1876 the disputes over the Canada West Educational Depository brought into focus all the classic clashes in our book trade. Some

Bookselling from 1820 to 1867 123 of these were already familiar, although not in the same combination: textbooks as the bread and butter of the trade, the preference for imported books over those by native authors, caution exercised in risking capital for local ventures, and government activity in a field that is traditionally left to the businessman. The Depository, which was established in 1850 by Egerton Ryerson, made large-scale purchases of texts and educational materials directly from British and American firms, and then sold these to school boards at very low prices. The booksellers of Ontario were quick to protest this government monopoly. Ryerson's name is now associated with the firm he founded, but his contemporaries first knew him as the Methodist minister who opposed the Reverend John Strachan over the Clergy Reserves in the 1820s. Born in 1803 of Loyalist parents in the township of Charlottesville, Upper Canada, he was educated at local schools and entered the Methodist ministry in 182 5. The next year he gained province-wide attention for his vigorous attack in Mackenzie's Colonial Advocate ( 11 May 1826) on Bishop Strachan, who had labelled the Methodist circuit riders as ignorant and lazy. In 1829 the Wesleyan Methodist Conference appointed Ryerson editor of The Christian Guardian (1829-1925), and gave him $700 to buy a press, type, and equipment in New York City. 68 Shares in the paper were sold to Methodist clergy for $20 each. Under Ryerson' s guidance the Guardian became the most widely read newspaper in the province; it advocated the temperance movement, supported Mackenzie up to 18 33, and like other church papers of the period it discussed social and literary questions. The bookselling side of the business, the Methodist Book Room, issued sermons, hymns, reports of the York Auxiliary Bible Society, some poetry, missionaries' lives, and Ryerson's own Victoria College Inaugural Address on the Nature and Advantages of an English and Liberal Education (1842). An innovative bookseller, he arranged on his 1833 trip to England to have British religious works distributed through his Book Room, where he gave good discounts to clergy, teachers, and Sunday schools. Even before Ryerson retired from publishing in 1840, the functions of the editor of The Christian Guardian and the Book Steward (who had charge of the Book and Printing plant) had been separated. While the Reverend George R. Sanderson was Book Steward from 1854 to 1859, the Book Room expanded its wholesale and retail lines, bigger presses were bought, and the firm moved to larger premises. Under the stewardship of the Reverend Samuel Rose from 1865 to 1879, the Methodist Book Room continued its aggressive policy of printing and bookselling, particularly in the Sunday School market. Rose's editors, the Reverend Edward Hartley Dewart, the

124 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada

Reverend John Carroll, and the Reverend William Henry Withrow, all encouraged native literary development. After serving as the first Principal of Victoria College at Cobourg from 1841 to 1844, Ryerson was appointed Chief Superintendent for Education in Canada West, and, protected from the whims of party, he developed Ontario's excellent education system over the next thirty years, beginning with the School Act of 1846, which established the basis of his system. Ryerson's entry into government bookselling came about through his search for a uniform series of textbooks, and his choice fell on the Irish National School Books, which were being considered for the same purpose in the other provinces as well. In 1846 he got permission from the Commissioners of National Education in Ireland to sell that series here for less than its British price. Next, he obtained the rights for local reprints of the series, and was even sent twenty-five sets free of charge. As we saw earlier, Armour & Ramsay, Hugh Scobie, and A. & W. Mackinlay reprinted some of these titles, but no publisher dared risk reprinting the whole series. The School Act of 1850 authorized the establishment of a public library system for Canada West and the establishment of Ryerson's Educational Depository to supply textbooks to common schools. On his winter trip to England in 1850-1, Ryerson got permission from the (British) Committee of the Council on Education to bypass their own purchasing agent (Longman's, who received a 5 per cent commission for its services) and deal directly with individual publishers in London and Edinburgh, who were happy to expand their colonial textbook trade and to supply (through the Depository) the new public libraries of Canada West. In 1852 Ryerson arranged for the Depository to supply textbooks to the grammar schools as well, and several years later he went after the business of the private schools and colleges. By 18 53 the Depository had issued 62,866 books to the public libraries of Canada West, and by 1858 the Depository Catalogue listed over 3,000 titles available. 69 Such, then, were the ways in which Ryerson built up the splendid school system in Ontario, got cheap textbooks into the hands of thousands of schoolchildren, and helped develop the public library system. Although booksellers accepted competition among themselves, they simply could not compete with a government agency that undersold them by a third. In June 1 8 55 Hew Ramsay's Canadian Literary News Letter carried a Toronto complaint calling for reform in the Depository: A public department has been reduced to the dimensions of a trading concern, outrivalling every other competitor by the means of monopoly which it possesses ... Dr Ryerson has a building, which serves as a shop, provided at the public cost. He has

Bookselling from 1820 to 1867 125 his clerk hire, his gas light; everything, in short, paid out of the public purse. No doubt, such advantages as these will enable any man to undersell another; but what becomes of the freedom of trade, and say the maxims of political economy to such procedure? ... The paths of industry should be thrown open wide to all, free from any interference of the Government. In a city and country like this, where there are scarcely any important domestic manufactures, there are not so many industrial avenues open to our population that the Government can without serious injury place itself at the entrance of one to repulse honest and respectable persons who desire to enter.7°

This article was the first cloud of a storm that broke in late 1857, when the depression, among other things, may have goaded the booksellers into action. On I December the Reverend John Cunningham Geikie, Secretary-Treasurer of the recently organized Booksellers' Association of Canada,,:- complained politely to Ryerson. A native of Edinburgh, Geikie (1824-1906) was educated at Queen's College in Kingston and ordained in the Presbyterian Church in 1848. After serving in Halifax from 1851 to 1854, he opened a bookstore in Toronto that specialized in religious works and also carried a large supply of legal, medical, and scholarly works. Geikie had an extensive agency business with British and American firms, and among his own publications was his lecture on Ralph Waldo Emerson (1859) and his Geikie's Literary News Letter (c1856). Geikie argued that booksellers were hurt by direct sales to public school children and to the private schools, and announced that he would sell texts at the Depository price. Ryerson replied that the unavailability of books, maps, and apparatus in the retail stores had forced him to let the Depository sell direct to the pupils, and he stuck to his principle that cheap prices were a saving to parents. 'In regard to supplying Public Schools with Apparatus, Maps, etcetera, I think it is the duty of the Government, if it aids Schools, or Colleges, at all, to do all it can to render them efficient ... In all such cases the public good is to be preferred to individual interest. ' 71 Although not a brush-off, Ryerson's high-handed reply no doubt fanned the flames of controversy. In the new year The British Colonist took up the cause of the booksellers, and made a serious accusation on 19 March: 'we believe that a very few years of the Monopoly will make the School Superintendent the richest man in the West.' 72 Ryerson's biographers have always emphasized that he did not * The Booksellers' Association of Canada was established on 18 November 1857; its first President was Henry Rowsell and its Vice-President, A.H. Armour.

126 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada benefit financially from his post, even though his employees, who received royalties or other payments for their authorized textbooks, certainly benefited indirectly from patronage. Ever sensitive to newspaper attacks, Ryerson immediately fired off two denials within three days. He had no intention of modifying the Depository operations; quite the contrary, Geikie argued, under the pseudonym of 'Free Trade' in The Globe (22 March 1859). On 28 April the Booksellers' Association, supported by Ryerson's arch-enemy, George Brown of The Globe, petitioned the legislature to end the Depository monopoly. The forty-eight signatures included the leading Toronto printers and booksellers - Geikie, Samuel Thompson, Henry Rowsell, Andrew Armour, Thomas Maclear, and James Bain. 73 Then on 10 May came a counter-petition supporting the Depository, headed by James Campbell and containing only five signatures, and the legislature appointed a committee under Brown to investigate the Depository. Ryerson may have anticipated this turn of events. With customary strategy, he soon issued a 76-page pamphlet (prepared at a cost of £70 for an edition of 5,000 copies, Geikie observed bitterly), Special Report on the Separate School Provisions, which only superficially refers to another controversy but is actually a detailed justification for Ryerson's thirteen years as Superintendent. His thorough marshalling of statistics and evidence from government records was turned into an impressive attack on the forty-eight booksellers. Geikie did not let this attack pass unanswered, and he retaliated first with a 30-page pamphlet, Statement, Supplementary and Explanatory... (dated 7 June 1858), which may have been issued before Ryerson's Special Report, and then followed up with another 30-page Reply to a Special Report of the Superintendent of Education ... later in the month. Geikie disputed Ryerson's claim that Depository importations were a drop in the bucket compared with the annual importation of all books, and disagreed with Ryerson that the availabililty of books actually increased the business of bookstores, an opinion that most booksellers did not shed until the First World War. Brown's committee met only once, made a visit to the Depository where it found no evidence of corruption, and never reported to the legislature. In 1860 Geikie sold out to his employee Graeme Mercer Adam, retired to England, and pursued a successful career as a writer of children's books. Adam (1829-1912), who was born in Loanhead and trained in Edinburgh, emigrated in 18 58 on the Blackwoods' suggestion that he take charge of Geikie's store. When he succeeded to the business, he formed a partnership with James Rollo. In 1863 Adam married Jane Gibson, the daughter of John Gibson, Lovell's partner. Adam was one of the first of the new style of

Bookselliug from 1820 to 1867 127 boo km en who emerged in the 186os; he had no printing press on his premises but did original publishing, handled agency lines, and issued local editions of British and American authors. Among the Rollo & Adam Canadian publications were Alexander McLachlan's The Emigrant and Other Poems (1861), Thomas D'Arcy McGee's Popular History of Ireland (1863), and George Taylor Denison's History of the Fenian Raid on Fort Erie (1866). They published The British-American Magazine (1863-4) and continued Geikie's Literary News Letter as The Canada Bookseller (n865-7). When Rollo retired in 1866 to sell insurance, Adam started a new firm with John Horace Stevenson, and thus ended the first phase of Adam's thirty-year career as a publicist and man of letters. One of the disputes between George Brown and Ryerson was Brown's argument for a native series of textbooks. By the late 1850s such a series was already under way, but it was in the hands of that good conservative and supporter of native manufactures, John Lovell. He had printed John George Hodgins' The Geography of British North America (1858), which was published by Thomas Maclear, but by 1860 Lovell was issuing this title under his own name in his new Lovell Series of School Books, whose subjects soon covered geography, history, arithmetic, book-keeping, natural philosophy, chemistry, agriculture, readers, and maps. Ranging in price from 10¢ to $1. 50, they were competitive with imported textbooks, and had excellent sales. The 1860 edition of The Geography of British North America was advertised as in its nine thousandth copy, and in 1863 Ryerson reported that it was used in 2,084 schools. Easy Lessons in Geography (1862), written by Hodgins, who was Ryerson's right-hand man, was prepared at a cost of $10,000.74 Prominent educators such as John William Dawson, J .H. Sangster, J .D. Borthwick, and Duncan Campbell contributed to the series. Although the Lovell series was often criticized for style and accuracy, as Hodgins' first Geography was, these schoolbooks went through many revisions and printings up to the First World War. The Depository controversy slumbered until it was revived in 1866 over the question of favouritism. As the province spent more on education, feelings ran high on the part of firms that did not get authorization for their textbooks. While any textbook published in the British dominions could be used in Canada West, after 1859 those schools that did not use the authorized books received no school grant. The Depository Catalogue listed only three Canadian authors Oohn George Hodgins, J .H. Sangster, and T.J. Robertson, who were all employees of the Education Department) and only one Canadian publisher, John Lovell; but eighteen out of the thirty-five titles in the Lovell series were authorized for use in the schools of Canada West.

128 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada

Bookseller James Campbell wanted a share of this lucrative market, and behind him was Thomas Nelson of Edinburgh. The Edinburgh-born Campbell (1810-90) was the manager of Thomas Nelson's London house when he was sent to open a branch in New York around 1854.7 5 Fortified by his Scottish background and his American experience, he came to Toronto in 185 8 to specialize in textbooks, particularly the Nelson lines, and in 1860 he received fulsome praise in the Board of Trade Annual Report (possibly written by himself): 'He is the only person in Canada who carries on an extensive wholesale trade in books, having built up a business of this kind peculiarly his own, ' 76 which, if accurate, would mean that no booksellers before Campbell engaged in large-scale wholesaling of textbooks. Even before the School Act of 1870 in Great Britain established universal education, the Nelsons had developed their Royal Readers as well as a series of accurate and well-printed maps and charts. With the help in Toronto of their friend and agent Campbell and Thomas Nelson, jr's brother-in-law George Brown, they hoped to secure a lucrative market in Canada. While Nelson was in North America in 1863 to promote his books and to prevent copyright infringements, he told Ryerson 77 that if their textbooks could be authorized without the usual bureaucratic delays, they would set up a branch printing plant in Toronto. These plans were an open secret, having been mentioned approvingly by Erastus Wiman in his 1862 Board of Trade Report.7 8 Ryerson, however, was not to be drawn into that game, explaining that the Council of Public Instruction chose texts from books or manuscripts submitted to it and that he would not make other arrangements, although he invited Nelson to submit books and maps in the normal manner. Because the Nelsons did not set up a branch plant,79 we can only speculate on the directions of Canadian publishing had they and other British firms established branches here in the sixties as they did in New York. Possibly the later stranglehold by London and New York on our market would have been considerably diminished. Both George Brown and James Campbell continued to act as Nelson's agents in Canada West until March 1865, when Campbell's service as agent with the education department was 'dispensed with,' because the Depository had made 'much better arrangements with all the principal publishers and publishing societies in England and Scotland. ' 80 Meanwhile, Campbell had been pressing the Council of Public Instruction to adopt his Modern School Geography as a substitute for Hodgins' inferior Geography, but was finally turned down. During the same year Brown expanded his printing plant in order to manufacture textbooks, and Campbell announced his own native series, Campbell's British American Series, in The Globe on 2 March 1866.

Bookselling from 1820 to 1867 129 Exactly one week later, he launched the first of three attacks in The Globe against the Depository. Claiming that his Modern School Geography had sold about 11 ,ooo copies in its first year and his Summary of Canadian History nearly 40,000 copies throughout British America, Campbell wondered why his texts were continually refused authorization in Canada West. He complained that teachers were not allowed to choose their textbooks. The Depository Catalogue was full of American reprints of British textbooks. Furthermore, the Education Office exerted an unjust monopoly by requiring local textbook publishers to cede to itself the right to dispose of contracts for reprinting. 81 Graeme Mercer Adam's supporting letter appeared in The Globe on 14 March, and The Globe itself provided three editorial attacks, the first of which appeared on 4 April. By this time Ryerson had prepared the first of his four replies; this was an undated letter in March that was never printed by The Globe, which held back his next three letters in order to publish them together in very small print on 4 May. Brown commented editorially: 'There is something, apparently, in the nature of the man which prevents his discharging a public duty in a straightforward way. We never get clean work from his hands; either the thing itself is unsound or the manner in which it is done is tortuous and deceitful. ' 82 Ryerson's retort was another pamphlet, Letters in Reply to the BrownCampbell Crusade, which included the Nelson-Ryerson letters, portions of Campbell's letters, all four of his own letters to The Globe, a letter fromJ ohn Lovell that The Globe would not publish, substantial footnotes, and (although Brown's own three editorials were omitted) a glancing attack on Brown's views on Confederation. As an additional twist of the screw, the cover carried government printer John Lovell's own advertisements for Hodgins' Geography and Easy Lessons, and its pages were decorated with Lovell's slogan 'Encourage Home Industry.' There were twenty pages of advertisements for the Lovell Series of School Books and hundreds of testimonials from British-American newspapers. Unlike the situation in 1858, some changes did occur, for the Depository was already responding to attacks of poor management. In the summer of 1867 Hodgins was in London squeezing better terms, and on 4 September he reported to Ryerson: 'I have, at length, succeeded in getting five per cent. extra discount from two of our largest Publishers. From the other, 1%, or 2% extra is all I shall be able to get .. .' 83 One of the inheritances in the twentieth century of the Depository's arrangements with firms outside the country was 'buying around.' Strictly speaking, a local bookseller 'buys around' the local agent by dealing with the foreign principal, and although there were not many agents in Toronto in the 1860s, the Depository was initiating a practice that would be very hard to dislodge.

130 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada Finally, the Council of Public Instruction agreed to adopt several of Campbell's textbooks if he would permit them to be printed free of charge by anyone in the Dominion. Similar transferrals of copyright to the Chief Superintendent of Education were required from the other major textbook publishers, Joho Lovell and Robert Miller. Campbell now renamed his textbooks the Canadian National Series of Reading Books ; and by the end of the decade his son William, who was later to be a textbook publisher in his own right, was included in the Company name, and the firm was on its way to becoming the largest textbook publisher in the 1870s. In these same decades charters were granted to universities, most of them founded to serve denominational needs. In the Maritimes were Dalhousie (non-sectarian but heavily Presbyterian), 1818; Acadia (Baptist), 1839; Mount Allison (Methodist), 1840; and St Mary's (Roman Catholic), 1841. In Quebec were McGill (non-sectarian but heavily Presbyterian), 1821; Bishop's (Anglican), 1843; and Laval (Roman Catholic), 1852. In Ontario were King's College (non-sectarian), 1827; Queen's (Presbyterian), 1841; Victoria (Methodist), 1843; Ottawa (Roman Catholic), 1849; and Trinity (Anglican), 18 52. They simply did not have the same impact on the textbook trade that the public school systems had, yet their library purchases and the contributions of their faculty members to academic publishing were significant aids to the advancement of knowledge. THE EXPANSION OF WHOLESALE AND RETAIL BOOKSELLING, I

8 50-67

The bookselling trade in British North America improved steadily from the late 1840s through the economic boom of the early fifties, suffered a minor setback in the depression of 1857, prospered during the American Civil War years, and was in its healthiest state of the century in the late 186os. Even as early as 18 50, communications were so improved that booksellers in the larger towns advertised that they could get books and papers from Boston and New York within a week of their publication and could sell them competitively with the American price. Everyone knew the changes were due to American piracy and the Foreign Reprints Act, and Mrs Moodie was reflecting common feelings when she wrote in 1853 : 'Incalculable are the benefits that Canada derives from her cheap reprints of all the European standard works, which, in good paper and in handsome bindings, can be bought at a quarter the price of the English editions. ' 84 Even the countryside of Canada West was full of American book pedlars with their cheap wares, whom Michael Gonder Scherk recalled in his 1905

Bookselling from 1820 to 1867 131 memoir Pen Pictures of Early Pioneer Life in Upper Canada. 85 American firms often advertised for agents to sell books and periodicals in the country, as did the Sadliers of Montreal, and M. Shewan and Samuel Pike's Great Book Subscription Establishment of Toronto. But by the 1860s there were bookstores in every important town in the country; south and west of Toronto, for instance, W.L. Copeland andJ ohn Walker served St Catharines; Joseph Lyght served Hamilton; and William L. Carry and E. A. Taylor served London. Indeed, Mrs Moodie saw another important change since her arrival in 1832. 'The reading class is no longer confined to the independent and wealthy: mechanics and artisans are all readers when they have the time to spare,' 86 she told her British audience in Mark Hurdlestone (1853). The flood of American books was not entirely composed of pirated English copyrights. Even before the 'newspaper' books, Brother Jonathan and The New World, had run their course by 1845, a new cheap-book trend was under way, and it was facilitated by the new rotary steam presses. The author and publisher who began this trend was Maturin Murray Ballou of Boston, who 'conceived the idea of producing, for mass distribution, simple melodramatic adventure stories about naval warfare and piracy.' 87 Under his pseudonym, 'Lieutenant Murray,' he issued such titles as Fanny Campbell; or the Female Pirate Captain and Red Rupert; or the American Buccaneer; the first of these was still on sale at Fuller's American Book Store in Halifax in 1860. Ballou and his partner Gleason soon had a host of competitors, particularly in New York. One such firm was DeWitt & Davenport (they published John Richardson and Susanna Moodie), who published 'popular romantic fiction and dime novels based on life in New York City, the American West, pirates, highwaymen, headhunters, and other villainous types.' 88 Street and Smith were the proprietors of The New York Weekly Dispatch, in the pages of which were first published Francis Smith's Bertha, the Sewing Machine Girl, Edward Judson's Buffalo Bill, King of the Border Men (1869), and Horatio Alger's rags-to-riches stories from the 1860s to the 1880s. Although books had already been sold for 10¢, in 1860 Beadle & Company published the first dime novel in a numbered series, Ann Stephens' Malaeska: The Indian Wife of the White Hunter, which had first appeared in 1839. The Beadle format proved immediately popular, and by the end of the century the Beadle publications in a variety of series and formats totalled 3,158 titles, most of them intensely nationalistic, and many of them based on American pioneer and colonial life. 89 Although many of the cheap books were aimed at adults, they were avidly read by adolescents of both sexes, soldiers in the Civil War, and by the new generation of young readers in British North America. Only a

132 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada handful of Canadian books appear to be in the same vein as these American adventure stories. Hughyue's Argimou is in this tradition, as are three novels by the Cape Breton er, the Reverend William Charles MacKinnon, St. Castine (1850), Frances; or, Pirate Cove (1851), and St. George; or The Canadian League (1852). In 1867 the Montreal bookseller Richard Worthington issued The Ten of Diamonds, and Other Tales and The Canadian Brigands: An Intensely Exciting Story of Crime in Quebec, Thirty Years Ago!!. John Lovell's efforts in this field were disappointing, as we shall see in the following chapter. In these decades a significant pattern emerged among city booksellers. Large wholesale houses began to supply local and country booksellers, and these houses made agency arrangements with American and British firms . Some of these firms had been in business for decades; now, with the textbook trade to support them, they were able to extend their activities, and they proudly announced their large stock of books - including many primers and Sunday school books - to the public. In 1850 D. & J. Sadlier had a stock of over 25,000 volumes; by 1867 they had 10,000 Catholic volumes, 10,000 biographies, histories, and poets, 7,000 volumes of fiction, and 25,000 schoolbooks. During the 1850s B. Dawson & Sons advertised a stock of over 20,000 volumes. B. Cosgrove's Boston Book Store (Toronto) in 1850 contained 20,000 volumes, all at New York and Boston prices. In 18 53 W estacott of Charlottetown stated he had disposed of nearly 10,000 books over the past five years, and in 1857 he informed the public he had a stock of 5,000 titles. 90 The new booksellers soon began to publish local authors, and sometimes their names appeared as publishers of local editions of British and American best-sellers. Harper's of New York arranged for John McCoy to issue Edward Bulwer-Lytton's Harold, the Last of the Saxon Kings (1848) and for B. Dawson to issue Charles Kingsley's Alton Locke (1850). Benjamin Dawson, a native of Prince Edward Island, took over Robert McKay's bookstore in 1846 and established the Montreal Circulating Library. He retired in 18 56 to become a Church of England clergyman, and was succeeded by his sons Samuel Edward Dawson (1833-1912) and Charles F. Dawson, who later published legal, scientific, and scholarly works. About 1848 D . &J. Sadlier of New York City opened a Montreal branch for the large Irish-Catholic community of the Canadas, and their advertisements explained two common business practices: 'Being very extensively engaged in the publishing business in New York; and exchanging our publications for those of other publishers; besides, buying largely at the New York and Philadelphia Trade Sales, we are thus enabled to sell lower, either by

Bookselling from 1820 to 1867 133 Wholesale or Retail, than even many of the New York booksellers. Give us a trial, and convince yourselves. ' 9 ' Throughout most of the nineteenth century, their bookstore and their homes were the meeting places for Irish-Catholic literary figures such as Mrs Leprohon and Thomas D' Arey McGee, whose posthumous Poetry (1869) was edited by Mary Anne Sadlier. Many of the Sadlier titles have joint New York and Montreal imprints, including Mrs Sadlier's novels. Thomas Maclear of Toronto had a prosperous agency for the reprints of British magazines. A native of Ireland, Maclear (1815-98) was sent to Toronto in 1842 by Blackie & Son of Glasgow. In 1853 he bought a retail bookstore and The Canadian Almanac from the widow of Hugh Scobie, and the next year he formed a partnership with Dr William Chewett and William Copp, who had been apprenticed to Scobie. In 18 57, a year after their move to larger premises, the partnership was dissolved and Maclear concentrated on wholesaling, printing, and subscription publishing until his retirement in 1887. He attracted some leading writers of Canada West to his house: W.H. Smith's Canada (1851) and Catharine Parr Traill's The Female Emigrant's Guide (1852) were early publications. In 1853-4 he published The AngloAmerican Magazine. Later in the century Mrs Moodie went to him with the first Canadian edition in 1871 of Roughing It in the Bush, and Maclear had great success with two prestige subscription books about emigrants to the new Dominion, Nicholas Flood Davin's The Irishman in Canada (1877) and William Rattray's The Scot in British North America (1880-4). Not every bookstore prospered in this decade, however. In Saint John the young James De Mille, who had not yet made his mark as an author, and his partner Fillmore ran the Colonial Bookstore from 1854 until 1859, when it passed into the hands of William Hall, whose descendants were still booksellers in Fredericton in the 1970s. De Mille's venture was not a happy one; he was saddled with a $20,000 debt which took him years to pay off. 92 By the 18 50s a new kind of book advertisement appeared in the newspapers; this was for one or several new seasonal works, unlike the old-fashioned advertisements that listed hundreds of titles in unreadable small print. The paper covers and end pages of many books were filled with advertisements for books from the same printer, which has become a useful source in our day for discovering what was printed. The trade circulars and newsletters made a practice of including long reviews. Hew Ramsay's Canadian Literary News Letter and Booksellers' Advertiser ( 1 855) of Montreal had a free distribution of 3,000 copies, and carried notes on the trade and literary events. Peter Sinclair of Quebec City began Sinclair's journal of British North America in 1849, and by 1857 his Monthly Circular had a

134 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada circulation of 1,500. 93 In 1856 Geikie's Literary News Letter was merely a catalogue, but it was expanded by Rollo and Adam as the Canada Bookseller (1865). The first magazine to carry extensive trade and literary news was W.B. Cordier's weekly The Saturday Reader (1865-7), whose contents show that Montreal readers had an equally lively curiosity about books and literary gossip. Despite the temporary prohibition in 1842-3 of pirated materials from the United States, the Foreign Reprints Act in effect legalized these works, and changes in postal rates and customs duties by the 18 50s encouraged direct mailing from the United States to colonial customers on an even larger scale than previously, so that local booksellers were faced with the same old competition. Even though, as we saw earlier, Leonard Scott had authorized local booksellers as his agents, he advertised in the Halifax Christian Messenger (12 December 1860) that he could ship free of postage his reprint editions of the five leading British reviews, which were printed from advance sheets sent to New York by the British publishers themselves. Maritime subscribers could receive all five for $10 (the British price was $31 ), and clubs could get a discount of 2 5 per cent. It was hard for colonial booksellers to compete with this attractive offer, because American markets were larger, and mails from Britain to New York were better than British services to Halifax and Montreal. Very few objections to the Foreign Reprints Act were made by printers after the Province of Canada passed it in 1850. In The Anglo-American Magazine (October 1852), the 'Doctor' and the 'Major,' two fictional characters who reviewed the contemporary scene, examined the recent slights to Canada, namely, the British free trade law which allowed foreigners the privileges of British subjects; the British prohibition (in the form of a high duty) preventing the export of Canadian books to the mother country; and American reciprocity, which charged from 10 per cent to 20 per cent duty on books from Canada. The Doctor put the problem this way: 'British authors should be protected. Colonial publishers should have the same privileges as American publishers; - cheap and accurate reprints of British works should be procurable in the colonies, these three objects can be secured by one regulation. ' 94 The two men then proposed a form of licensing; that is, a set rate per sheet to be paid to the customs collector, who would in turn transmit it to the copyright owner within six months from the time of the Canadian reprint. Thus a tax of $10 per 16 pages octavo would yield about 12½ per cent, the same as the foreign reprints duty. 95 For all its apparent simplicity, however, this regulation would have been awkward in practice, and the British always resisted such proposals.

Bookselling from 1820 to 1867 135 The shortcomings of the Foreign Reprints Act were dramatically revealed in 1856 when The Publishers' Circular examined the meagre returns to the British trade for 18 55, and found that the Province of Canada deducted a 4 5 per cent charge (as the cost of collection) from the 12½ per cent foreign reprints duty. Said The Publishers' Circular: 'We should like to know whether, when the Act was passed, either British authors or publishers were consulted about it, or any enquiry made of them whether they were willing to yield up the rights they possessed under the Copyright Act ... ' 96 The next week The Athenaeum asked, 'Has any author whose works have been imported to the colonies, received any portion of the £687 which have been lately distributed ?'97 The Publishers' Circular assured The Athenaeum that payments had been made to the publishers, and that respectable firms would distribute royalties, 'though it will be difficult to hand over to Hume and Smollett the small sum to which ... those eminent historians are entitled.'98 Then in 1857, discovering that the latest return showed no payments at all from Canada, The Publishers' Circular got to the heart of the problem and called for new trade arrangements with the colonies: The present system encourages the reprinters of the United States, and retards the subject of International Copyright, besides which, from the way in which the paltry sums collected are handed over to publishers, it is not possible accurately to distribute them amongst the actual owners of copyrights . . . The question is essentially an authors' question ... 99

However, in Canada it was still essentially a booksellers' question because consumers loved the competition that gave them cheap reading. In the Toronto Globe of 8 December 1860, Warne & Hall offered Thomas Hughes's Tom Brown at Oxford for 50¢, while Rollo & Adam offered it in a 'later and cheaper edition' (the New York edition) for 50¢, and the Boston one ·for $1.00. Two days later Maclear offered the New York edition for 37½¢. Maclear sold Thackeray's The Four Georges for 75¢, but Warne & Hall undercut him with a 10¢ paper edition and a 25¢ edition in boards. Already another problem was brewing between the imperial and Canadian governments. The booksellers were thriving on the concessions granted to them by the Foreign Reprints Act, but now - with a depression in 1857 and disillusionment setting in over reciprocity with the United States, and many printers out of work - the Province of Canada, with the hearty support of its manufacturers, decided to raise revenues by imposing high protective tariffs on a wide group of manufactures. It was generally accepted that duties on literary works could be imposed for both those reasons, but not to place a tax

I 36

The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada

on knowledge, which is what the new duties did. And there was little agreement about who was protected and why. Two decades earlier in British North America, for instance, British books were charged 2½ per cent, and the 3 5 per cent (30 per cent imperial and 5 per cent provincial) on American books was reduced to 7 per cent imperial in 1843. By 1855 books, presses, type, and binding tools came in free. The high imperial duty had protected industry in the United Kingdom, but now imperial free trade was to be offset by provincial protectionism, a move that was contrary to the instructions issued by Lord Russell in 18 55 that prohibited differential tariffs between the provinces. 100 When the new duties appeared in 1858, paper for books, maps, and newsprint was charged a 15 per cent duty; while books, periodicals, pamphlets, engravings, prints, maps, and charts were charged 10 per cent. The free table included Bibles, testaments, printing ink, presses, type metal, and stereotype blocks. 101 Booksellers on both sides of the water lost no time in protesting the new regulations. The Montreal correspondent for The Publishers' Circular wrote: We used to boast of our country being among the most liberal to literature, but with such a tariff as this feel heartily ashamed. Last year we fought off a threatened duty of 5 per cent on books, and when that Inspector-General resigned, and the present one, Mr. Galt (a son of the Author of Annals of the Parish, &c.) succeeded, we thought literature safe, but are miserably disappointed. 102

The Publisher's Circular said that the duty was contrary to the principle of colonial injury to the home trade, and feared that the Americans would move in to take over the £4,000 of British exports to Canada. ' 03 Since the 10 per cent duty on English books did not include American reprints of English copyrights, the Circular assumed that the Canadians escaped 'both copyright tax and import duty.' ' 04 Actually, American works were also taxed under the 10 per cent duty, and one New Yorker claimed that his firm's business with Canada had decreased by 50 per cent. ' 05 The British publishers finally complained to the Board of Trade, which in turn reported three dangers to the Colonial Secretary, the Duke of Newcastle, on 20 October 1859: the duty would encourage American manufacturers to compete in Canadian markets, the protective tariff would encourage manufacturers in the province, and British authors would lose their protection in the form of the 12½ per cent duty collected under the Foreign Reprints Act. ' 06 These were the Board of Trade's favourite criticisms of Canadian booksellers and printers for the next forty years. The agitation, including a petition from Canadian book-buyers, was successful; Galt relented in 1860 and repealed the duty on English books.

Bookselling from 1820 to 1867 137 TABLE 2 (1859) Book, Map, News Printing Paper (15 % ) Newspapers, Foreign (20%) Books, Printed, Periodicals and Pamphlets (10%) Maps, Charts, and Atlases (10%)

DUTIABLE ARTICLES

$3,366 8,854 186,971"" 2,900

FREE GOODS

Books, Printed Bookbinders' Tools and Implements Printing Ink and Printing Presses Stereotype Blocks, for Printing Purposes Foreign Reprints of British Copyrights (12½% Duty collected for Copyright Holder) TOTAL, Dutiable and Free Books (includes only above amounts with asterisks)

132,884'' 978 21,868 795 $ 3,510 $319,855''

In 1859 the Province of Canada Trade and Navigation Return set out nine classifications for book trade importations as shown in Table 2. 107 This model schedule was adopted by the other provinces, and it remained in use, with modifications, until 1879. The imports of free books for the Province of Canada reached a high of $530,233 in 1861, a total not surpassed until 1863, when four provinces reported to the Dominion for the first time. Similar rises can be seen in the other provincial returns. In 1858 Nova Scotia's imports of paper manufactures, books, and stationery totalled £19,870; by 1864-5 its imports of printing paper, books, etc. had reached $114,455 . On Prince Edward Island book imports fluctuated, from a low of £418. 12.6. in 1862 to £1,400.3.6. in 1867. Gradually Toronto was catching up with Montreal as a wholesale and jobbing centre. Its bookstores had come a long way since 1836 when Mrs Jameson noted that 'we have two good booksellers' shops [Mackenzie's and Rowsell's?] and at one of these a circulating library of two or three hundred volumes of common novels. ' 108 Mrs Moodie was awed in 18 51 by the 'well-supplied bookstores of Armour, Scobie and Maclean [Maclear],' 109 which she found superior to the provincial bookstores of her youth in England. Between 1854 and 1856, Toronto's book and periodical imports rose from £38,945 . 5. 3. to £55,553.14. 1. In 18 57 the first Booksellers' Association of Canada was formed in response to the Educational Depository's aggressiveness, and by 1860 there was a Booksellers and Stationers' Section in the Toronto Board of Trade, which almost every year issued an annual survey of the book trade. Although Toronto in the 186os was not yet the book distributing centre for all of Ontario and the North-West, its expansiveness was evident in the Board of Trade reports by Erastus Wiman, J .J. Trout, and William Taylor for all the

138 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada world to see. The Civil War slowed down the flood of 'the lowest and most trashy class of literature from the American press,' 110 that is, the immoral fiction that Thomas D'Arcy McGee had so deplored in 1857, 111 much of it hawked by the pedlars. In 1863 Wiman felt that book tastes had improved since the 1850s. The trade in popular, family-oriented periodicals such as Good Words (edited by Dr Norman Macleod), The Cornhill (edited by William Makepeace Thackeray), and All the Year Round (edited by Charles Dickens), imported directly from Britain, was on the increase, and Trout reported with approval in 1865 that British publishers 'have found out at length that the Canadian trade is worth cultivating, and they have been willing to make such terms with our buyers as enable them to offer books at, and in some cases below, English published prices.' 112 William Chewett told Trout that in 1865 his firm imported about 10,000 copies of different titles of British magazines. Chewett sold out in 1866 to his junior partners William Copp and Henry J. Clark; in 1891 Copp reminisced about those good times: twenty-five years ago the trade made more money than it does to-day. There were fewer in it, books were not so cheap or plentiful, and the retail trade was prosperous ... The firm's store was a meeting place, a sort of rendezvous where people from all parts of the country would make engagements by letter to meet each other and would turn up there in crowds. 113

Although Taylor found 1867 somewhat disappointing, he particularly noted the large imports of educational and professional works. These flourishing conditions in Toronto and Montreal convinced the printing firms after Confederation that a healthy publishing industry could be built on reprint editions of American and British trade books.

4

The Mid-Century Revolution in Printing Technology The Newspaper Press Comes to the North-West and to the Pacific Coast; the Book Production Industry in the Eastern Provinces While authors and publishers struggled to nurture a native literature and booksellers prospered with the sales of foreign reprints, the arrival of the new printing technology transformed what previously had been little more than a cottage craft into a major industry by Confederation in 1867. This impact was most evident in the newspaper press, where all aspects of production, from paper-making and type founding to engraving and printing, contributed to the speed with which printed materials could be struck off, and contributed as well to the increase in the sheer volume of those printed materials. This situation was not an unmixed blessing, for it created new problems in the economy and cultural life of British North America. As the volume of books and periodicals coming in from abroad also increased, printers began to cry for protection by the late 1850s. In this regard the printers were on common ground with other manufacturers, especially those of Quebec and Ontario, who urged successive provincial and federal governments to raise tariff barriers against the well-protected manufacturers of the United States, who took advantage of Great Britain's free trade policies after 1846 to expand into Canadian markets. The rapid changes in the printing trade were merely part of the broader industrial revolution in technology and communications, most of which were costly burdens for a poor country that was underpopulated and underdeveloped, yet essential if a nation were to be forged from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The common factor in all these changes was the miraculous speed with which life now moved, and this involved both the way people travelled, and the way products and information were distributed. In the late 1820s Howe made his stagecoach trips around Nova Scotia because the improved roads he travelled on permitted his Novascotian to be delivered more quickly, and they linked the interests of remote communities into a common cause.

140 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada Susanna Moodie spent sixty-two days at sea in 18 32, but in 1840 Samuel Cunard's RMS Britannia made the Liverpool-Halifax run in thirteen days . In 1848 the telegraph linked Quebec and Montreal with Toronto and the American cities, and in late 1849 Halifax and Saint J oho were connected by telegraph to Boston and New York. Now it was feasible to have year-round daily newspapers. The first railway in 18 36 was a circumvention of the St Lawrence rapids between La Prairie and St John's, Quebec, but the railway age really began in the fifties when the Montreal and Portland, Maine, line was completed in 1853; and by 1860 a thousand miles of railways stretched from Quebec City to Sarnia. The Maritimes were finally linked by rail to Quebec in 1876, and the Canadian Pacific Railway from Montreal to Vancouver was completed in 1885. Whereas it took two months in 1870 for Colonel Wolseley's expedition to go from Ottawa to the first Riel Rebellion in Winnipeg, in the second Riel Rebellion of 188 5 it took six days for the militia to reach Saskatchewan by rail. Most of these changes occurred between 1840 and 1898, the same years in which the newspaper press was introduced to the North-West Territories. THE INTRODUCTION OF PRINTING AND BOOKSELLING INTO THE NORTH-WEST AND BRITISH COLUMBIA

Just as the American colonists had carried the press to the northern provinces a century earlier, so eastern newspapermen brought their printing presses to the Canadian West. There were even some striking similarities in the heroic dragging of presses over harsh terrain, the role of the old-fashioned hand press, and the reliance on outside news. But the differences were far more striking. In two pioneer villages, Regina and Calgary, the latest power presses were there from the start, and after 1880 the rail and telegraph services brought national and international news almost immediately to the far West. In the late nineteenth century, moreover, the freedom of the press, wider suffrage, and almost universal literacy meant that editors could shape public opinion in ways that were not possible for eighteenth-century journalists. Having been immersed so thoroughly in politics in their newspapers, many western editors later entered political life directly and obtained ministerial posts. Nor were western newspapers solely dependent on governments for patronage; while the papers almost to a man were liberal or conservative party organs, they now got part of their revenues from advertisements. So the story of the press in the North-West, as the whole area from the Great Lakes to the Pacific was then called, is like a historical mosaic because it mixes elements from the first printing offices in Europe and America with those of the most sophisticated late nineteenth-century offices.

The Mid-Century Revolution in Printing Technology 141 Fittingly enough, the first printing press in Manitoba, the geographical heart of the nation, was not the direct result of a commercial venture but came about as a means of Christianizing and educating the native people. This press was built by the Reverend James Evans (1800-45), who was sent in 1840 by the British Wesleyan Methodists to the Rossville Mission near Norway House at the north end of Lake Winnipeg, some 300 miles north of Fort Garry (Winnipeg). At that time the west belonged to the Hudson's Bay Company, and was thinly populated by semi-nomadic Indians; by the Metis, who were the descendants of Indians and French-Canadian fur traders; and by the small group of Highlanders whom Lord Selkirk had had settled in the Red River district between 1812 and 1816. Evans came because the Hudson's Bay Company decided that the Indians would be happier traders if they had a northern mission, and although he was not one of its employees, he was subject to the Company's regulations. In 1825 the English-born Evans had a religious 'awakening' at a camp revival meeting in Lower Canada, and he then served as a teacher and missionary in the Rice Lake area near Peterborough, where he showed his ingenuity by inventing an Ojibway alphabet using his own symbols rather than those of the Roman alphabet, which was conventional for Indian dialects. He jumped at the invitation to carry his missionary work to the west, where he adjusted his Ojibway alphabet for the Crees. At Norway House the Crees learned so quickly that Evans sought permission to import a press to print works in their own language, but the Company's refusal to have a press in its lands merely spurred Evans, who was ignorant of the craft of printing, and his little community to use local materials. Their printing press was constructed from a fur-baling press, and chimney soot was mixed with animal fat and grease to make ink.,; Evans described how he spent two months making type for the Cree alphabet: The letter or character I cut in finely-polished oak. I filed out of one side of an inch-square iron bar the square of the body of type, and after placing the bar with the notch over the lener, I applied another polished bar to the face of the mould, and poured in lead, after it had been repeatedly melted in order to harden it. These required a little dressing on the face, and filing to the uniform square and length, but answer well. '

By 11 November 1840 he had printed 300 copies of the hymn 'Jesus My All to Heaven Is Gone,' and subsequently he printed more broadside hymns and a hymnary. In the fall of 1841 a supply ship carried to England a set of the Cree type for proper casting, and the font came back a year later.

* It was long thought that Evans' pupils prepared birch-bark as paper, legend was dissolved after scientific analysis of the paper.

but this romantic

142 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada

After such a splendid beginning, it is sad to record that tragic circumstances forced Evans from his post. In 1841 he accidently killed a Cree friend; by 184 3 he so strongly opposed the policies of supplying liquor to the Indians and forcing them to work on Sundays that the Hudson's Bay Company arranged to have him framed in a Company trial for 'immoral acts' 1 among the Indians. The Wesleyan Methodists had to recall him to England, where he soon died of a heart attack. But the good influence of Evans' press had a more satisfactory outcome. According to Bruce Peel, Evans and his two successors, the Reverends William Mason and Thomas Hurlbert, turned out about sixteen publications, including broadsides of hymns, prayer books, and a Gospel according to St John. 3 They worked under extremely trying circumstances; Mason got an old press in 1845 whose screw broke in 1849, there was no inking ball until 1853, and type and paper were always in short supply. The 'mission' presses were by no means uncommon in the North-West. H. Pearson Gundy in The Spread of Printing: Canada says that the Bishop of Moosonee, John Horden, Father E.J .B.M. Grouard of the Lac la Biche press, and the Reverend]. W. Tims of the Church Missionary Society all had them. 4 The first imprint made in Winnipeg, A Few Reasons for a Crown Colony, which was written and amateurishly printed by the Reverend Griffith Corbett at his Headingley Press in 1859, was produced on one such mission press. This broadside came to light in 1972 when the cornerstone of the first Winnipeg City Hall, erected in 1875, was broken open. 5 The Headingley pamphlet appeared at a moment when the Red River Settlement had a population of about 10,000, and there was lively interest in turning the District of Assiniboia into a Crown colony. By the end of that year the first commercial press had appeared. In Toronto on 22 August 1859 William Buckingham and William Coldwell issued a prospectus for The Nor'-Wester, of which William Lyon Mackenzie said in his Weekly Message: 'I was once the most western editor, bookseller, and printer in British America; but The Nor' Wester is a thousand miles beyond me. ' 6 Buckingham and Coldwell journeyed by rail to St Paul, Minnesota, where they bought a press, type, and paper; and, as Coldwell later recorded, began their trek northward: on the 28th September we made a start from the latter city, with ox-teams - a very wild start, indeed, as one team ran away at the outset, and distributed some of the type in the streets ... we struggled (through] the swamps, worried around and across fallen trees and stumps, toiled up and raced down the sides of the Leaf Mountains, forded rivers with steep banks and boulder-strewn beds, or puzzled out our way via crooked sand bars, over which we went, zig-zagging with occasional excursions into the depths

The Mid-Century Revolution in Printing Technology 143 alongside. Red Lake River - the widest, deepest, crookedest and swiftest in current took some of us up to our necks, and very nearly took me out of this vale of tears altogether.7

Their Red River Printing and Bookselling Establishment began life in November in a little thatch-covered log shanty at the foot of Rupert Street in Fort Garry, and the Nor'-Wester appeared on 28 December 1859. This office, as far as we know, issued no books apart from a short pamphlet of the Laws of Assiniboia ( 1862) and a sermon ( 1868) by Bishop Robert Mach ray. The paper went through several owners, one of whom was the local storekeeper and leader of the 'Canada party,' Dr John Christian Schultz, until its sudden death on 23 November 1869, a victim of the struggle between the Dominion of Canada's attempt to establish the Province of Manitoba and Louis Riel's plans for a Metis province. In the summer of 1869 the Hudson's Bay Company agreed to transfer its lands to the Dominion as the first stage in creating the new province (1870), while Schultz and his friend from their days at Queen's, the poet Charles Mair (who provided the Toronto Globe with a running commentary on the worsening situation), advocated and intrigued for an Ontario-style English-speaking province. In late November as the new lieutenant-governor, William McDougall, neared the Red River District, Louis Riel declared the District a Metis province and shut down the hostile Nor'-Wester. He also commandeered the equipment of William Coldwell, who had just returned after a four-year absence to start another new paper, the Red River Pioneer. This newspaper's first number of 7 January 1870 was a curious hybrid: the Pioneer masthead on pages I and 4 welcomed McDougall while the centre pages under the masthead of Riel's The New Nation contradicted that welcome. 8 In the meantime McDougall's proclamation of Dominion jurisdiction, The North- West Territories (December 1869 ), had to be printed surreptiously on Nor' -Wester type that was stolen and set up by Patrick Gammie Laurie and George Winship, who told this story in 1929. 9 The first French-language paper, Le Metis (1871), was begun by two Montreal journalists, Joseph Royal, later to be lieutenant-governor of the North-West Territories, and Marc Girard. The most influential Liberal newspaper in the North-West, the Winnipeg Free Press, was first issued in 1872 as the Manitoba Free Press by W.F. Laxton; and the earliest magazine in the province was Alexander Begg's short-lived The Canadian North-West (1880). Winnipeg developed slowly in the 1870s and had a spectacular boom in 1882 when its population jumped from 9,000 to 25,000. It remained essentially a regional printing centre for sermons, directories, publicity

144 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada pamphlets for settlers, and government documents, because Toronto (and to a lesser extent, Montreal) supplied much of the North-West's literary and textbook needs. Western authors, like eastern Canadian writers, published their fiction in London and New York. The city had a lively cultural life, but this is barely reflected in publications such as the first literary production in the North-West, J.C. Major's poetic account of the Wolseley expedition, The Red River Expedition (1870), printed by Patrick Laurie, or Mrs Nicholl's poetic Lays from the West ( 1884) and George Broughall's burlesque on Verdi's JI Trovatore, entitled The Tearful and Tragical Tale of the Tricky Troubadour (1886), both issued by the Free Press office. The newspapers carried original poetry, essays, and fiction; by 1900 the Historical and Scientific Society had issued fifty-six pamphlets; and among the Frenchlanguage publications were Bishop Alexandre Tache's pamphlets on Metis rights and the Manitoba school question. The most important bookstore in Winnipeg in the seventies was Donaldson's, which passed through several hands between 18So and 188 5, when a former employee, Alex Tay !or, took it over and made it one of the finest bookstores in Canada. After Taylor's tragic death by drowning at the age of forty-two in 1899, the leading booksellers were Russell Lang, founded by W.D. Russell in 1880, who was joined by his partner Lisgar Lang in 1890; and the largest printing firm was H.C. Stovel, who was in business by the late 188os. In 1843 the Hudson's Bay Company founded Victoria as its westerly post, and by 1849 Vancouver Island had enough settlements to be created a Crown colony. When gold was discovered in the Fraser Valley in 1858, miners and settlers, chiefly from the United States, poured into the mainland. In the same year the first newspaper, the Victoria Gazette, was issued by two San Francisco journalists, H.C. Williston and Columbus Bartlett, who sold their outfit the next year to their printers Abel Whilton and James W. Towne. Victoria's second newspaper, The British Colonist (1858), was founded by a future premier of British Columbia, Amor de Cosmos, who assumed this majestic name in California after leaving his native province of Nova Scotia as plain William Smith. There used to be disagreement over the first book published on the Island, due to confusion created by the two claimants to that honour. For some years Bishop Modeste Demers possessed a small Lorilleaux press that had been given to him by the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, but apparently nothing was printed on it until the end of 1858 when Count Paul de Garro, a French settler, issued the first French-language paper in the West, Le Courrier de la Nouvelle-Caledonie. This press also issued Alfred Waddington's The Fraser Mines Vindicated, or the History of Four Months (possibly November 18 58), whose preface states it was the 'first book'

The Mid-Century Revolution in Printing Technology 145 printed on Vancouver Island. However, according to Douglas McMurtrie, between the typesetting and the actual publication of Waddington's book it was beaten by David Cameron's Rules and Practice of the Supreme Court of Civil justice: Vancouver's Island from the Gazette office. 10 Between the appearance of the first newspaper on the lower mainland, E. Hammond King's New Westminster Times in 1859, and Alexander Bell's The Vancouver Times in 1869, British Columbia became a Crown Colony in 1860. Both colonies were united in 1866 as a result of their serious financial problems, and the next five years were taken up with disputes over annexation with the United States or Confederation with Canada, the decision going in Canada's favour in 1871 with the promise of a rail link to the east. Vancouver grew rapidly in the 1890s after the CPR terminal was finished, but for some years it was overshadowed by Victoria and New Westminster. In 1884 Victoria was a city of 10,000, served by four book and stationery shops. The earliest of these had been established in 1858 by Thomas Napier Hibben (d. 1890) of San Francisco with a stock of $35,000. He got his usual supplies from San Francisco and his Christmas stock from England, and his wholesale department supplied Vancouver's trade. In her autobiography, The Book of Small (1942), the artist Emily Carr remembered her childish delight on seeing Mr Hibben's window at Christmas, with story books open at the best illustrations and 'Merry Christmas' written in cotton wool on red cardboard. 11 As Diggon-Hibben in the twentieth century, it has carried on bookselling and publishing, as well as the sale of office equipment. The first printing office in Saskatchewan was established by Patrick Laurie in 1878 at Battleford, which had been chosen as the first capital of the Territories because the mail arrived there every three weeks on the trails between Winnipeg and Edmonton, and because the telegraph line between them was almost finished. A native of Aberdeenshire, Laurie (1833-1903) had worked in several Ontario towns and for both The Nor'-Wester and the Manitoba Free Press in Winnipeg. Travelling alone with his press and equipment in an ox-cart, Laurie spent seventy-two days on the 600-mile trip between Winnipeg and Battleford. His fortnightly Saskatchewan Herald first appeared on 25 August 1878, and his son commented many years later that 'the business of printing a newspaper was never so profitable that a printer could be employed, and Mr Laurie was his own compositor, reporter, pressman and bookbinder during the long term of twenty-five years. ' 12 Laurie printed the first two Saskatchewan books, Ordinances of the North-West Territories Passed in the Years 1878 and 1879 (1879) and an emigration pamphlet by his son, The Battle River Valley (1883). Battleford declined after the decision was made to send the CPR along the

146 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada southern route, and Pile o' Bones, then a group of shacks and tents with about 400 people, was renamed Regina and designated as the new territorial capital in 1883. In one of the frame buildings on the northeast corner of Victoria Avenue and Rose Street, The Regina Leader was struck off on I March 188 3, with a subscription list of 5,ooo and issued by the Prairie Printing and Publishing Company, capitalized at $20,000. Its flamboyant editor, Irishborn Nicholas Flood Davin (1843-1901), while a reporter for The Irish Times, escaped by balloon from the Paris Commune in 1871, and his presence was a promising beginning for Regina's cultural life. As a poet, essayist, and author of The Irishman in Canada (1877), he printed the first literary works in Saskatchewan, Lizzie Rowe's An Old Woman's Story (1886), J .W. Powers' The History of Regina (1887), and his own Eos: An Epic of the Dawn (1889), the first volume of poetry issued in the province. Like many journalists of his time, he entered parliament in 1887. One of the chains in the West, the Canada Drug and Book Company of Regina, was opened with a stock of $30,000 in 1896 by Robert Martin (drugs) and P. Lamont (books and stationery), and they established branches at Revelstoke and Nelson, BC, the next year. 13 This Regina firm closed down in 1976. The first imprint in Alberta was Histoire sainte en montagnais ( 1878), which was printed by Father Emile Grouard ( 1840-19 31) on his Stanhope press at Lac la Biche. (The press is now in the St Albert Museum, near Edmonton.) Born in France, Grouard came to the Peace River - Athabaska region as an Oblate missionary in 1862, and he printed many religious works in syllabic characters for the Indians. In Edmonton, a former fur-trading post, Winnipeg journalist Frank Oliver (1853-1933) issued the tiny (5¼" x 6½") The Bulletin on 6 December 1880. Several years before his death, Oliver told Douglas McMurtrie that he bought a toy press made in Philadelphia and had to have a six months' supply of paper cut at the Manitoba Free Press office. 14 Oliver was active in provincial politics, and for the 1905-11 period served as Minister of the Interior in the Dominion cabinet. In the eighties Alberta's growth was slower than Saskatchewan's, but in the south as railroads and telegraph lines inched westward, settlers moved in, and the newspaper came with them. In 1882 two ex-Northwest Mounted Policemen, E.T. Saunders and C.E.D. Wood, started the Fort Macleod Gazette. The first train reached Calgary in August 188 3, and on the 31st of that month in a tent on the west bank of the Elbow River, A.M. Armour and J. Braden struck off the first number of The Calgary Herald; Mining and Range Advocate and General Advertiser in front of several distinguished visitors, one of whom, Mackenzie Bowell, the Minister of Customs and once the printer of the Belleville Intelligencer, took off his coat and helped set the

The Mid-Century Revolution in Printing Technology 147 type. ' s In 1884 James C. Linton opened his bookstore, which twenty years later claimed that, with the exception of the Hudson's Bay Company, it was the 'oldest firm doing business in Calgary.' 16 In 1898 international attention was centred on the Klondike Gold Rush at one of the world's last frontiers, and a race ensued to see who would issue the first newspaper. That winter G .B. Swinehart got out one number of his Caribou Sun at Caribou Crossing, and then issued his Yukon Midnight Sun in Dawson City on 11 June 1898. Meanwhile Eugene Allen was transporting his equipment by dogsled, but before his Klondike Nugget of 16June 1898 came off the press, he issued the first number (27 May 1898) from the typewriter of The New York Times correspondent. This action, W.H. Kesterson says, gave Allen the 'technical victory. '' 7 The market for books at Dawson City was a mere trickle, but many newspapers and quantities of sheet music were imported in those roaring times. Despite the fact that Manitoba and the two future provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta were served by regional newspapers and by bookstores in the cities, homesteaders did not have good access to books and newspapers, and sometimes had little to read beyond the Bible, a medical book, perhaps a volume of Burns's poems, and Eaton's catalogue. Most farm homes managed to see newspapers, even if these arrived very late, but books were expensive and difficult to buy. Hence emigrants and settlers were encouraged to bring their own books: in many instances they brought twenty to thirty volumes, and these were often loaned all around a district. In 1959 Catherine Tulloch reported what elderly pioneers wrote to the Saskatchewan Provincial Archives about their reading in the years between 1882 and 1914: Mrs Margaret Hislop Mclellan, who came to Arcola in 1883, sent a typical list. 'We had a large family Bible, Pilgrim's Progress, Prince of the House of David, Barriers Burned Away, a story of the Chicago fire, Bible stories of Jesus, several books of poems, Tennyson, Burns, Longfellow, and a couple of others. After I was married we had several of Ian McLaren's works, The Stickit Minister, etc., at least one of Crockett's, The Bonny Briar Bush, Uncle Tom's Cabin , and Mrs Wiggs ofthe Cabbage Patch.' Other books mentioned were those by Dickens, Scott, Stevenson, Shakespeare, Thackery [sic] and Fenimore Cooper, often brought in complete sets, Ben Hur, Black Beauty, Carlyle's French Revolution, histories of Britain and Canada by various authors, and, for young people, those fat battle volumes of Henty's, and the many adventures of Tarzan and Elsie Dinsmore. 18

Of several attempts to organize community libraries in Saskatchewan, the first was the Mechanics and Literary Institute of Grenfell in 1882. Around

148 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada 1890, after a visit to the West, Lady Aberdeen, the perceptive and diligent wife of the Governor General, arranged for the women of Winnipeg to send parcels of books and magazines to the settlers; and eventually the Lady Aberdeen Society had eighteen branches in Canada and groups in London, Liverpool, and Glasgow supporting her efforts. PRINTING EQUIPMENT AND MATERIALS IN MID-CENTURY CANADA

Most of the equipment and materials in mid-century printing offices were developed abroad in order to turn out newspapers quickly and cheaply in large runs. This new technology, for example, helped Brother Jonathan and The New World succeed in the early 1840s. In British North American cities, following the British and the American example, newspapers enlarged their circulations and dropped their prices. However, because some of the equipment could be manufactured in this country, it was not long before printers and manufacturers in related trades were considering three kinds of government aid to industry: first, high tariffs on imported products such as newsprint paper, blank stereotype blocks, and some categories of cheap books ; second, high tariffs on imported equipment such as type and ink that was already produced in the country; and third, low tariffs on heavy equipment such as power presses (and binding tools) that were imported to produce finished printed materials such as newspapers and books. The more likely that a locally produced article, such as a printed book written by a British or American or French author, impinged on the copyright laws of the other three countries, the more likely opposition was encountered over protective duties. Yet other branches of the printing and allied trades had great success with and almost universal support for high tariffs. The fear of foreign competition was most pronounced in the paper-making industry, which early recognized the need for protective tariffs. Accustomed to direct support, the paper mills had always received government aid in the form of construction grants and stationery purchases for government departments. Most of the paper produced by local mills was destined for the larger newspapers, but the new school systems and binding firms such as Brown Brothers of Toronto were also dependable customers of the mills owned by E.B. Eddy at Hull (1851), William Barker at Georgetown (1852), and Alexander Buntin at Valleyfield (1856). The rise in duties on newsprint paper in 1849 from 7½ per cent to 12 ½ per cent was a welcome incentive, a harbinger of the 18 58 duty of I i/2 per cent that the Province of Canada placed on American paper when Buntin and the other manufacturers convinced the Minister of Finance (Sir) Alexander Tilloch Galt that they could compete in a

The Mid-Century Revolution in Printing Technology 149 free market with the United States and create employment for Canadian workers. Once the 18 58 duty was imposed, Buntin dropped his prices and doubled his production to three tons a day. ' 9 By mid-century, newspapers around the world devoured so much paper that linen and cotton were getting scarce and expensive. A number of inventors, including Charles Fenerty of Nova Scotia, experimented with cheaper materials like paper made from wood pulp, and several marketable methods appeared in the early sixties. In late 1867 John Riordon of Merri ton, Ontario, imported the first Fourdrinier paper-making machine into Canada, on which he produced paper from rags and esparto grass, but a year later Riordon substituted wood pulp and began producing ten tons of newsprint a day. George Brown's Globe was his best customer. Most nineteenth-century Canadian paper was used for wrapping, newsprint, account books, and cheap books, and in our century many of these low-quality papers are literally crumbling and disintegrating. The only firm to turn out high-grade fine paper was Jean Rolland's mill (1882) at St Jerome, so that quality paper for writing and for books continued to be imported. By 1901 the paper and printing industry (which included all branches of manufacturing like paper making, printing, and publishing but excluded bookselling) was the sixth largest manufacturing group in Canada, with an annual value of products worth $20,653,028, which represented a fivefold increase since 1871. In the 1820s new decorated typefaces such as scripts, block letters, and three dimensional letters began to change the conventionally formal appearance of newspapers and advertisements. In succeeding decades even more variety in type and layout was used, culminating in that mid-century Victorian eclecticism in all the arts of design. Often four or more typefaces were arranged on the title-pages of books and pamphlets. These trends in design, as well as the type itself, were imported, and because American machine-made type was as good as English type and far easier to obtain, our printers became customers of the best-known American type-founders. Mackenzie told his Colonial Advocate readers (7 Dec. 1826) that his type came from Richard Starr of Albany. Joseph Howe turned to Greele & Willis's New England Type Foundry for The Christian Messenger, and to the Boston Type and Stereotype Foundry for Murdoch's Epitome of the Laws of Nova-Scotia and the Baptist Missionary Magazine of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. 20 James Connor of New York supplied The Globe with its type. 2 1 The most famous American firm, George Bruce's New York Type Foundry, supplied offices all over British North America, 22 as the newspapers themselves boasted. Even so, Lovell & Gibson's Specimen of Printing Types and Ornaments (1846-7), apparently the first such colonial catalogue,

150 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada indicates that much of the firm's plain and fancy type was 'principally of British Manufacture. ' 1 3 The oldest type founding firm in Canada, C. T. Palsgrave, began to manufacture type in 1836, and by the 1860s its successor, the Montreal Type Foundry, had nine typecasting machines. 14 Wooden type for handbills and posters was machine-made in 1850 by H.V. Ruthven of Hamilton, who was related to an Edinburgh printing press manufacturer. One of the earliest manufacturers of printing and coloured ink was Henry Baylis of Cote de Neiges, during the 1850s. After Confederation local type-founders in Montreal and Toronto acted as agents or branches of foreign firms. The Dominion Type Founding Company of Montreal in the seventies was the agent for George Bruce, James Connor's Sons, and Farmer, Little, all of New York, and for the Johnson Type Foundry of Philadelphia; and the Dominion Type Foundry itself had agents in Halifax and Toronto. In 1868 one of the best British type-founders, Miller & Richard of Edinburgh, opened a Toronto branch, and in the eighties its type transformed the look of Canadian newspapers all over eastern Canada. Victor E. Maugher of New York had a Montreal branch. By the end of the century one of the largest firms in the country, with over fifty employees, was the Toronto Type Foundry, established by J .T. Johnson in 1887 and capitalized in 1892 at $150,000. 15 New typesetting machines were introduced in the 1890s. The Linotype machine, invented by Ottmar Morganthaler, dispensed with the setting of individual pieces of type because the compositor sat at a keyboard and set up a whole line of type, known as a slug, which automatically justified itself. Thus the slug was also the matrix, which was then shifted to another part of the machine and cast into a metal piece, ready to be placed in the forme. The Monotype machine, invented by Tolbert Lanston in 188 5, pressed individual letters and symbols together in a line. A key punched the type into a ribbon to make openings (the same principle was applied to the piano roll), while a second machine did the casting of type from the 'directions' of the ribbon holes. With Monotype, a mistake could be changed easily, whereas a mistake on Linotype required resetting the whole line. Before long, Canadian newspapers installed the typesetting machines; in 1905 the Monoline, a version of the Linotype that was manufactured by The Canadian Composing Company of Montreal, was used by the Halifax Chronicle, the Charlottetown Examiner, La Patrie and Le Canada of Montreal, and by the McLean Publishing Company of Toronto. 16 Although type and presses were briefly charged 15 per cent duty in 18 58, from the next year until 1867 type came in free; and from 1868 until 1879, at a

The Mid-Century Revolution in Printing Technology 15 1 modest 5 per cent. The National Policy tariff on type after 1879 was 20 per cent. In 1880 about two-thirds of the $32,995 worth of imported type came from the United Kingdom, but by 1900 over two-thirds of the $66,568 worth of imported type came from the United States. Stereotype plates were first made by the goldsmith William Ged of Edinburgh in 1727, who poured plaster of Paris over a 'page' of set-up type and then filled the hardened plaster mould with moulten metal, which was usually an alloy of tin, lead, and antimony. Stereoplates came into wide use in the early nineteenth century, for they had an obvious advantage in the printing of large-run Bibles, textbooks, or works that might have several impressions. The original type could then be put to other uses, for duplicate plates were easily made from the original stereo plate. We first hear of stereoplates in this country around 1830, probably imported, some of them for reprinting the ubiquitous Mavor's English Spelling Book, an edition of which James Macfarlane of Kingston advertised in 1828 and 183 1. William Lyon Mackenzie imported from New York 900 pages of metal stereo plates to print the Bible, but he could not get enough subscribers to make it worthwhile and the plates were either lost, stolen, or melted down after he fled Toronto in the 1837 Rebellion. 27 Around 1830 papier mache replaced plaster of Paris as a mat or matrix; the lighter papier mache plates could be sent through the mails cheaply and could be curved to fit rotary presses. The Globe began setting up its pages in stereotype plates in 1877 to save money, because the rotary presses wore down the faces of new type within several months and made year-old type ragged. The Globe's stereotype plates, made from plaster of Paris mats, could be produced in ten to twelve minutes. 28 Electroplates came into use in the 1840s in the United States. In this process an electric current was passed through a bath of copper sulphate so that a thin coat of copper was deposited over a wax mould made from set-up type. These copper plates were excellent for illustrations where fine precision printing was required. By the sixties Montreal and Toronto firms routinely produced stereoplates, electrotype plates, and lithographs. ENGRAVING, LITHOGRAPHING, AND OTHER PROCESSES USED FOR ILLUSTRATIONS

One of the most significant advances in nineteenth-century book-making over that of previous centuries was in illustrations, which were made possible by cheap engraving methods, and whose market was primarily the middle classes. At the end of the eighteenth century and up to the middle of the nineteenth, steel and copperplate engravings were commonly used for the

152 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada scenes in gift books and Christmas albums that were turned out in such great quantities in England and the United States. William Bartlett's illustrations for N.P. Willis' Canadian Scenery Illustrated (London: George Virtue 1842, 2 vols), which have had a great vogue in Canada since 1960, were representative of the contemporary taste for steel engravings of romantic places like the Bible lands, the Near East, the Alps, and North America. During the 1840s The Literary Garland included tipped-in steel engravings, locally executed, as bonuses for its subscribers. Woodblock printing then made a comeback in Britain and the United States during the 1850s, particularly for pictorial periodicals such as The Illustrated London News (est. 1842) that reported contemporary events. Similar advances were made around 1840 with colour printing. Traditionally, plates and illustrations were coloured by hand, but in the thirties George Baxter and Charles Knight in England pioneered letterpress colour printing, an arduous and timeconsuming process that could require from ten to thirty separate printings as each colour was added. A simpler and cheaper method was developed by G. Engelmann in the same decade, known as chromolithography, which required three or four separate printings. The lithographic process could produce spectacular effects using gold and primary colours, but more frequently its colours gave a soft, greyish effect rather like soft-focus photographs. Lithography, one of the most common printing processes in the nineteenth century, was a recent invention perfected about 1796 by Aloysius Senefelder of Munich. The process was based on the principle of the repulsion of water and grease, and consisted of drawing a design on limestone, and etching around the lines with chemicals; hence the meaning of 'lithography': writing on stone. Next, the design on the stone was greased, the stone itself was dampened with water, and a greasy ink (linseed oil and carbon) was rolled over the stone, which soaked up the grease in the ink. The paper placed on the stone would now soak up the inked portions to make the lithographic print. Lithographic printing spread through Europe in the first decade of the century and to the United States by 1828. The first lithographer in Lower Canada was probably James Duncan, who in 1826-7 executed lithographs of John Drake's views of Montreal for the Viger Album, which is now a very rare work. 29 The earliest lithographer in Upper Canada, Samuel Tazewell, set up shop in Kingston in 1831 (Hugh Thomson described the process in his Herald on 10 November 1830), but moved to York two years later. 30 Lithographing in its first decades in British North America was used chiefly for producing maps, charts, cheques, and banknotes, and less frequently for music and pictures. Even when they were

The Mid-Century Revolution in Printing Technology 153 published in Canada, most lithographic views of scenery were printed abroad. William Eager's landscapes of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick were prepared on lithographic stones by the artist himself, but they were printed in Boston and published in Halifax by bookseller Clement H. Belcher. Cornelius Krieghoff's Scenes in Canada (Montreal: R. & C. Chambers 1848) were lithographed in Munich. Lamenting the poor quality of Canadian illustrated printing, Krieghoff complained in 1859 to the Minister of Finance about the high import duties on his lithographs. 3' Almost as soon as photography became common in the 1840s, attempts were made to transfer photographs to printing plates. For his Portraits of British Americans (1865-7), William Notman simply pasted photographic prints into the two volumes. However, as early as 1860 half-tone screen photo-engravings were in use, a process in which the original negative was composed of thousands of dots that were transferred in many gradations to a chemically treated copper plate, which was then exposed to light. The plate itself was etched in the conventional manner known as intaglio printing. A refinement of this process was developed by a German emigrant to Montreal, William Augustus Leggo, 32 who made one of the significant Canadian contributions to photo-engraving. Leggo and his brothers learned their craft in Munich, where their father had been trained in the lithographic process by Sennefelder himself. Leggo patented one of his processes in 1865, but it was not fully exploited until he formed a partnership with George Edouard Desbarats in 1869. Desbarats (1839-93) was a native of Quebec City, where he was educated and admitted to the Bar in 1859. While he practised law, he was also a partner in his father's publishing firm; then he and Malcolm Cameron were appointed Queen's Printers in Ottawa in 1865 . A disastrous fire on 21 January 1869 destroyed most of their $100,000 worth of stock and their new plant, at one of whose doors Thomas D' Arey McGee had been assassinated the year before. Among the ruins were most of the edition of Charles Mair's Dreamland and Other Poems (Montreal: Dawson 1868), and the plates and sheets of the six-volume Oeuvres de Champlain. Desbarats soon resigned his appointment and made plans with Leggo for a splendid new plant in Montreal. One of the first books to use the new 'Leggotyping' process was the Oeuvres, because fortunately before the fire the galley proofs had been sent to the editor in Quebec City, Abbe C.-H. Laverdiere, who had based his edition of the Oeuvres on the rare 1613 edition that he had picked up in Paris. On 13 February Desbarats told Laverdiere they would go ahead with the project after all, and the 1870 Leggotype edition was published as the 'second edition,' the first one having perished. 'Champlain se reimprimera aQuebec .. .' said Desbarats. 'Eh bien, Champlain m'aura coute

154 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada quelques trois milles louis (60,000 fr) ... ' 33 This was about $12,000, according to Jean Talon Lesperance, one of the editors of The Canadian Illustrated News. 34 The plan of the new firm was to issue two illustrated papers, the first one being The Canadian Illustrated News (1869-83), which appeared on 30 October 1869 in an edition of 10,000 copies. It was the first illustrated weekly in Canada, and was modelled on The Illustrated London News (est. 1842) and Harper's Weekly (est. 1857); but where the latter magazines still reproduced line drawings, The Canadian Illustrated News was also the first paper in the world to use photo-engravings on a regular basis. On the first cover was a photograph of Prince Arthur, probably executed in Leggo's 'Granulated Photography' process, which made a photographic image on a lithographic stone. This was the forerunner of the photogravure process of the 1890s, but it proved so expensive in the seventies that gradually the photographs were replaced by reproductions of drawings. The second paper, the Frenchlanguage L'Opinion publique (1870-83), appeared on I January 1870, and it was soon followed by an export version for Franco-Americans, L'Etendard publique. The contributors to these weeklies were a roll call of contemporary Canadian journalists and artists. Both papers were successful until the recession of the early 1880s and were discontinued, 'for the simple reason that its issue is not remunerative to the company who publish it,' 35 the News told its readers on 29 December 1883, thus closing off a good source of income for Canadian authors. Five years later Desbarats and his eldest son William Amable Desbarats began the most lavish and beautiful illustrated weekly magazine ever published in Canada, The Dominion Illustrated (1888-93). Besides the 'Granulated Photography' process, Leggo patented two other cheaper processes that were used in several popular books of the 1870s. ' Leggotyping,' a simple method of transferring line images by photographic means to lithographic stones, could produce up to 15,ooo copies on steam presses, and was used for the complete Champlain Oeuvres and for the illustrations in L.-0. David's Biographies et portraits (Montreal: Beauchemin & Valois 1876). The third, known as the 'photolithographic' process, was used for the illustrations in Sandford Fleming's The /ntercolonial: A Historical Sketch (Montreal: Dawson Brothers 1876), and both processes were used in George Monro Grant's Ocean to Ocean (Toronto : James Campbell 1873). But these engraving processes also had many other commercial uses, and Desbarats and Leggo ambitiously leaped into a series of ventures. One of these was the Union Art Company (1872), capitalized at $500,000 to issue The New York Daily Graphic ( 1873-9), whose illustrations, says Frank Luther Mott, were 'first printed from electroplates made by a

The Mid-Century Revolution in Printing Technology 155 photolithographic process; but later it used half-tone engravings made by Stephen Horgan. ' 36 Peter Desbarats says that the New York venture probably forced his great-grandfather George Edouard Desbarats into bankruptcy by 1874.37 Through the 186os and 1870s lithographic firms in Canada began to work in colour. Possibly the first coloured lithograph in this country was Paul Kane's painting The Death of Big Snake, which was executed by Fuller and Benecke of Toronto in 1856, 38 but Roberts, Reinhold of Montreal was the first firm to produce colour lithographs on a regular basis: in 1866 this firm issued a series of nineteen coloured sketches of the Gaspe Peninsula by Thomas Pye. After the appearance of John Charles Dent's subscription book The Canadian Portrait Gallery (Toronto: McGurn 1880-1, 4 vols), chromolithography went out of fashion for prestige books, and was confined to religious pictures, calendars, advertising cards, and posters. Hart and Rawlinson of Toronto prepared their coloured Christmas cards by this technique. In 1882 Oscar Wilde looked out of the window of the Windsor Hotel in Montreal and saw his name on coloured billboards. 'I am now six feet high ... ,' he wrote his friend Norman Forbes-Robertson, 'printed it is true in those primary colours against which I pass my life protesting, but still it is fame, and anything is better than virtuous obscurity, even one's own name in alternate colours of Albert blue and magenta .. .' 39 These same colours were used on posters advertising Montreal's 1884 Grande Exposition. When coloured election posters were used for the first time for the 1891 federal election, the Toronto Lithographing Company published two famous ones for the Conservatives, Sir John A. Macdonald's portrait in The Old Flag, the Old Policy, the Old Leader, and the satiric attack on the Liberals in laying Out the Grit Campaign. Throughout the nineties this same company often drew on the talents of the Toronto Art Students' League and the Ontario Society of Artists for the many coloured posters for exhibitions and for the railways. But 'black and white' engraving was by no means out of fashion. The Toronto Lithographing Company did the lithographs for the Belden Brothers' many county atlases around 1880, and also executed the engravings for Grip's Illustrated War News (1885), issued during the second Riel Rebellion. Woodblock engraving, having enjoyed a revival abroad since 1860 for prestige works, caught on a decade later in this country, and its finest expression was in the 500 wood engravings for the beautiful two-volume Picturesque Canada (Toronto: Belden Brothers 1882). The Pre-Raphaelite fondness for woodblock engravings, which culminated in the Art Nouveau style of book design and illustration in England and in the United States, was

156 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada

picked up almost immediately by such young Canadian artists as William Cruickshank, F.H. Brigden, and G. W. Jeffreys, who shared the same determination to revolutionize the pictorial arts as their foreign contemporaries. Photogravure illustrations appeared for the first time in a Canadian daily in the Saturday Globe of 28 March 1891, with a photograph of Wilfrid Laurier, three weeks after the 1891 election. In the nineties the Saturday Globe, The Dominion Illustrated, and The Canadian Magazine produced photogravures far superior in tone and detail to anything late twentieth-century magazines can offer, and they delighted their readers with thousands of photographs of industry, new settlers, cityscapes, and social and sporting life. When John A. Cooper commented on the excellent half-tone photo-engravings of Canada's business leaders, printed on fine, glossy paper for his Men of Canada (Toronto: The Canadian Historical Company 1901), he sneered at Dent's Portrait Gallery of twenty years earlier as 'crude attempts at photography, and decidedly unsatisfactory .' 40 Yet readers today would find the delicate colours of chromolithography rather pleasing. THE INTRODUCTION OF POWER PRINTING PRESSES AND THE EXPANSION OF THE PRINTING INDUSTRY

On 29 November 1814 the London Times was printed for the first time on a pair of power cylinder presses, designed by Frederick Konig, that could turn out 1,100 impressions an hour. Thus was inaugurated the age of steam power when it was joined with the mammoth nineteenth-century assembly line printing press. In the cylinder press, whose principle had been used for engraving presses since the fifteenth century, the platen was no longer flat but was a cylinder that turned in synchronization with the moving forme, itself carried in a flat bed, as the two parts came into contact for the impression. Thirty years later Richard Hoe, the New York manufacturer of printing equipment, built the first true rotary press in which both the forme and the impressing platen were cylinders. This was the machine that revolutionized the North American world of newspapers and cheap books. The Hoe Type-Revolving Machine of 1848 was sheet-fed by boys, and the paper moved automatically towards the forme cylinder, which then brought the paper into contact with a series of impressing cylinders, the whole outfit powered by steam. A six-cylinder machine, for example, could strike off 6,000 impressions an hour, and a ten-cylinder machine, up to 20,000. Unlike the old hand press, this press was housed in a very large room. The new printing machines did not spell the end of the old-fashioned hand presses, however, which were kept in many offices into the twentieth

The Mid-Century Revolution in Printing Technology 157 century, at first powered by steam and later by electricity. One of the last and best refinements of the old flat-bed press was the Adams, which was connected to steam power in 1827; it had a stationary platen with a mechanically-driven moving bed. In production until 1875, the Adams press was used for quality book and magazine printing in the United States and Canada, and was very suitable for stereotype plates. Two other power platen-presses, the Gordon and the Gally Universal, were used for book and job work in large offices where the new cylinder and rotary machine presses were used for newspapers and cheap books. Steam power was first applied to a press (a Washington) in this country by William Cunnabell of Halifax in 1840. 41 Within ten years the combination of steam power and cylinder presses were found across the country. The Montreal Gazette had its cylinder press powered by two men, one of whom was a 'very strong and very black Negro,' 42 until in 1853 a steam engine was installed. George Day imported a cylindrical power press from Boston in 1845 for his Fredericton Loyalist. 43 John Lovell had a steam press by 1847. 44 George Haszard imported Prince Edward Island's first power press in 1852 for his Gazette, and his 18 55 PEI Calendar clearly shows the Hoe name in the cut of a power press. When The Globe became a daily in late 1853, it was issued on a $2,500 Taylor double-cylinder power press that was made in New York, powered by a steam engine built by John Honeyman of Kingston, and supplied with paper from John Taylor's paper mill on the Don River. 45 In 1867 The Globe's new Hoe Lightning Press, capable of printing 10,000 impressions an hour, cost '$15,000 IN GOLD,' George Brown told his readers. 46 In 1863 The Montreal Gazette glowingly described the pressroom of J . Starke and Company, an area of about 3 5 x 60 feet that contained three printing machines (a Hoe cylinder, an Adams, and a Gordon) that were driven by a 3½ horsepower steam engine; four hand presses; a screw press for pressing printed sheets; and a paper-cutting machine. A speaking tube connected the business office with the compositors' department. 47 In 1867 the largest plant in the country, John Lovell's, employed 150 people, and had twelve steam printing presses; nine steam machines for smashing, sawing, cutting, stamping, and hoisting; six hydraulic and hand presses; and machines for ruling, backing, and paging. 48 This office was a far cry from the small traditional-style one that Lovell began in 1835, but the transformation to larger factory-style printing firms was common in Montreal and Toronto (and indeed in Halifax and Saint John), for the printing trade was sharing in the advances made by such industries as pulp and paper, iron and steel, and agricultural implements. When the new power presses facilitated increased production in the 18 50s,

158 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada some printers believed that the local manufacture of presses might become a reality, but this industry hardly got off the ground. Back in the thirties makers of iron stoves and machinery such as Charles Perry of York advertised that they were ready to make presses, 49 yet James N. Walker of Montreal claimed in La Minerve (9 September 1843) that he was the 'only manufacturer in CANADA of PRINTING, LITHOGRAPHIC, COPYING, and SEAL PRESSES,, and invited prospective customers to support home industry and inspect his press in John Lovell's office. In the 18 5os Larochelle of Quebec persuaded Lovell that he could build presses as good and as cheap as the imported American ones, and showed Lovell his first one inJ .-B. Frechette's office.Just as Lovell was about to order one, the government in 1854 removed the 12½ per cent duty on presses and Larochelle said he could no longer compete with the Americans. 50 If the new machinery made newspapers cheaper, their distribution was facilitated by the overhauling of postal services, the dropping of postal rates, and the coming of the railways. Back in 1826 William Lyon Mackenzie had complained that the Colonial Post Office hampered the spread of knowledge by means of the newspapers because it would not allow free exchange between offices as in the United States.5' Some government printers, notably John Howe and his son John Howe, jr, in Nova Scotia, held appointments as Deputy Post Masters, and distributed their own papers easily while arbitrarily placing high rates and other 'restrictions' on their competitors' papersY In 1844 postage on all literary materials in the Canadas was considerably reduced, and in 18 51 the Maritime provinces permitted free postage on newspapers sent to subscribers, an arrangement which was followed by Canada in 1854. Free postage for newspapers mailed from the printer's office lasted until 1879. This situation, according to Robert Sellar, was the real spur to the expansion of the newspaper press in the 185os: 53 among the new periodicals were a Gaelic newspaper at Antigonish in 18 52, followed by newspapers at Saint-Hyacinthe in 1853, Moncton in 1855, Huntington in 1859, Hull in 1865, Summerside in 1866, Rimouski in 1867, and in that same year at Shediac, the first French-language Acadian newspaper. By 1860 the newspapers discovered that advertisements were an important source of revenue, freeing them somewhat from the obligations of party and government patronage. The number of newspapers rose from 20 in 1814 to 291 in 1857, and two decades later John Lesperance counted up po newspapers from Newfoundland to British Columbia in his appraisal of the 'literary standing of the Dominion. ' 54 After Confederation the transformation of the city newspaper offices continued with the importation of even larger presses made by Hoe, Gordon,

The Mid-Century Revolution in Printing Technology 159 Fairhaven, Wharfedale, and Campbell. These were found everywhere, including the North-West, where Davin's Regina Leader began in 1883 with new type from Miller & Richard of Toronto, and a 'power-driven rotary press ... •ss The Fort Macleod Gazette started with a Gordon] ob press in 1883, but the next year a Campbell drum-cylinder press was brought up the Missouri River by steam to Fort Benton, Montana, and later by bull team to Fort Macleod, where it was powered by a dozen Indian braves before a steam engine was installed. Thomas Clark, the Gazette foreman, recalled: These Indian workers, their faces bedaubed with red and yellow paint, would enter the press room, peel down to the breech-clouts and seat themselves in a row against the log wall. When ready for a stan No. 1 man would grasp the handle and set the machine in motion. A few revolutions and he would drop out, being succeeded by another, the press being kept in motion until the edition was run off. At first the strain was severe, the workers doubling up and declaring they were going to die, but they stuck manfully to the task until they became hardened to the work. What the printers paid for this native labor is not known. l 6

At Confederation most newspapers still consisted of two sheets that were hand-fed into the press, and then folded into four pages. By 1900 newspapers of sixteen pages were common in Montreal and Toronto. What brought about this change was the Hoe Company's Bullock Web Press, which was fed by a continuous roll of newsprint, printed both sides simultaneously, and folded the papers as they came off the press. The first model of 1873, built for the NewYork Tribune, turned out 18,000 papers an hour. When The Globe installed its new Bullock Web Press on 15 April 1880, a two-page spread with five illustrations celebrated The Globe's presses since 1844. This new Bullock could print, cut, paste, and fold 28,000 copies of the 8-page Globe in one hour. The most significant new press at the end of the century was the Miehle Two-Revolution press, perfected by Robert Miehle of Chicago between 1883 and 1888. Although its principle was not new, the Miehle was the first machine to have perfect synchronization between the movements of the bed and the impressing cylinder, and it had greater impressing strength than any previous machine. 57 Its adoption led to a revolution in letterpress printing and in the production of half-tone photographs and, eventually, colour printing. In 1909 W.J. Gage & Company boasted: 'The magnificent Miehle presses register with such nicety the three-colour and duotone illustrations required for the attractive School Text-Books published by the company, that the results secured are not excelled anywhere in the United States or on the continent. ' 58

160 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada The introduction of new machinery formed the basis of many conflicts between employers and journeymen. Always the most articulate of artisans, printers were the first group to unionize in British North America, first of all with mutual aid societies at Quebec (1827), York (1832), Hamilton (1833), Montreal (1833), and Halifax ( 1837). They were soon fighting over wages, the loss of jobs, and even the right to organize. A strike occurred at George Brown's Globe office in 1845 when a cylinder press was introduced, because Brown had fired two employees who were union officers and replaced them by scabs and boys. Always antagonistic to the unions, Brown was faced with another prolonged and bitter strike in 1854 when the master printers of Toronto rejected the printers' demands for a new price scale, 59 the year in which wages and prices doubled due to the booming economy. By the late 18 50s every every Toronto paper was unionized, and printers now comprised the largest single group within the book trade, according to the r 85r and r 86 r Census of the Canadas (see Table 1). Conditions were so bad in the 1860s that many printers emigrated to the United States, and local unions began to affiliate with the National Typographical Union in the United States: Saint John in 1865, Toronto in 1866, and Quebec in 1872. Charles Lipton points out that Canadian unions were not 'branches' of the American ones, since they had already existed for many years. 60 But in spite of the benefits that Canadians got through affiliation, there were many clashes, particularly as printers on both sides of the border were staunch protectionists in the late nineteenth century. Then in 1872 another strike at Brown's Globe office turned into a general strike in Toronto, out of which the first trade union act in Canada was passed. TABLE 1 (1851)

Bookbinders Booksellers & stationers Engravers Lithographers Music sellers Printers Publishers Stationers Type-founders

(1861)

Lower Canada

Upper Canada

TOTAL

Lower Canada

Upper Canada

40

51

91

111

86

197

36 9

45 18 2 19 436 9 27

81 27 3 24 631 35 27 7

52 15 7 5 531 9

116 30 12 5 895 43

168 45 19 10 1,426 52

5 195 26 7

8

TOTAL

9

The Mid-Century Revolution in Printing Technology 161 However, it was not only depressions that sent printers to the United States. The American book trade, with all its opportunities for innovation and specialization, lured young men with dreams of big rewards in journalism or publishing. Both before and after the Civil War many Canadians made important contributions to mass market publishing. In 1832 Robert Sears (1810-92) left Saint John for New York, where he was a pioneer in illustrated books; his editions of such works as Illustrations from the Bible (1840) and Pictorial History of the United States ( 1847) were as popular in Canada as in the United States. Mention has been made of Leonard Scott, who also arrived in New York in the 18 30s and who was for many years the leading republisher of the British quarterlies and reviews. Richard Robert Donnelley (1836-99) left Hamilton in 185 7, and as a partner in Donnelley, Loyd of Chicago in the 1870s he helped launch the Lakeside Library series of cheap good books. Richard Worthington, who left Montreal in the late sixties after being involved in bookselling and publishing, had a rather dubious reputation as a New York publisher in the 1870s; and Perez Morton DeWolfe (1850-1931), from Wolfville, was a partner in the Boston publishing house of DeWolfe, Fiske in the last two decades of the century, known for its cheap reprints of standard works and juveniles. Two Canadians who were among the handful of influential and innovative cheap-book publishers after the Civil War were George Munro and John Wurtele Lovell. Munro (1825-96), a benefactor of Dalhousie University, served his apprenticeship on the Pictou Observer, studied theology in Halifax, and arrived in New York in 18 56. Within five years he was a partner of Irwin P. Beadle, and involved in dime novel publishing. By 1868 Munro was publishing under his own name, first known for his family paper The New York Fireside Companion and then, after 1877, forthe Seaside Library of cheap books, which were issued in a format like pamphlets in order to obtain newspaper postal rates. J oho Wurtell Lovell's story will be dealt with in the next chapter because it is closely tied in with the activities of his father, John Lovell, in the 1870s. JOHN LOVELL'S EFFORTS TO DEVELOP TRADE BOOK PUBLISHING IN THE

1850s

By the 186os both Halifax and Saint J oho - and to a lesser extent Charlottetown, Fredericton, and St John's - because they were centres of government, education, and commerce, supported a modest bookselling trade based on imported textbooks, religious works, and selected fiction . Halifax's 'booksellers' row' was situated east of the Parade Square, down

162. The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada towards the harbour, along Barrington and Granville streets and south to Sackville street. In 1868-961 there were nineteen printing and publishing offices, twelve booksellers and stationers, seven bookbinders, two engravers, and one lithographer. Saint John's trade was clustered near the Market Slip, chiefly on King and Prince William streets, and in 1868-9 there were eleven printing and publishing firms, seven booksellers, five bookbinders, and three engravers. In the same year Fredericton had six printers and publishers, and seven booksellers; and Charlottetown had five printers and six booksellers. In the 1851 census Toronto reported thirteen people employed as booksellers and stationers, four music sellers, six newsagents, twenty-five bookbinders, five engravers, and two lithographers. There were four people listed as publishers and 133 employed as printers. The book trade itself was centred around Yonge and King streets. Walking north up Yonge Street in the late fifties, you would pass Lovell & Gibson at No. 35, A.S. Irving's Periodical Depot at the corner of Melinda and Yonge, and John C. Geikie at No. 70. Along King Street East were Thomas Maclear at Nos 17-19, Samuel Thompson at No. 52, Henry Rowsell at No. 76, and the Wesleyan Methodist Book Room and Printing Office at Nos 80-2.. On King Street West were Nordheimer Brothers at No. 15, A.H. Armour at No. 17, the printing offices of Brown's Globe at No. 2.5, and farther along, Derbishire and Desbarats. The book trade remained east and west of Yonge Street and south of Queen Street until after the Second World War, when the exodus of printing and publishing firms to the suburbs destroyed all vestiges of a downtown 'publishers' row' except for retail bookstores. Montreal, the largest city in British North America, was also the major production, wholesale, and retail centre of the book and periodical trade in both languages. In 1843-4, Montreal (pop. 50,000) boasted sixteen booksellers and stationers, fifteen printing offices, two engravers and lithographers, one type foundry, and one printing press manufacturer. Ten years later there were twenty-seven booksellers and stationers, fourteen printing offices, and seven engravers and lithographers. These numbers remained fairly constant until the 1870s, when Montreal passed the 100,000 mark. Until that decade, when the retail bookstores moved up to the St Catherine Street area, printing and bookselling firms were concentrated along Notre Dame Street, St Paul Street, St Vincent Street, and to the south of Placed' Armes along St Fran~ois-Xavier Street and St Nicholas Street. The most enterprising firm in Montreal, Lovell & Gibson, gained its reputation by the handsome execution of staple works, and was the first printing firm to extend its business from Nova Scotia to the North-West. Beginning in the 1840s newspapers and magazines poured from the Lovell

The Mid-Century Revolution in Printing Technology 163 plants, among them The Snowdrop (1847-53), the first successful children's magazine in Canada; Rollo & Adam's The Anglo-American Magazine (1863-4); Cordier's The Saturday Reader (1865-6); and a host of denominational, agricultural, and medical journals. In 1850 Lovell persuaded the government of Canada to award him a ten-year contract, arguing that his expenses would be less if he could plan his work over a period of years rather than one year at a time. 62 Because he was required to be near the seat of government, he (like Derbishire & Desbarats) opened branches in Toronto and Quebec City. During the 1850s Lovell printed pamphlets on emigration, canals, and railroads, all of which were concerned with developing local industries and, even while the Reciprocity Treaty (1852-64) was in force, protecting them with tariffs. Some commercial productions were successful because it was unlikely foreign publishers would issue them, and Lovell specialized in directories. He took over printing the Montreal Directories in 1848 and issued his first Canada Gazetteer in 1850. His Canada Directory (1857) was a massive volume, but his major production, the 1871 Canadian Dominion Directory, a .2, 56.2-page volume, was the largest and most expensive ($80,000) work from a Canadian press up to that time. The manner in which he raised the capital for this work reveals how close-knit was the economic establishment in Montreal. He provided about one-quarter of the financing, and got loans from Hugh Allen, Sir William Logan, Benaiah Gibb, William Dow & Company, andJ ames Dabers. Alexander Buntin gave him a credit of $15,000 in 'paper, cloth and mill board,' and C. T. Palsgrave, a credit of $8,000 in 'type and printing materials. ' 63 Although Lovell claimed he had no direct government aid, he did receive help from the public service and federal ministers. The railway and telegraph companies gave free passes and privileges to his forty to fifty travelling agents, one of whom was his seventeen-year old son, and many private citizens lent the agents their horses, sleighs, wagons, and boats. Back in 18 58, however, Lovell thought the future lay in textbook and trade book publishing. Through the previous decade printers had been allowed to print the Irish National textbooks without the payment of any copyright fees, but an unauthorized reprinting of another British copyright textbook turned out to be an anticipation of more serious things after Confederation. Hew Ramsay decided he could print Irish educator Robert Sullivan's The Spelling-Book Superseded (probably the .23rd edition, 1856) more cheaply in Montreal than importing it, so he printed an edition and told Sullivan he would pay him a 15 per cent royalty on all copies issued. Sullivan's agent then threatened a court suit, and Ramsay had to pay a £.20 settlement and destroy

164 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada his stereoplates, so he continued to import the American reprint of the Spelling-Book. When Lovell later tried to interest Sullivan in a Canadian reprint, by offering £50 sterling, Sullivan refused to sell the copyright for such an edition but said he would supply Lovell with 10,000 copies of the English edition at 9s. a dozen. This was no bargain, for Lovell could import the American reprints at 8s. a dozen, and he told The Montreal Gazette, 'I have determined to have the work stereotyped in the States for myself; and whenever I need a supply, I shall have to go to the States and employ American people and American paper to produce what I myself could manufacture here at 331/3 per cent. less.' 64 In 18 58 Lovell tried another scheme for promoting the publishing industry and creating Canadian literature when he launched what was intended to be the first of many best-sellers, Ebenezer Clemo's novel Canadian Homes. It was typeset with Palsgrave's type, printed on paper from Buntin's mills, and issued in paper covers in an English-language edition of 30,000 copies and a French edition of 20,000. Its subject was distinctly 'Canadian,' a far cry from the immoral American trash that Thomas D' Arey McGee complained of that year, 65 and the dime-novel westerns of the sixties that George Stewart, jr, hated so much. 66 It was not an attractive looking production and its 25¢ price failed to attract readers - who in the end would make or break native literature. 67 It was an instructive failure. Thomas D'Arcy McGee, the Irish-American journalist who activated Montreal cultural life, began The New Era in 1857 and then discontinued it in 1858 when he entered parliament, came to the country with an insider's knowledge of the British and American book trades. He was convinced that protection for printers and publishing was not enough in itself, and argued that a national literature was inhibited by the flood of British and American books into our market. The situation could only be remedied by government action, and he pressed the government in April 1858 to come to an arrangement with the British over imperial copyright. 68 Nothing came of his action, unfortunately, because the booksellers - as we saw in the last chapter - were already pressing for lower duties on imports from the United States, and the British trade's anger over the lack of returns on foreign reprints was aggravated even more by the protective duties of 1858. Canadian manufacturers believed that during the 18 57 depression many American firms dumped paper, presses, and books into Canada at sacrifice prices. Since the paper mills got immediate benefits from the duty imposed on paper in the new 18 58 tariffs, Lovell believed that local publishing might benefit from the same move, and he tried to dismiss claims that the duty was a tax on consumers. Lovell and his friends among the manufacturing sector hailed the new

The Mid-Century Revolution in Printing Technology 165 tariffs as the best means of removing 'hindrances' to the development of Canadian industry. They argued that because Canada was not yet a manufacturing country, it relied heavily on imports, which meant that money for capital left the country. In order to retain this wealth there would have to be a protective duty (not necessarily a permanent one), and the manufacturers argued by reference to the British and American experience, where protection had built up industry and so contributed to cheaper prices. Furthermore, Lovell asserted that we could not compete on equal terms with the Americans in their markets, but they could compete with us on equal terms in our markets. In a letter to The Montreal Gazette voicing his approval of the 'fair' duty on presses, paper, and leather, he argued: Much remains to be done: the printer and publisher has no protection whatever. And, Sir, I cannot too often repeat, that we do not ask for high duties. All we say is, Put us on an equality with the United States. They will not alter their policy. We must re-model ours; otherwise it will be impossible for Canada ever to boast of extensive publishing-houses, or to bring out the talent that is latent in the country. 69

It was this kind of determination and aggressiveness on the part of protectionist businessmen such as John Lovell and their friends in government at the new capital of Ottawa that was to dominate the bookmanufacturing industry until the end of the century. The result was a clash between the market-place and copyright principles, and between economics and culture.

5

Building a National Publishing Industry International Copyright and Foreign Reprints; Subscription Publishing; Textbook Production

The year 1867 marked the creation of the Dominion of Canada, an economic 'confederation' that four of the British North American provinces had been pressured into, for their own defence, by the British government, which could now gracefully shed its North American empire much to its own relief and to that of the Americans. In spite of apprehension over the success of this union, occasionally strong emotions about the new dominion were expressed. Charles G.D. Roberts' father exhorted his son with visions of greatness for the country. George Stewart, jr, drew together in his Stewart's Quarterly a band of writers from Newfoundland to the North-West. In Ottawa a group of idealistic young men, among them George T. Denison, Henry Morgan, Charles Mair, William Foster, and Robert Grant Haliburton, formed the Canada First Movement, an organization dedicated to a new Anglo-Saxon consciousness in Canadian politics and literature. For the next thirty years that sense of being on the threshold of greatness dimmed considerably, for the book trade, like other areas of national life, experienced a cycle of advances and traumatic setbacks. Life in the new dominion unfolded not unsatisfactorily until the end of 1873, when several events shattered na'ive illusions about the simple task of nation-building. A financial panic in New York turned into a depression when it reached Canada, where Parliament was convulsed by election corruption and the country was faced with the prospect of a transcontinental railway debt. The voters turned out the Conservatives in a snap election and returned the Liberals from 1873 to 1878, for five years of modest expectations and harnessed ambitions. Even though there was economic growth during the eighties, that decade seemed to consist of endless bankruptcies and failures in the book trade, as elsewhere, until the prosperous years arrived in 1896. Against this background of uncertainty, there were three ways in which

Building a National Publishing Industry

167

publishers might survive : by becoming fiction reprint houses, by innovative merchandising that consisted of distributing books by mail and by subscription, or by developing monopolies as textbook printers. Some of the most vocal publishers were those with printing plants, who maintained that when young industries were menaced by established competitors from the United States and Britain, then appropriate steps must be taken to restrain those foreign intrusions in our markets. Such steps, when they involved international copyright, brought on their heels even more complications of a legal, economic, and ethical nature. Once again it was the Lovells, this time the father and the son, who discovered that what could not work in Canada could be very profitable in the United States. THE PUBLICATION OF CANADIAN EDITIONS OF BRITISH AUTHORS AND THE ABORTIVE COPYRIGHT ACT OF 1872

On 11 June 1868 J oho Lovell sent a request to the minister of finance, Sir John Rose: There are several establishments in the Dominion that would esteem it a great boon to be allowed to reprint English Copy-rights on the same terms as are now secured to United States publishers, and would gladly pay the 121/2 per cent. to the English Authors on the total number of copies printed ... It is undeniable that Canadian Printers would be enabled to comply with the requisite conditions and produce books, thanks to local advantages, at a much cheaper rate than they can be produced in the States, and so bring about a large export business. This would have the happy effect of bringing back a large number of our skilled workmen who have been forced to leave the Dominion to find a remunerative field of labour. 1

While Lovell's concern was the same one he had expressed ten years earlier, the publishing situation had changed in several important respects. Canada was now a self-governing nation, presumably shedding the colonial restrictions that had hampered the printing trade. Along with the risks of nationhood came a windfall for the Ontario and Quebec printers, a suddenly enlarged market now including the Maritimes and the North-West Territories; and what about the great market to the south? In that decade the printers had desperately needed the work that Lovell felt was given to American firms, and the contrast between the depressed printing trade and the healthy retail trade seemed to support him. Several months earlier Thomas D'Arey McGee, in a speech to the Montreal

168 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada TABLE 1 Proportion of sales by subject (%)

Poetry Religion Historical, scientific, & literary Fiction ,,.

Proportion of sales by dollar volume (%) 1867

1867

1875"-

10 18

15 18

8 20

45 22

16 20 36

28 44

Historical & literary Science

In 1875 Dawson revised the right hand column for James Douglas. Dawson thought that more science and theology was being read and less poetry. The decline in fiction was due to the fact that more of it was being issued in periodicals and read in that form, so that there was a drop in sales of fiction books.

Literary Club on 'The Mental Outlook of the New Nation,' had identified the two sources of our reading material, an imported foreign supply of books from the United States, England, and France, and our newspaper literature, which was also 'largely supplemented' by American and English journals. The sale of books was increasing although not in the same volume as newspapers and magazines. Samuel Edward Dawson provided McGee with a breakdown of book sales by subject and by dollar volume (see Table 1). 2 Works of fiction constituted almost half the reading of Canadians (or of Montrealers), but in terms of cost fiction sales were less than one-quarter of the amount spent on other categories. Nevertheless, these figures for fiction, and probably the other categories, help explain why Lovell argued that since American publishers had prospered by reprinting British copyrights, then the reprinting here of those British copyrights intended for our market would do the same thing for our trade. Lovell's letter to Rose was occasioned by the two copyright acts just passed in May 1868. The legal context for these acts had been framed three years earlier in anticipation of the self-governing status for the Dominion of Canada when the imperial parliament passed the Colonial Laws Validity Act (1865), which permitted it to review any future colonial legislation that was contradictory or repugnant to prior imperial laws. Thus in the next generation when clashes occurred between imperial and dominion copyright laws, our courts usually ruled that the (Imperial) Literary Copyright Act of 1842 took precedence : for better or for worse, this was one of the conditions of being a colonial nation. In Section 91 of the British North America Act ( 1867), which was itself an imperial act, local copyright was allotted to the Canadian

Building a National Publishing Industry 169 parliament as distinct from those powers given to the provinces.,:- One of the 1868 dominion laws was a re-enactment of the 1841 Province of Canada Copyright Act, now called An Act Respecting Copyrights (31 Viet., cap. 54), which gave copyright for forty-two years to residents of Canada and to British subjects residing in the British Isles, provided the title were registered and two copies of the work were deposited with the Minister of Agriculture, whose department maintained the Copyright Office until 1920. Small penalties were imposed for infringements of copyright. The other copyright law, An Act to Impose a Duty on Foreign Reprints of British Copyright Works (31 Viet., cap. 56), extended the 1847 Foreign Reprints Act throughout the Dominion, and it was this law that Lovell was determined must be repealed. It was Lovell's hope that Rose, who was about to sail for London, would persuade the British government to give Canadian printers 'the privilege of reproducing English Copy-right-books, on the same conditions as are accorded to the printers of the United States. ' 3 Lovell's plan was to develop a Canadian reprint industry based on local editions of popular British and American works, and then to expand into the American market. He could proceed either by copying the American pirates or by arranging contracts with British authors and publishers. Either way would require the government's active participation, through the imposition of protectionist duties on imported books and by the insertion of a licensing clause in the copyright act that would permit the local reprinting, with or without the approval of the copyright owner. Licensing was a far more contentious issue than duties because it sidestepped normal international business arrangements, and the term itself had unsavory historical connotations throughout the English-speaking world, even more so in England than in Canada. Apart from licensing, these procedures worked in the United States, which had a market ten times larger than Canada's, and which had no external copyright controls. Lovell was to try all these things in the next four years. Unfortunately for his reputation, Lovell chose first of all to act as a pirate in order to demonstrate the unfairness of the Foreign Reprints Act, while almost at the same time another Montreal firm, Dawson Brothers, arranged for the Canadian edition of an American work with its British publisher; and a Toronto publisher, George Maclean Rose, successfully negotiated for a local edition of a British author's work. In his June 1868 letter to Sir John Rose (no relation to George Maclean Rose), Lovell observed: 'looking over the * The principle of Canadian autonomy in copyright was first raised in the Canadian House by Alfred Dymond on 11 March 1875, during the debate on the 1875 Canadian copyright act.

170 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada

Custom House entries to-day, I found that not a single American reprint of an English copyright (except the Reviews and one or two Magazines) has been rendered since the third day of April last, though it is notorious that an edition of 1,000 of a popular work, coming under that description, has been received and sold within the last few days by one bookseller in this city. ' 4 The work referred to may have been Foul Play ( 1868) by Charles Reade and Dion Boucicault, which was first advertised in the Montreal Herald and Gazette on 15 June 1868. The Gazette review copy on 20 June was provided by Richard Worthington, who conducted a large import business. Whatever this 'popular work' was, to prove his point Lovell some months later illegally reprinted 3,000 copies of the appropriately titled Foul Play, and sold it for 2 5¢ in competition with the 50¢ Boston edition published by Charles Ticknor. This dramatic but unilateral move helped earn the Canadian reprinters their reputation as pirates. In contrast to this was Dawson Brothers' Montreal edition of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Oldtown Folks (1869), which was imported in sheets from Stowe's London publisher Sampson Low, and which contained the notice 'Low's Copyright Cheap Editions of American Books,' thus indicating its place of manufacture. An even more significant gesture was made by British novelist Wilkie Collins in late 1869, when he gave the Toronto Globe permission to serialize his novel Man and Wife. On 6 July 1870 Hunter, Rose issued it in an authorized Canadian copyright edition, advertising that Collins had registered the work in Canada and that penalties would be imposed on anyone selling imported editions. What is so puzzling today is that all three methods of issuing British books existed side by side for years, and that both Lovell and Hunter, Rose (and many others) were pirates and authorized publishers at the same time. One explanation is that many British books were not officially registered at Stationers' Hall; but even if a title were registered, a pirated edition could be printed and sold on the other side of the ocean well before any court action could be undertaken. Canadian publishers were not as aggressive in London as the Americans, whose advantage in securing North American rights was a market of forty million. Some British publishers simply would not permit local editions in the colonies, and could not be made to understand that North Americans would not pay 3 1 s. for a new novel. The Canadian market was at best a small and uncertain one, where occasionally a popular book sold well enough to warrant a local printing. What is certain, however, is that Canadian reprinters were further complicating the international copyright question. Any resolution about the circulation in Canada of American editions of British authors would have to be made by the Canadians and the British, with the trump card held by the Americans.

Building a National Publishing Industry 171 When he understood this problem, Sir John Rose sent a memorandum entitled 'Copy-Right Law in Canada' (30 March 1869) to the Colonial Secretary, explaining why the Canadian publisher did not control his own territory: as the law now stands there is no motive or inducement either for the (British] Author to concede, or the [Canadian] Publisher to obtain, this sanction; the Author has already made, or can make his arrangements with the Foreign Publisher, who knows that circumstances will give him a large circulation in the Canadian markets, and that even the slight proportion of duty collected will be paid by the Canadian reader, because re-publication is there forbidden. At present the Foreign Publisher, having a larger market of his own, and knowing the advantages of access to the Canadian market, can hold out greater inducements to the Author than the Colonial Publisher and can afford to indemnify the Author for agreeing to forego taking out any Copy-right and to abstain from printing in Canada. s

Angered at being excluded from contracts between British authors and American publishers, the London publishers were determined to obtain international copyright and had no intention of antagonizing the Americans by agreeing to Canadian reprints that would undoubtedly circulate (illegally) in the United States and probably find their way into the United Kingdom as well. So they condoned the British author's disposal of Canadian rights to American publishers, and bullied the Canadians by appeals to principle and advised them to bid against the Americans. Besides, as they liked to remind the Canadians on every occasion, the Foreign Reprints Act had been passed for their benefit but where were the duties on those American reprints? Sir Louis Mallet, the secretary of the Board of Trade, had these things in mind when he told Rose that the 'anomalous position' of the Canadian publishers was 'a matter which calls for careful inquiry, ' 6 and that 'the Canadian question should be considered in connection with any negotiations conducted with the United States Government,' 7 an opinion also shared by The Athenaeum in July 1869. 8 Yet there was sympathy for the Canadians. In August 1869 The Publishers' Circular called for the repeal of the Foreign Reprints Act. 9 The next year when the imperial Parliament was considering a new consolidated copyright bill, the publisher and copyright expert Frederick R. Daldy, who for the next thirty years alternately scolded and advised the Canadians, came to Ottawa and gave Sir John Rose a proposal for reprinting British copyrights at a 10 per cent royalty. But the offer by the Canadian government concerning reprint licences was then rejected by London publishers under pressure from Thomas

172 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada

Longman, 10 who argued that the British author would be denied his rights under a government licence. The British publishers still viewed copyright as a monopoly granted to them by the author; that is, an exclusive right to print and publish a work, for the monopoly was considered as virtual ownership of the work. When Reade threatened court action over Foul Play, Lovell turned over the profits to him. Some time later when Lovell approached Sheldon & Company of New York for permission to reprint Reade's Put Yourself in His Place, he was told he might do so for the 'trifling sum of twenty thousand dollars. ' 11 Lovell had yet another scheme to beat the American pirates, and in the autumn of 1871 he spent $60,000 on the construction of a new plant at Rouse's Point, NY, about fifty miles south of Montreal, and another $100,000 on new equipment. The Rouse's Point town council smoothed the way by dispensing with his property taxes for ten years. 12 The new plant did not immediately revolutionize publishing in the two countries, but the publicity surrounding it helped to polarize attitudes on the copyright question. The first production by the International Printing and Publishing Company was a popular volume containing Lord Macaulay's Lays of Ancient Rome, with Ivry and the Armada and William Edmonstoune Aytoun's Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers and Other Poems (1872). The book was set up and stereotyped in Montreal, and the plates and paper were transported to Rouse's Point for printing. The sheets were then imported into Canada at the 12 ½ per cent duty and bound in the Montreal office. Lovell told The Montreal Gazette: 'My object in opening an establishment at Rouse's Point was to induce our Government to grant publishers in this country the same privileges they accord to publishers in the United States .. .' 13 (For some reason, Lovell and other printers never stated this situation accurately: 'our Government,' whether the Canadian or British legislature, could not and did not grant privileges to American printers in their own country.) The conservative Gazette (5 January 1872) took the manufacturers' side, as usual. 'Whatever may be the rights or interests of English authors the industrial interests of Canadians are of infinitely greater importance to this country .. .' The liberal Toronto Globe, picking up this story a week later, had reservations about the propriety of Lovell's 'sharp practice,' but believed that American reprints should be forbidden entry entirely. 14 When London got wind of Lovell's new plant and of a new protectionist copyright bill, Thomas Longman and the Colonial U oder-Secretary, Thomas Farrer, went into high gear, determined to destroy what they saw was a deliberate policy by the Canadian government to encourage piracy. On 1 February Farrer sent an insulting analysis to Sir John Rose:

Building a National Publishing Industry 173 Yankee publishers and readers steal unconditionally, being out of reach of the policeman. Canada readers, being partially within grasp of the policeman, receive stolen goods on condition of paying a slight tribute to the English author, which, however, they take care not to pay. Canada publishers, being, as has hitherto been supposed, wholly within the grasp of the policeman, bitterly complain that they are not allowed to steal as well as their Yankee neighbours .. . In the paper you gave me, the plea that the Canadian publisher cannot afford to pay the English author is the common thief's usual plea. 15 Throughout February the Canadian copyright question was argued in a series of letters to the Times of London, in which Sir Charles Trevelyan, the nephew of Lord Macaulay and himself a sympathetic proponent of colonial copyright, tried to persuade Longman to compromise with the Canadians. Had there been a compromise in 1870, Trevelyan, as Macaulay's literary executor, would have received royalties on the Lovell edition of the lays. 16 Longman's letter of 21 March, which announced the formation of the Copyright Association, accused the Canadians of bad faith, for no 1 2 ½ per cent duty had been collected on the American reprint editions of two best-sellers now circulating in Canada, Benjamin Disraeli's lothair(London: Lon gm ans, Green 1870) and Queen Victoria's leaves from the journal of Our Life in the Highlands (London: Smith, Elder 1867). What had happened in these two cases, Graeme Mercer Adam explained in The Canada Bookseller (May 1872), was that Appleton had the Canadian rights for lothair, and the Canadian agent had to purchase his American edition. The Customs Department claimed it had received no instructions, and before any action could be taken, the American edition had already freely circulated. 17 leaves from the Journal was not registered in Canada, and its London publisher, Smith, Elder, would not allow a Canadian edition. 40,000 copies of leaves were rumoured to have been shipped in, but Adam thought 4,000 was a more likely figure. 18 Lovell's influence can be seen in the June 1872 Canada Copyright Act, which licensed the Canadian printer to produce a foreign copyright work not registered in Canada, without the need to negotiate with the original copyright holder. This protectionist act, which shut out both the foreign reprint and the original British edition, got royal assent by the GovernorGeneral but was rejected by the British government in June 1873. 19 Adam observed in July 1872 that the British publishers would fight the act 'in their desire to retain the Canadian market in their exclusive possession - a market they have hitherto snubbed and neglected. ' 20 That summer he and Lovell sailed to London to lobby for the new act, where they were supported by Sir

174 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada

John Rose, Sir Francis Hincks, and Sir George-Etienne Cartier. When the London publishers suggested that the Canadians negotiate with them for reprint rights, Lovell and Adam responded in their letter to Sir John Rose ... on the Canadian Copyright Question by Two Members of the Native Book Trade (1872) that the Canadian publisher would be outbid for his market, because 'the American publisher, having a much larger field, and consequently a more remunerative market, would, doubtless, make it a condition of giving anything to the English copyright-owner that he should have the monopoly of the markets of the whole American continent, including that of Canada.' 21 No wonder Thomas Longman was angered later that summer when Lovell approached him for permission to reprint Bishop Colenso's Algebra for £100 royalty. No colonist was ever going to reprint Longman's copyrights: 'Thank God, we have got the power and we intend to keep it, ' 12 he said. Seventeen years later Lovell told the Privy Council in Ottawa: 'The English publishers would not yield an inch. They said they would not allow any colonial to publish one of their books. Their ignorance of Canada was profound. They treated Canada as if it was part and parcel with the United States.' 23 Perhaps Lovell's temperament as much as his reputation was part of the problem, for Longman was not so inflexible when Dawson Brothers arranged for Canadian editions of his authors. Lovell came back to Montreal, 'hopeless of justice being done to the Canadian printer and full of the idea of transporting himself and his large establishment to the United States -This would take at least five hundred persons from Montreal - to say nothing of the effect of the example,' his friend Senator Thomas Ryan wrote to Sir Alexander Campbell on 26 September 1872. 24 Lovell then expanded the Rouse's Point plant in the winter of 1872-3, making his oldest son John Wurtele Lovell its manager, and got so much business (a $40,000 order from one Boston firm alone) that he abandoned his original intention of printing only for the Canadian market. 25 The Philadelphia Book Trade Association called this establishment a 'very cute dodge' on the part of a 'sharp' man, complaining that the office was built exactly on the line between the two countries (it was in fact a mile and a half south on the American side), in order to 'defraud the revenue of both countries and to undersell all the traders who pay their honest dues' ;26 but Lovell assured Publishers' Weekly, with some unintended irony, that the plant would be 'an American industry, planted on American soil, and will be conducted on the same principles as every other respectable and responsible printing and publishing house in the United States.' 27 Furthermore, instead of quitting Montreal, he expanded and incorporated the Montreal firm as The Lovell Printing and Publishing Company, capitalized at $300,000, of which Lovell contributed $100,000 in the form of

Building a National Publishing Industry 175 machinery, plates, copyrights, and goodwill; and the public was offered $200,000 worth of shares at $100 each. The Lovell family moved to Rouse's

Point, which was a fashionable upstate summer resort, and here daughter Sarah married Frank L. Wesson of the Massachusetts family of gun manufacturers. In 1875 Wesson and his brother-in-law John Wurtele Lovell ( 18 5 1- 19 32) and their friend Graeme Mercer Adam established Lovell, Adam, Wesson & Co. in New York City, which marked the beginning of young Lovell's spectacular career in American publishing. We will return to his activities later in this chapter. The Montreal office was kept busy printing its own books and those of other publishers, but more and more the Lovell best-sellers were printed on the American side, and imported in sheets to be bound and sold in Canada. In 188 5 a fire destroyed the original frame office of 1842 along with the company records, and the stone building which replaced it is still the firm's quarters. In 1888-90 John Lovell & Son embarked upon a Canadian Copyright Fiction series, which ran for sixty monthly titles. By 1893, the year of John Lovell's death, the firm was concentrating almost exclusively on textbooks, gazetteers, directories, street maps, guide books, and blank books; and the trade book name that was so famous in the nineteenth century was almost completely forgotten in the twentieth. In contrast with their anger at Foul Play was the British pleasure with the publication and sales of the Hunter, Rose edition of Man and Wife. The Publishers' Circular saw a new field opening for English writers and publishers in an English colony. 28 George Stewart in his Stewart's Literary Quarterly29 and Graeme Mercer Adam in The Canada Bookseller predicted that the demand for locally manufactured reprints might lead to, in Adam's words, 'the incitement and development of a creditable and not unimportant native literature, and the building up of a large publishing interest in our midst. ' 30 He saw that authors must be protected, but blamed Canada's questionable reprint activity on American politicians who refused to pass a copyright treaty. 'We have not been producers, to any extent ... ,' Adam acknowledged, 'but that as re-producers, in the publication of American reprints, &c., our book firms have been active to an unusual degree.' 3 ' One of those active reprinters, George Maclean Rose, publicly rejected Lovell's tactics and told The Globe ( 15 January 1872) how his firm approached Lord Lytton, Wilkie Collins, Charles Reade, George Macdonald and others, whose books [we] have published and are preparing to publish, in a straightforward manner, - offered what [we] considered a fair price for the right to republish in Canada, which offer was invariably accepted, and the result is that that firm are on the most friendly terms with these gentlemen. 31

176 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada Not a new firm, Hunter, Rose for over a decade had held lucrative government printing contracts, but in 1871 made a deliberate shift of policy to embark upon trade publishing, and over the next thirty years developed into one of the handful of firms that Adam predicted would foster literature and publishing. The partner with the innovative ideas and the talent for anticipating market tastes was George Maclean Rose ( 1829-98), a well known temperance advocate and supporter of the Reform and Liberal parties, who was born in Wick, Caithness-shire, and served his apprenticeship withjohn O' Groats' journal before he and his brothers Henry and Daniel emigrated to Montreal in 18 51. Here they were converted to Unitarianism by their friend the Reverend John Cordner, and for the next six years George held a series of jobs, including his partnership (1854-6) with Henry, who printed Cordner's works as well as Charles Heavysege's Sonnets (1855) and Saul (1857). In 1857 George became manager of Samuel Thompson's British Colonist office in Toronto, and in 1859 moved with Thompson to Quebec as one of the government printers. Thompson's financial difficulties, later bitterly described in his Reminiscences of a Canadian Pioneer, which Rose issued in 1884, brought about the firm's reorganization as a partnership between George Maclean Rose and the chief accountant, Robert Hunter. In 1865 they moved to the new capital in Ottawa with a five-year contract, and in 1868 they opened a Toronto branch under Hunter's management when they picked up a ten-year Ontario government contract through Rose's friendship with the provincial premier, John Sandfield Macdonald. When they left Ottawa in 1871, they expanded the Toronto plant and plunged into the publishing of Canadian copyright editions (that were issued simultaneously with the British and American editions) of Bulwer-Lytton's King Arthur (1871) and Kenelm Chillingly (1873), and three more novels by Wilkie Collins, The New Magdalen (1873), The Law and the Lady (1875), and The Two Destinies ( I 876). After Hunter died in 1877, Rose took his brother Daniel into the firm, and in 1877-8 George was briefly in partnership with the Belford Brothers in a subsidiary known as the Rose-Belford Company. When the Belfords left Toronto to set up business in Chicago, Rose inherited their plates, and the two firms continued their relationship for another ten years, which explains why the RoseBelford imprints appeared jointly in Toronto and Chicago in the 1880s. A near bankruptcy in 1895 resulted in the firm's incorporation; the electrotyping, printing, and binding departments were taken over by the Hunter, Rose Company, Ltd, which continued these operations until 1984, while the publishing branch was conducted under the style of G.M. Rose and Sons, in which the active direction was handled by George's son, Dan A. Rose (1860-1933).

Building a National Publishing Industry 177 George Maclean Rose's interests spread well beyond publishing. A proud Orangeman and the author himself of several temperance works, he was immortalized in Maria Simpson's temperance tale Brother G.M. Rose (1879). He served as a director of the Ontario Bank, and after many years as treasurer of the Toronto Board of Trade, he became its president in 1882-3. When he decided to support protectionist copyright laws, he helped found the Canadian Copyright Association ( 1888), which his son Dan used for the same purpose during the fight for the Copyright Act of 1921. 33 Graeme Mercer Adam himself played no small part in publishing reprint editions as well as small Canadian editions of new works. After his first partner James Rollo left in 1866 to go into insurance, Adam and his next partner John Horace Stevenson expanded their business as wholesalers and jobbers. In 1869 they held their 'first Annual Trade Sale ofBooks,' which they claimed was a first for Canada, but it was not followed up by any more annual sales.34 Adam began The Canada Bookseller & Miscellany (1871-3), the first real book trade periodical in the country, but with bad times he merged it with The Canadian Monthly and National Review (1872-82), Goldwin Smith's magazine of public affairs. One of Adam, Stevenson's first reprint editions was Bulwer-Lytton's The Coming Race; or the New Utopia (1871); at this point Adam was convinced they could succeed in publishing and the partners sold their retail store in 1872 to Willing & Williamson, who themselves engaged in publishing and bookselling until the end of the century. While Adam was in London in 1872 with Lovell, he made one of his most important buying trips. By this decade the overseas trip (not yet an annual one) was an established part of Canadian bookselling, and Adam's Toronto colleagues, James Bain, jr, Henry J. Clark, William Warwick, and Adam Miller, were also in Britain that year. Canadians sometimes got better deals than the British booksellers, as much as an extra 10 per cent discount due to the long distance. In the fall of 1872 Adam announced in his Canada Bookseller that he now represented every important British and American house (over 100 of them), including Longmans, Green, John Murray, Appleton, and Scribner's. 3 s The Canadians were far more successful in getting good retail terms than in getting republishing rights. Always plagued by finances, Adam, Stevenson was caught by the 1873 depression and went bankrupt in 1874 with debts of $91,697 to the banks and dozens of firms. 36 But they continued to issue works such as Thomas Hardy's Far from the Madding Crowd (1874), John Stuart Mill's Three Essays on Religion (1875), and, jointly with Dawson brothers, George Eliot's Daniel Deronda (1876). Adam's own career after 1875 was a series of peregrinations and attempts to make ends meet, and included one of the most dramatic

178 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada political reversals of his age. Through his family connections with the Lovells, he was in New York in 1876-8 as a member of Lovell, Adam, Wesson; then he was back in Canada editing the Canada Educational Monthly (1879-84) and the schoolbook series, the Royal Canadian Readers (1883). In late 1884 he planned a prestige reprint series of Canadian books with John Lovell, but nothing came of this venture. Meanwhile, Adam's friendship with Goldwin Smith since their days on The Canadian Monthly had begun to change Adam's politics. Smith had left his post as Regius Professor of History at Oxford to teach at Cornell from 1868 to 1870. He settled in Toronto in 1871, married the widow of D'Arcy Boulton, and spent the rest of his life pontificating from the Boulton mansion, 'The Grange.' As the most famous man of letters in Canada, his influence as a free trade liberal was enormous, and it began with his support of the Canada First Movement, whose aims of Canadian independence he supported, although not their drift towards imperial federation. Among Smith's lasting contributions were the periodicals he founded, The Canadian Monthly (1872-82) and The Week (1883-96). Although he did much for Canadian authors, he was ambivalent about the existence of a 'Canadian' literature, and was a powerful enemy of the reprint publishers, and throughout the eighties he advocated Canada's annexation to the United States. Graeme Mercer Adam, for years a staunch supporter of the reprinters, was converted into a free trader and annexationist while he served as business manager for Smith's newsletter The Bystander (1880-1, 1883), possibly disappointed by the reverses suffered by the reprint publishers and by the failure of international copyright to be implemented, and no doubt impressed by John W. Lovell's New York career. In 1886 Adam was secretary of the Reciprocal Trade Movement, and in league with publicist Erastus Wiman, who himself back in the sixties had been an economic nationalist. By 1892 Adam had settled in New York for good, first as a literary adviser for John W. Lovell's United States Book Company, and then as a hack journalist until his death in 1912, no longer an influential figure in Canada's literary life. In the early 1870s an encouraging number of Toronto and Montreal firms began modest publishing programs that included for the first time in Canadian imprints a number of British and American authors. Two of them, John Lovell and Hunter, Rose, had ambitions to be major publishers of fiction and non-fiction. Their activities were completely forgotten in the early twentieth century, in part because few of these books were recorded in lists kept by the Library of Congress or the British Museum, and Canadian lists were practically non-existent. Nor, with the exception of a few writers like George Eliot and Mark Twain, do these works appear in bibliographies of

Building a National Publishing Industry 179 nineteenth-century authors. In some cases these works were reprinted from plates made in this country, but it is likely that the majority of them were imported in sheets, from either Britain or the United States, with a tipped-in title-page added for the Canadian market. James Campbell issued Henry Ward Beecher's The Life ofJesus, the Christ (1872), Tennyson's Queen Mary: A Drama (1875), John Addington Symonds' Studies of the Greek Poets ( 1880), and Thomas Carly le' s Reminiscences (1881). Hart & Rawlinson issued John Ruskin's Ruskin on Painting (1879) and Herbert Spencer's The Data of Ethics (1879). Willing & Williamson issued Matthew Arnold's Mixed Essays (1879), James Anthony Froude's Bunyan (1880), George Saintsbury's Primer of French literature (1881), J .R. Green's fourth volume of The History of the English People ( 1881 ), and Oscar Wilde's Poems (1881). THE PUBLISHING OF CANADIAN AUTHORS

At the same time that these firms were issuing the works of American and British authors, they began to issue an increasing number of Canadians. In this regard probably Hunter, Rose had the largest and most diverse list. From their presses came reference works such as George Maclean Rose's Cyclopaedia of Canadian Biography (1886, 1888), social histories such as George Stewart, jr's Canada Under the Administration of the Earl of Dufferin ( 1878) and Joseph Collins' The life and Times of ... Sir john A. Macdonald (1883 , 1891 ). It would be difficult to reconstruct the cultural history of Canada in the last quarter of the century without these books and others such as John George Bourinot's The Intellectual Development of the Canadian People (1881), Henry Scadding's Toronto, Past and Present (1884), Edward Blake's Speeches (1887), and Goldwin Smith's Canada and the Canadian Question (1890). Although imaginative literature was slighter, the Hunter, Rose publications included Alexander McLachlan's Poems and Songs (1874) and Sara Jeannette Duncan's His Honour and a Lady (1896). In 1873 Samuel R. Hart bought the retail department of Copp, Clark, and soon after became a well-known publisher with his partners Thomas W. Rawlinson (from 1874 to 1881) and Matthew Riddell (from 1892 to 1894). Specializing in fine lithographing and engraving, Hart & Rawlinson issued the Art Series of Ribbon Books, a group of pamphlets containing illustrations by Canadian artists. Although John Bengough's Grip Printing and Publishing Company was best known for the comic newspaper Grip, his firm was active in book publishing. A Toronto native, Bengough (1851-1923) edited Grip from 1873

180 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada until he left the firm in 1892. In the pages of Grip Bengough promoted his liberal views on the single tax, free trade, and prohibition, but it was his satiric cartoons that brought him international fame . These were published in The Grip Cartoons ... May 1873 to May 1874 (1875), The Decline and Fall of Keewatin; or The Free-Trade Redskins (1876), The Grip Sack (1882), and A Caricature History of Canadian Politics (1886). Among Grip's non-humorous publications were Prime Minister Alexander Mackenzie's addresses, Political Points and Pencillings (1878), Principal George Monro Grant's Inaugural Address at Queen's (1885), and Arnold Haultain's History of Riel's Second Rebellion and How It Was Quelled (1885). Bengough also issued during the 1885 North-West Rebellion four numbers of The Canadian Pictorial &

Illustrated War News. Some Toronto publishers survived by importing specialized books and issuing the same type of books by Canadians. The Carswell Company, established in 1872, concentrated on law books. I. Sucking & Son opened its doors in 1875 as a music publisher and bookseller. J .A. Carveth, established in 1873, dealt in medical and pharmaceutical publications. Other firms that did occasional book publishing were best known for their newspapers and magazines, such as the Mclean Brothers, who issued their first trade magazine, The Canadian Grocer, in 1887. A year later they bought Books and Notions (est. 1884), from J .J. Dyas, and changed its name to Bookseller and Stationer in 189 3; this magazine went through several more changes on its masthead until its demise as Bookseller and Stationer and Office Equipment Journal in 1960. Maclean's magazine began life as the Busyman's Magazine (1896-1911), taking its present name in 1911. The Bryant Press, founded in 1889 by John Bryant, printed The Educational Monthly and The Westminster. T.H. Best formed The Ontario Publishing Company in 1893 to publish The Canadian Magazine; under the name of T.H. Best & Company, Ltd (est. 192 1), the firm concentrated on manufacturing and binding. Similarly, in Montreal the printing offices of the most widely circulated newspapers in the country occasionally issued books. The Gazette Company was bought by Thomas and Richard White in 1 870, and remained in their family's hands until 1968, when the Southam Group acquired the newspaper. The Gazette's liberal rival, The Montreal Star, began life in 1869 under the direction of George T . Lanigan and Hugh Graham. Lanigan, now remembered for the comic poem 'The Ahkoond of Swat,' became an annexationist and left the firm in 1872. Graham (1848-1938), who ended life as Lord Atholstan, issued The Family Herald and Weekly Star (1897-1956), the most popular weekly in rural Canada for generations; Nellie McClung

Building a National Publishing Industry 181 remembered that it was approved reading in the 1890s in her small Manitoba town of Manitou. 37 John Dougall and his son John Redpath Dougall issued The Witness (1845-1938), a temperance paper, and The New Dominion Monthly (1867-79). John Redpath Dougall's sister Lily Dougall (1858-1923) was a novelist of international popularity who spent most of her career in England. Dawson Brothers had a large proportion of scholarly and scientific titles in their lists. These included John William Dawson's Archaia; or Studies of the Cosmography and Natural History ofthe Hebrew Scriptures ( 1860), Sandford Fleming's history of the railways, The I ntercolonial ( 1876), the Royal Society's Proceedings and Transactions in the eighties, and John George Bourinot's Canadian Studies in Comparative Politics (1890). Their literary publications ranged from Charles Heavysege's ]epthah 's Daughter ( 186 5) and Charles Mair's Dreamland and Other Poems (1868), to Charles G.D. Roberts' In Divers Tones (1886). The creative force in Dawson Brothers was Samuel Edward Dawson, a man of letters and antiquarian, a founding member of the Royal Society of Canada, and a frequent contributor to The Publishers' Circular (London) and The Publishers' Weekly (New York). Among his own works was A Study .. . of Alfred Tennyson's Poem 'The Princess' (1882) and the pamphlet Copyright in Books (1882). By the late 1880s, Dawson began to withdraw from book publishing. He and an employee, E.N. Renouf, formed the Montreal News Company in 1880, which distributed books, magazines and newspapers throughout Quebec and the Mari times. In 1889 Samuel and his brother Charles dissolved their partnership, and in 1891 Samuel was appointed Queen's Printer in Ottawa, a post he held until 1909. Charles continued the stationery business, which became W.V. Dawson and Company in 1901 and was incorporated in 1913. The Montreal News Company passed into the hands of Henry J. Brophy, while Renouf (1860-1941), a native of St John's, Newfoundland, took over the publishing side of Dawson Brothers. Under the name of E.N. Renouf in the twentieth century, his firm specialized in scientific books. Dawson Brothers' retail store was acquired by W. Foster Brown, who was active as a publisher around the turn of the century. William Drysdale, a native of Montreal, worked for John Dougall & Son and for F.E. Grafton, and was one of the proprietors of The Canadian Railway News Company (est. 1883), which sold periodicals on the Intercolonial Railway. His firm was incorporated as William Drysdale & Company, Ltd in 1897 with a capital of $50,000; nine years later he went out of business, and was succeeded by H. Woodcock. Although he was not active

182 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada in politics, Drysdale belonged to charitable and temperance organizations, the Mechanics' Institute, and the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society, and he inherited Samuel Edward Dawson's post as Montreal correspondent for The Publishers' Circular and The Publishers' Weekly. Besides his temperance publications and books for Presbyterians were the Reverend J .D. Borthwick's Montreal, Its History (1875), Francis Hincks's Reminiscences of His Public Life (1884), Evan MacColl's Poetical Works (1887), W.D. Lighthall's romance The Young Seigneur (1888), and Lighthall's anthology Songs of the Great Dominion ( 1889 ), which first introduced the 'Confederation Poets' to an international audience. French-language publishing also increased in the 1870s, although a larger proportion of the titles issued were religious biographies and local histories than was the case in English-language publishing, a situation that has been attributed to the large number of clerics among Quebec authors. 38 This kind of literature was the mainstay of Augustin Cote et Cie of Quebec City, but other firms exploited the growing popularity of historical romances and travel books. Much of the literary publishing was in the hands of Brousseau Freres, who issued Joseph Marmette's Franr;ois de Bienville (1870) and le Tomahawk et l'epee (1877), and Camille Darveau, who issued Pamphile Lemay's Picounoc le maudit (1878) and Narcisse Faucher de Saint-Maurice's A la veille: contes et recits (1880). The bookstore begun by the Cremazie brothers was continued by Jacques after Octave had fled to France in 1862. In 1879 Samuel Chaperon bought the firm, and when he formed a partnership in 1897 with Pierre Garneau, the firm became known as Chaperon & Garneau. Under Garneau's capable management the firm enlarged its import business from Belgium, France, and Italy, and slowly built a list of Quebec writers. In 1920 the firm was incorporated as Librairie Garneau. Montreal became the centre for French-language publishing once young L.J.O. Beauchemin (1852-1922) entered his father's firm of Beauchemin & Valois in 1872. The business under C.O. Beauchemin and J.M. Valois, his partner from 1864 to 1886, had been developed by the production and sale of textbooks and the popular Almanach du peuple (est. 1869 ), the circulation of which reached 50,000 by the turn of the century. They issued reference books like Father Albert Lacombe's 700-page Dictionnaire de la langue des Cries (1874), as well as Octave Cremazie's Oeuvres completes (1882) and his lettres et fragments de lettres ( 18 86). Beauchemin also issued popular fiction like Mrs Leprohon's le Manoir de Villerai (1884) and Georges Dugas' stories of the west, legendes du Nord-Guest ( 1890 ). The firm was incorporated as Librairie

Building a National Publishing Industry 183 Beauchemin & Fils in 1900 with a capital of $500,000, and in 1904 it acquired a controlling interest in another bookseller-publisher, Cadieux & Derome. By 1906 there were over 100 people employed by the firm, which manufactured a variety of commercial and educational supplies, looseleaf books, scribblers, and the popular Sir Wilfrid Laurier pen. After the First World War, Librairie Beauchemin became the largest French-language publishing house in the world outside France. Granger Freres was established in 1885 by Flavien Joseph Granger, who had previously worked in the bookstores of Chapeleau & Labelle and Cadieux & Derome. By 1901, ten years after his brother Alphonse joined him, the thriving business could boast of a stock of 70,000 second-hand French- and English-language books, and medals from the Paris Exposition for its bookbinding. Slowly accumulating a list of titles, Granger Freres did far more publishing after the First World War than in the early years. When Anhur Conrad surveyed the Montreal scene in 1905, he listed Granger Freres, along with Beauchemin and Deom Freres, as the three major French-language jobbers in the city. 39 Between the mid-sixties and the early twentieth century the names of other booksellers appeared on the title-pages of books. Richard Worthington in the mid-sixties issued Charles Heavysege's novel The Advocate ( 1865) and cheap paperback action stories like The Ten of Diamonds, and Other Tales (1867) and The Canadian Brigands: An Intensely Exciting Story of Crime in Quebec, Thirty Years Ago! (1867). Occasionally F.E. Grafton (est. 1865), J. Theo. Robinson, and Norman Murray issued books. Of the small list put out by Cadieux & Derome, established in 1878, the most famous novel was the political roman a these by Jules-Paul Tardivel, Pour la patrie: roman du XXe siecle ( 189 5). A best-seller by virtue of being a school prize for decades, its deeply felt views on religion, nationalism, and separatism has made it one of the most influential of Quebec books. It is safe to say that many of these books issued by local booksellers and printers were paid for by the authors themselves. Such books do not seem to have been issued or marketed abroad, even though some of them had modestly good sales in this country. Many, perhaps all, of these books are relevant to our understanding of late nineteenth-century colonial society as it struggled towards a new identity and self-assurance. But the book trade did not support itself by these Canadian works, and in the seventies a small group of aggressive printers and publishers were determined to profit by the manufacture of popular American and British works; by the nineties French-language firms tried the same thing with popular works from France.

184 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada ROBBERS, PIRATES, AND GENTLEMEN: REPRINT PUBLISHERS AND THE COPYRIGHT ACT OF I

875

Although it was designed to help local publishing and authorship, the 1872 Copyright Act too aggressively encouraged the manufacture of books and was quickly squelched. Yet, for all the talk about Canadian piracy in the early seventies, most of these firms acted in good faith, and attempted to bring to Canada the practices of the 18 50s and 186os; and even the 1875 Copyright Act was framed with those established practices in mind. At the same time, however, traditional bookselling was about to be shaken apart. The new printing technology, described in Chapter 4, accounted for the appearance of thousands of very cheap books: paper made from pulp was used for books retailing at 5¢, 10¢ and 20¢, and the power presses could print and bind thousands of these books in a day. As railway services spread all over North America, railway book stalls - which had appeared back in the 18 50s - were now located in every large station. Simplified, cheap mail services were introduced at the end of the decade after both the United States and Canada ratified the Universal Postal Union of 1875. Even before the 1872 Act was disallowed, Sir George-Etienne Cartier was engaged in London with Thomas Farrer and Frederick Daldy on a new Canadian copyright bill in the winter of 1872-3. That year the British government circulated among the colonies the draft of a new imperial copyright bill, which would give the colonial author full imperial protection with the first publication of a work in his own colony. The Foreign Reprints Act was also incorporated in this bill. Newfoundland, the West Indies, Bermuda, the Cape of Good Hope Province, and Australia approved, but the Canadians did not because, as Alexander Mackenzie, the new Liberal prime minister, told the Colonial Office the public and the booksellers were happy with the present state of things, and authors wished to dispose of rights as they pleased. In fact, the Canadian publishers rejected the bill because they still demanded the right to reprint in Canada, 40 and the imperial bill was laid aside for the present, to be taken up again by an Imperial Royal Commission on Copyright in 1876. As for the new Canadian bill, on 2 January 1874 Dawson Brothers told the deputy minister of agriculture, Joseph-Charles Tache, that the Hunter, Rose negotiations were the satisfactory way for Canadian publishers to deal with English authors. The 1872 Copyright Act served only printers and publishers, and the Dawsons always argued that government licences to reprint at set royalties was no way to conduct business, since it gave the author (or his assignee) no say in selecting his reprint publisher. They pointed out that

Building a National Publishing Industry 185 without Canadian protection, Kenelm Chillingly could have been issued in several cheaper and more inferior editions so that ultimately no Canadian house would have made profits, and the public would then suffer. Even though stereotyping and printing were cheaper in Canada than in the United States, the cost per copy in the larger American market was in fact less than in the smaller Canadian market, and the Dawsons scotched the notion that the Americans would ever let Canadian editions into their own territory. 4 ' Daldy came to Ottawa in the summer of 1874 with a simple proposal that seemed to be the solution : that British copyrights that were republished in Canada would be treated as if they originally published here, and so obtain Canadian copyright. This arrangement would require an imperial act to prohibit the importation of the colonial-produced editions into other parts of the British possessions without the copyright owner's permission, 42 but at least the way was paved for a compromise that was approved by the Canadians, the Copyright Association, and The Publishers ' Circular. The 1875 Act Respecting Copyrights (38 Viet., cap. 88) repealed the 1868 Act Respecting Copyrights and remained the basic Canadian copyright act (with revisions) until its own repeal in 1924. It was extended to 'any person domiciled in Canada or in any part of the British Possessions, or being a citizen of any country having an international copyright treaty with the United Kingdom . .. ' (Section 4) Like the 1868 act, it required registration and deposit of two copies, and the total term of copyright remained forty-two years. But a new condition for copyright protection stipulated that works 'be printed and published or reprinted and republished in Canada ... whether they be so published or produced for the first time, or contemporaneously with or subsequently to publication or production elsewhere ... ' (Section 4, Subsection 2). This act extended Canadian copyright protection to works registered, printed, and published in Canada, even though the plates could be made elsewhere. The intention clearly was to exclude the American-made foreign reprints of British authors. In practical terms, Samuel Edward Dawson explained, 43 when the British author complied with Canadian law, that is, by registering his titles, his works could neither be reprinted in Canada nor imported here without his permission. If he did not comply with Canadian law, that is, did not register his titles, his permission was still necessary for a Canadian reprint, but reprints of his works could be imported from foreign countries. On the other hand, Section 1 5 specifically stated that 'nothing in this Act shall be held to prohibit the importation from the United Kingdom of copies of such works legally printed there,' but there was to be no reciprocity with the United Kingdom, for the London publishers demanded that the

186 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada Canadian act be passed by the imperial parliament as well, and this Canadian Copyright Act of 1875 (38 & 39 Viet., cap. 53) only differed from the Dominion act of 1875 in having a new Section 4, which prohibited importation into the United Kingdom of Canadian reprints of British copyrights. Another intention of the act was to keep American authors from getting Canadian copyright simply by vacationing in Canada while their works were being published in London, a situation which apparently satisfied judicial interpretations of the Imperial Copyright Act of 1842. In the 1875 Act, the change of terms from 'resident' to 'domiciled' was to cause problems in the next decade. The 1875 Copyright Act worked adequately when books by nonCanadian authors were registered in Canada. This was faithfully done by Samuel Edward Dawson of Dawson Brothers, one of whose coups was the arrangement with Blackwood's to issue George Eliot's Daniel Deronda (1876) in six parts simultaneously with its British and American publication. Whereas Disraeli's Lothair had lost money in Canada because nothing was collected on the American edition that entered under the 12½ per cent duty, Thomas Longman carefully orchestrated the appearance of Disraeli's last novel Endymion simultaneously in London, New York, and Montreal to defeat the American and Canadian pirates. Dawson Brothers issued the small Canadian edition of Endymion in December 1880, getting the Minister of Customs to alert the border points, especially those in Windsor, against any prohibited editions, and Samuel Edward Dawson told Longman that this Canadian edition 'precipitated the first thorough attempt' 44 to work the new Canadian law. For some years, however, the 1875 Act seemed designed for all the loopholes and anomalies that ingenious publishers could find, particularly a new breed of young men on both sides of the border. Three of the more publicized incidents involving this group were the pirating of Samuel Smiles by the Belford Brothers; the pirating of Mark Twain by the Belfords, John Ross Robertson, and Hunter, Rose; and the shabby treatment of William Kirby by John Wurtele Lovell. The basis for these and many other unauthorized printings in the United States and Canada was the fact that the books were either not registered at all, or their registration was in question. In the United States such works were usually by non-American citizens; but matters were less clear cut in Canada, where 'questionable' books included American and English books not registered under the 1842 Imperial Act (which required registration, but the practice seemed to be more honoured in the breach after the 1860s), as well as any books (including those by

Building a National Publishing Industry 187 Canadians) not registered under the 1875 Canadian act. In the early seventies the problem was further confused because an important British copyright case, Low v Routledge, had repercussions in Canada. Maria Cummins, the American author of one of the most popular melodramas of the age, The lamplighter ( 18 54), was residing in Montreal when Sampson Low of London published her next novel Haunted Hearts (1864) from the MS she sent him. The work was duly registered at Stationers' Hall. When Routledge published a cheap edition a month later from a copy of the American edition, Low took him to court, but the case was dismissed on a technicality. Low got an injunction in 1865, and Routledge appealed but a higher court upheld the injunction. After fours years of litigation, Routledge took his case to the House of Lords, which unanimously upheld the first decision, namely that first publication in the British Isles gave protection to an alien author who was on British soil anywhere at the time of publication, but that first publication in a colony was not protected from infringement, except locally. 4 s The Athenaeum, annoyed by this decision, noted the dissatisfaction with the verdict in India and the colonies, since it 'either destroyed all copyright property in the numerous works which, since 1842, have been first published there, or rendered such property comparatively worthless . .. ' 46 There was plenty of room for unethical business practices. A new Toronto firm, Belford Brothers, set out to publish (by the letter if not the spirit of the law) cheap books, particularly those American books that were not protected under the 1842 Imperial Copyright Act, as well as American and British books not registered under the new 1875 Canadian Copyright Act - anything, therefore, that might be considered fair game. The three Belfords, Charles (1837-80), Alexander, and Robert, emigrated from Cork to Toronto in 18 57 to work on The Leader, owned by their great-uncle James Beaty. In 1876 while Charles was still editor of the new conservative organ The Mail, the brothers formed their partnership, and they asked Smiles for permission to reprint Thrift, but getting no reply and learning that it was neither registered at Stationers' Hall nor in Ottawa, they issued a Canadian edition in April 1876. When Smiles and Macmillan took them to court, the Belfords justified themselves in a long editorial in The Mail (10 October 1876), but the court upheld the plaintiff, and the Belfords' appeal was dismissed on 17 March 1877. In his important decision Mr Justice Burton decided that the Imperial Act of 1842 had precedence over the Canadian Act of 1875. 47 The Publisher's Circular was pleased by the outcome, while The Publishers' Weekly predicted, accurately enough, that the decision would drive more Canadians in Lovell's footsteps over the boundary line, 48 and Judge Thomas Moss also saw what would happen to the publishing trade :

188 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada I fear the state of the law which we find inflicts a hardship on the Canadian publisher, while it confers no very valuable benefit upon the British author. Its effect, if I rightly understand the matter, is to enable the British author to give an American publisher a Canadian copyright. It is no very violent assumption that every American publisher, who treats with a British author for advance sheets of his work, will stipulate for the use of the author's name to restrain a Canadian reprint. By this arrangement he will be enabled to secure the practical monopoly of the Canadian market, for which he may be induced to pay the author some consideration; but however small this consideration may be, I apprehend it will be found sufficient to induce the author to concede the privilege rather than secure Canadian copyright by treating with the Canadian publisher. 49

This judgment did not deter either the Belfords or John Ross Robertson from their reprint activities, for they continued to argue that if an American or British book was not registered at Ottawa, then it did not have Canadian protection. In 1878 Charles Belford withdrew from the firm; he had become sick working for the Conservatives' return to power that year and was rewarded with the secretaryship of the Dominion Board of Appraisers, but he died in 1880. After his departure Alexander and Robert joined with George Maclean Rose to form the Rose-Belford Publishing Company, but Rose withdrew in March 1879; and the reorganized firm, Belfords, Clarke and Company, brought in James Clarke to run the subscription department. Although the Toronto office was maintained for the next decade, they established their headquarters as subscription publishers in Chicago, where Alexander married the daughter of Walter McNally of Rand, McNally. Through the 1880s Belfords, Clarke was connected briefly with] ohn Wurtele Lovell and was the largest publishing firm west of New York, but after several financial crises it failed in September 1889 when Andrew McNally refused to endorse its commitments any further. 50 Once more reorganized, the firm continued publishing into the twentieth century. If the Belfords were hard on foreign authors, they could be just as unscrupulous with Canadians. In 1878 they offered George Monro Grant $300 for the first Canadian reprint edition of Ocean to Ocean (1873), but when they discovered they had bought rights for 'one edition' only rather than the 'whole right, •s I they issued a very small edition, perhaps discovering that they would not be able to issue a legal edition in the United States. The Belfords brought George Stewart, jr, to Toronto in March 1878 to be editor of Be/ford's Monthly Magazine at a salary of $1,200, and arranged for him to write the first in a series of contemporary biographies, Canada under the

Building a National Publishing Industry 189 Administration of Lord Dufferin ( 1878), which was successfully marketed by subscription all over the country. Stewart assumed that he would be paid for this volume but did not raise the subject of remuneration until after it was published. When the Belfords told him it was part of his duties as editor of the magazine, he took them to court for damages of $1,500, but Chief Justice Moss reluctantly rejected Stewart's claim.51 Stewart then quit his post and went on to edit the Quebec Chronicle. The other notorious 'pirate' was one of the most famous editors in the country, John Ross Robertson, the founder of The Evening Telegram (1876-1971) and in later life the donor of his Canadiana collection to the Toronto Public Library, now known as the Metropolitan Toronto Central Library. Robertson and the Belfords had been printing cheap books since 1871 on the presses of Robertson's Daily Telegraph. In 1876 the Belfords advertised the third edition within one month of Mark Twain's Old Times on the Mississippi, and in the next four years they and Robertson issued editions of An Idle Excursion, Sketches, A Tramp Abroad, The Innocents Abroad, Roughing It, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Robertson defended himself in a series of articles on copyright in The Telegram in the autumn of 1879. 53 As Twain was to discover, this Canadian pirate knew how to circumvent the law. In December 188 1 Twain arranged to be in Canada for several weeks while Dawson Brothers published a small edition (275 copies) of The Prince and the Pauper from plates sent by R.H. Ticknor of Boston. 54 For some years American authors (besides Maria Cummins, they included W.D. Howells, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Oliver Wendell Holmes) had vacationed in Canada to be on British territory when their London editions were issued, an arrangement which satisfied the conditions for imperial copyright. But Twain was fooled this time, for domiciled in the Canadian Act of 1875 meant permanent residence, and the Copyright Office in the Department of Agriculture refused him Canadian copyright, although he was given interim copyright for a thirty-day period. His imperial copyright did little good because Rose-Belford and Robertson each got pirated editions (stolen from the Dawson edition) on the Toronto market very quickly. George Maclean Rose had apparently offered $500 for advance sheets but was refused. ss The Rose-Belford edition even included a preface (dated 15 February 1882) justifying their action, for this edition was set in Canada, printed in the United States, and imported as a reprint of a British copyright! James Edgar claimed that about 25,000 copies of these two Rose-Belford and Robertson editions were sold. 56 Twain was doubly angered, by the pirated editions within Canada and by their advertisement in the United States. 57 He was more

190 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada fortunate with the authorized Dawson editions of Life on the Mississippi (1883) and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884). This time Rose offered $1,000 for a cheap edition of Huckleberry Finn, 58 but was again refused. Twain arranged for Andrew Chatto, his London publisher, to register the copyright of these works in Canada, and the American plates were used for the small Canadian copyright editions. Ironically, as Gordon Roper points out in his article 'Mark Twain and His Canadian Publishers: A Second Look' (1966), Twain ended up dealing with George Maclean Rose, who bought the sheets and rights to some of Twain's works from Dawson Brothers when they wound up publishing activities in 1889. 59 The Smiles and Twain piratings were only the most publicized of Canadian piratings. In 1886 The Publishers' Weekly reprinted E.P. Roe's encounter with unauthorized editions of her novels in Ontario bookstores. 60 In the 1920s Hector Charlesworth recalled another 1886 incident in which the proofs for Rider Haggard's Allan Quatermain (1886) were stolen from the Hunter, Rose office in Toronto, and carried to Chicago for a pirated edition that appeared on the market about two days before the authorized Harper edition. 61 At least one Canadian author, William Kirby, was also victimized by a combination of the new Copyright Act and by two unscrupulous American publishers, John Wurtele Lovell and L.C. Page. The tribulations which Kirby suffered with his historical romance The Chien d'Or: A Legend of Quebec(1877) illustrate all the things that can go wrong with a book. When he finished the MS in 1873, his friends William Withrow of the Methodist Book and Publishing House and Graeme Mercer Adam tried to find publishers in this country and abroad. Hunter, Rose was having great success with Wilkie Collins and Disraeli, but told Adam that The Golden Dog (as it is usually called) would be a great risk while trade was 'so paralysed' ;6 z they would print and bind it if Kirby paid them$ 1,800 to cover costs. One of the MS copies that was sent to England was 'lost' for three years, only to turn up in a Toronto warehouse, but its disappearance may have given two un.,crupulous British hacks a chance to pirate it. 63 Finally in July 1876 John Wurtele Lovell agreed to take it for his new firm of Lovell, Adam, Wesson & Company; it would be set up and stereotyped at the Champlain Press at Rouse's Point and be issued in New York and Montreal in mid-September. 64 But Kirby was an inveterate tinkerer, and when the typeset proofs reached him at Niagara-on-the-Lake, he took his time correcting and returning them. This was the only stage of the novel that he proofread, for the galley proofs from the stereotype plates were not sent to him. The plates themselves cost $800 and were slowly made between August and December 1876. 65 The novel

Building a National Publishing Industry 191 was issued in late January 1877, and although the size of the edition and its sales are unknown, it seems to have done moderately well. 66 Then the complications began. Lovell, Adam, Wesson was financially precarious from the start in spite of the Lovell and Wesson money. Graeme Mercer Adam himself was always scrounging for money and he even asked Kirby for a loan early in 1877. So when Lovell, Adam, Wesson failed in the winter of 1878, Kirby discovered that The Golden Dog had no Canadian copyright. 67 In the United States the work was protected inasmuch as the proprietor of the plates could control its distribution in both countries, but under the 1875 Canadian Copyright Act, the work of a person domiciled in Canada had to be registered here within a month of its publication in the United States. Although Adam later said 68 that John Wurtele Lovell had agreed to copyright the novel in each country, we will never know which of the three slipped up, the ever-scrupulous author, or the copyright expert, or the most cunning publisher of the day. Since Lovell behaved in a similar fashion with other authors, it is possible that he foresaw that without registration, the author would be powerless to collect royalties. On 2 April 1878 the elder John Lovell advised Kirby to buy the plates from the firm's creditor, Frank Wesson 's father, who was prepared to take $100 cash for them. John Lovell did not want them . 'If I had the means I certainly would purchase the plates, ' 69 he said, but he knew no doubt that imported American copies would compete with any edition of his. Kirby never got his hands on the plates, possibly because his own desire for them roused the curiosity of another New York publisher and former Montreal bookseller, Richard Worthington, an acquaintance of John Lovell. Worthington issued his own edition, using the sheets of the first edition and adding his own title-page. Kirby's trials with his publishers continued for the remaining twenty-six years of his life. The only Canadian edition that was registered was Leon-Pamphile Lemay's French version of 1884, but this brought no profits to Kirby. John Wurtele Lovell himself used the plates for a new cheap edition of 5,000 in 1884 but told Kirby there would be no royalties as his own profit would not exceed $500. 70 In 1896 Joseph Knight of Boston purchased sheets of The Golden Dog from John Wurtele Lovell's successors, the American Publishing Corporation, and he issued his edition with a new title-page. In 1897 the defunct Knight firm was taken over by L.C. Page, who decided it was time for an authorized edition and badgered Kirby through the spring of 1897 to revise and cut the work to 500 pages. While Kirby hesitated, Page told him: 'With all due consideration to your moral rights in the book, we suggest that legally you have no rights at all, and that the book is public property. ' 7 '

192 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada But the so-called 'Authorized Version' that Page issued was not entirely Kirby's work; Page himself wrote the author's note, and Kirby later discovered that Page had doctored the revision.7 2 Kirby received about $100 in royalties from the 1897 edition but nothing, apparently, from the other ones. 73 Both Lorne Pierce in his 1929 biography of Kirby and Elizabeth Brady in her 1976 article 'A Bibliographic Essay on William Kirby's The Golden Dog 1877-1977' have dealt with Kirby's story at length, and Miss Brady's list of imprints indicates that the book has always been in print, a testimony to its popularity at one time in the United States and its continued appeal in Canada. The most spectacular career of any Canadian publisher was that of John Wurtele Lovell. The Lake Champlain Press, which he managed in 1873-4, gave him his start; while here he saw the potential for the efficient distribution of cheap books. His debut in New York was Lovell, Adam, Wesson & Company ( 1875-8), which went bankrupt due to the panic of 1877, but Lovell was almost immediately back in business under the name of John W. Lovell (1878-81). He decided to break up the 'prevalent exclusivity' 74 of oldfashioned publishing by pirating on a large scale. The books would be electrotyped at Rouse's Point. He announced that he would pay a 10 per cent royalty on his reprints, but it was rumoured that authors did not often receive their royalties, for Kirby was not the only author to be cheated. Lovell's next venture was the John W . Lovell Company (1882), under which he began the Lovell Library, one of the best produced of the cheap library series. Ultimately containing 1,500 numbers devoted to fiction, biography, the feminist movement, and works on financial reform by Henry George and labour problems by Edward Kellogg, Lovell's publications were an important contribution to the shaping of American thought in that decade. He got a second-class postal rate to distribute the Lovell Library numbers at the newspaper rate, and so many books came off his presses he was known as 'Book-a-Day Lovell.' 75 In 1888 he expanded by purchasing the plates and stock of the Munro Library, and opened branches in Chicago and London. By now the Lovell enterprises included the magazine Tid-Bits, Lovell's Political and Scientific series, Lovell's American Authors' series, the Foreign Literature series, and half a dozen other series. The London branch, managed by Wolcott Balestier, whose sister married Rudyard Kipling, became a popular literary rendezvous as well as a successful publishing firm . Balestier sent a copy of Mrs Humphry Ward's Robert Elsmere (1888) to New York, and Lovell was the first to publish this controversial work in the United States. He gratefully sent Mrs Ward $500 and became her authorized American publisher. Soon Lovell began to pay for advance sheets of British

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193

authors, and as a result of Balestier's efforts, he was the first to publish Rudyard Kipling (1890) and James Barrie ( 1891) in the United States. John W. Lovell's biggest gamble, and the one that destroyed his career, was the United States Book Company, a huge combine incorporated under New Jersey law in 1890. Lovell decided that one giant firm was the only way to end the ruinous competition of the cheap books, and also to end huge discounts and to pool profits. He threatened, cajoled, and bought out such rivals as Richard Worthington, De Wolfe, Fiske, Hurst, and Estes & Lauriat. But the United States Book Company was finished off in three years by a combination of events that Lovell could not control: the 1891 American Copyright Act and the subsequent Anglo-American Reciprocal Copyright Agreement, which ended piracy, the panic of 1893, the over-extension of credit, and the new anti-trust laws, which were first used to break up the Lovell monopoly. Although one of his subsidiaries, Lovell, Coryell & Company, survived with its prestige works for a few more years, Lovell's career as a major publisher was finished, and his remaining years until his death in 1932 were spent in real estate. Summing up the remarkable career of this aggressive and magnetic man, historian Madeleine B. Stern concludes that 'Lovell's grand-scale methods foreshadow assembly lines, as his book trust foreshadows the publishing mergers of the twentieth century. He was perhaps more important for his approach to publishing and for his publishing techniques than for the specific titles he published. ' 76 THE TARIFF OF 1879 AND THE GROWTH OF CHEAP LIBRARY SERIES

Since the 1875 act by itself was not enough to keep out American editions, another way to discourage their importation was tried in 1879. This was the set of book tariffs that Sir Leonard Tilley presented to Parliament, as part of the National Policy, to develop local book production by reducing trade with the United States and increasing trade with Great Britain. Tilley proposed a specific duty that would tax a book by its weight, as a substitute for the existing ad valorem duty that taxed a work according to its price. The shock was immediate because since 1868 the 5 per cent duty on the 'Books, Periodicals and Pamphlets' category was the lowest rate ever in the history of Canada's book tariffs, while books and parcels mailed to individuals from outside Canada had entered duty free. With this duty the Conservatives underestimated the force of attacks from all sides. The Liberal opposition argued against a tax on intellect at a time when European nations were removing book tariffs altogether. Lutherans and French-speaking Roman Catholics complained that their devotional books, which came in free from

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the United States and France, would now be very expensive.7 7 Booksellers pointed out that they and the consumers would suffer, since the specific duty would hit the large quantities of imported cheap books, 78 which of course was the purpose of the duty - besides raising money for the government. Even the duty on post office parcels created unforeseen problems. For many years Canadians had paid subscriptions to Canadian agents who arranged for books, newspapers, and magazines to be mailed duty free from the American publishers, but now individuals, like the booksellers, would have to pay a 1¢ per oz. duty. Publishers said that this charge would not affect their business because American postal rates were far lower than Canada's, but that booksellers would lose their commissions for collecting subscriptions due to the anticipated loss of sales.79 Under the terms of the Universal Postal Union (1875), which the United States and Canada had ratified in 1878, books entering by this channel could not be prohibited, so the government found a way of raising money from the large volume of parcels mailed from the United States. However, the Postmaster General refused to collect this tariff. The next year the Toronto Globe's annual 'Trade Review of Books and Stationery for 1879' reported simply that 'the tax put on foreign magazines and cheap literature has almost wholly destroyed the trade of such publications. ' 80 In its attempt to keep out printed materials, the government erred in placing duties on the imported equipment needed to increase the volume of printing. Printers were unhappy with high duties on printing presses, electrotypes, stereotype plates, binding materials, and ink, all those items that had previously entered free or at a very low duty. On 2.7 February 1880 the Globe attacked the National Policy for protecting paper-makers and printers at the expense of the rest of the book trade. Encouraging the importation of stereoplates instead of sheets was a good thing, but the expected increase in imported stereoplates, on which the duty had gone from 5 per cent to 2.0 per cent, did not materialize. 81 Over the next three years the government relented in stages, but first of all dropped many of the specific duties in favour of ad valorem duties. Books and foreign reprints were charged 1 5 per cent; Bibles, 5 per cent; however, printed music retained the specific duty of 6¢ per lb. Printing paper was charged 2.0 per cent; presses and binding tools, 1 5 per cent; and electrotypes and stereotypes, 10 per cent. Hunter, Rose, Belford Brothers, and John Ross Robertson continued to turn out large numbers of titles not registered under the 1875 Canadian act, but now the reciprocal postal agreement and the new tariffs encouraged even more piracy and reprinting, and they began to advertise widely in American newspapers that they could mail and sell their editions more cheaply from

Building a National Publishing Industry 195 Canada than those editions available from American firms. Although the Canadians were bitterly criticized in the American trade, it was usually conveniently forgotten that some American firms had been doing the same thing for years, and in fact the Canadians were imitating a trend that had evolved in the mid-1870s in the United States, namely the cheap library series that enjoyed sales all over North America. In contrast to the sensational 'dime' novels of the 186os that featured action stories of pirates, cowboys, and Indians, these libraries contained quality works. The first series to appear was The Lakeside Library ( 1875 ), issued by the new Chicago firm of Donnelley, Loyd, whose titles were English books not copyrighted in the United States and American books in the public domain. Although they were clothbound, they sold at first for 10¢. The Lakeside Library proved so popular that two competitors appeared in 1877, Beadle and Adams' Fireside Library (1877-82), most of whose titles were reprints of English novels; and George Munro's Seaside Library (1877), which also reprinted English novels, but whose format was like a newspaper (including cheap paper) so that the Seaside publications could be sent through the mails at newspaper rates. Then in the summer of 1878 Harper Brothers were forced to introduce their series, the Franklin Square Library, most of its titles coming from the Harper's backlist and for which royalties were paid. In this way Harper's hoped to fight the competition from other American and Canadian pirates. The American libraries were well under way before they felt the full brunt of Canadian competition, however, for the first cheap libraries here were Rose-Belford's Library and Robertson's Popular Library, which both appeared soon after postal rates were substantially reduced in March 1879. Their prices of 10¢, 20¢, 30¢ were competitive with the American libraries, and they too often contained books of high quality. John Ross Robertson, who advertised his series in the Toronto Evening Telegram through 1879 as 'Cheap Books for the Million, Bright Books by Best Authors,' included among his first titles W.D. Howells' The Lady of the Aroostook for 10¢, Emile Zola's L'Assomoir for 30¢, novels by May Agnes Fleming and Bertha M. Clay, and training books on rowing, football, and curling. His publications were mailed postage-free. By 1889 Robertson claimed he had printed 'over a million books. ' 82 New titles in the cheap Canadian libraries appeared throughout the eighties and nineties. In 1884 the Rose Library from Hunter, Rose had fifty titles that included a few English authors such as Wilkie Collins, but chiefly Americans -Howells, Twain, E.P. Roe, Bertha M. Clay, detective stories by Allan Pinkerton, and the ubiquitous May Agnes Fleming. Their prices ranged

196 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada

from 10¢ to 25¢. The more prestigious cloth-covered series, The Rose Red Line Edition of Standard Poets, contained fifty-nine titles, ranging from The Iliad to young contemporaries such as Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Algernon Swinburne. The Toronto News Company, run by the enterprising Andrew S. Irving, which was a large jobbing firm, issued the American Library, most of whose titles were popular entertainments from Joaquin Miller, Fleming, and Roe, the kind of light reading suitable for railway trips and summer cottages. Another successful publisher of cheap books was William Bryce, who began as a wholesale bookseller and stationer in London, Ontario, in 1868. Bryce moved to Toronto in 1886 and soon embarked on several cheap series of popular fiction known as the Home Series, Bryce's Library, and the Canadian Copyright Series, all of which Bryce stressed were authorized editions. Here at last was evidence of a mass market in Canada, of course not a market of forty million as in the United States, but a not inconsiderable three million in English-speaking Canada, where best-sellers might range from 1,000 to 10,000 copies. To an extent the public schools of each province could take credit for awakening their graduates to the world of books, just as the Mechanics' Institutes had been doing for fifty years. The library series filled an important economic and cultural role because for the first time in our history, Canadian publishers supplied literature at affordable prices to everyone who could read. Unfortunately, the full implications of this cultural phenomenon have yet to be examined. SUBSCRIPTION BOOK PUBLISHING

In marked contrast to the cheap reprints were the expensive subscription books that were printed on heavy paper, had fancy bindings, contained lots of illustrations, and whose contents ranged from fiction and biography to medicine and travel books. Publishing books by subscription had been around for centuries, but this practice enjoyed such a vogue and took on such vigour in the seventies and eighties that it helped transform traditional publishing and bookselling as much as the competition from cheap books and unrestricted discounting on the list price of books. Subscription publishers cut their overhead costs and increased their profits by ignoring the booksellers and distributing either through the mail or by canvassers and agents who combed the countryside of North America. Although the pedlar who carried books along with other articles was a familiar feature of Canadian life in the eastern provinces for half a century, the subscription book agent was a slightly different kind of entrepreneur, often an aggressive, upwardly mobile young man such as Frederick Philip Grove's

Building a National Publishing Industry 197 alter ego Phil Branden in A Search for America, who took his business into the buyer's home. He carried circulars and prospectuses that contained the backlists as well as the forthcoming titles, and the circulars often made a pitch for recruits who would combine both respectable work and good commissions with the knowledge that they were contributing to the moral development of the nation. The agent also carried samples of the binding, the type and the illustrations, and sometimes a dummy of the work. 83 He collected a small down payment when the contract was signed, and when he returned with the books or the parts, he got the balance or arranged to collect a portion each month. 84 An unscrupulous agent might withhold the book or keep all the money if a final payment were not made, but for the most part the agents were honest, a necessary attribute since they often covered the same territory for years and became friendly with their customers. Attacks on subscription publishing were aimed at other problems. In 1872 Graeme Mercer Adam advised booksellers not to fight subscription publishing as a 'grave interference' with their business, but to see it as a means of increasing the number of book buyers. 85 Nevertheless, retailers soon found that their competitors, the agents, besides being non-residents, carried no stock to speak of and had no capital, always got cash, and made an enviable profit on each book. The Methodist Book and Publishing House would give retailers only the conventional 33 1/ 3 per cent discount, but gave subscription agents from 35 per cent to 50 per cent on the same work, 86 and C.R. Parish, another Toronto subscription house, gave agents a similar discount. After the Civil War there sprang up American publishers who sold their books exclusively by subscription. By the 1880s these houses were scattered throughout the northeastern and mid-western states, and they included Mark Twain's publisher, The American Publishing Company of Hartford; R.S. Peale and Company and Haywood & Crean of New York; Henry Howe & Company and U.P. James of Cincinatti; and in Chicago, The Western Publishing House, Belfords, Clark, and Baird & Dillon. They flourished in Canada either by mailing from the United States or by establishing agencies and branches. Baird cultivated southwest Ontario, and Western's branch in Guelph carried duplicate plates for editions intended for the Canadian and European markets. 87 In the mid-seventies southwestern Ontario, in particular London, was the centre of Canadian operations for subscription houses; at least five London firms or individuals were listed in The Agents' Companion (1874-5[?]), a circular published in that city containing advertisements for both books and recruits. Nearly every major Canadian house of the period John Lovell, Hunter, Rose, Thomas Maclear, Belford Brothers, The Grip Printing and Publishing Company, William Drysdale, and The Methodist

198 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada Book and Publishing House - did a large proportion of subscription publishing through hundreds of agents and canvassers, and in their advertising circulars they solicited information and statistics for forthcoming books. We know very little about a host of regional houses such as P.R. Randall of Port Hope, who advertised in the late sixties for canvassers; 88 or the Early Publishing House of Saint John, which issued} .P. Macpherson's The Life of Sir John A . Macdonald (1891); or R.A.H. Morrow, also of Saint John, who issued George Stewart, jr's The Story of the Great Fire in St john, NB June 20th 1877 (1877) and his essays Evenings in the Library (1878). Morrow even issued a do-it-yourself pamphlet on subscription canvassing, A Plea for the Book Agent ( 1903), a dialogue between Farmer Brown and Book Agent Smith that combines Christian virtues and good business ethics in its pitch for self-education and mass culture. Two of the larger Canadian subscription houses were begun by Americans who kept up their American connections, even though they exploited the Canadian taste for picture books of the countryside, county atlases, local histories, and biographies of famous men. In 1877 two enterprising brothers, Howard and Reuben Belden, moved to Toronto from Chicago, where they had gained their experience in producing county atlases for sale by subscription; and in the next three years they turned out world, dominion, and Ontario county atlases, perhaps as many as one every four months, 'a remarkable performance' of research, production, and distribution, Edward C.H. Phelps has recorded of their efforts. 89 The average run was around 1,200 copies, and the usual price was a steep $12.75 . Even before they creamed off the atlas market in 1881, the Beldens were advertising Picturesque Canada, to be issued in twenty-four parts at 60¢ each under the imprint of their Art Publishing Company. It was modelled on Appleton's highly successful Picturesque America (1872), which was edited by William Cullen Bryant. The big selling point was the 500 illustrations of rural and urban Canada by native artists such as Robert Harris, although Americans, for instance, Frank Schell, also contributed. The first president of the Royal Canadian Academy of Artists, Lucius O'Brien, was engaged as head of the Art Department, and he and the other illustrators travelled widely making sketches. The wood blocks were executed by Canadian and American engravers under the supervision of George F. Smith, an Englishman who had worked in New York before coming to Toronto. In late 1880 O'Brien approached Principal George Monro Grant of Queen's University to act as literary editor, and on 8 December Henry Belden (was he a third brother?) sent Grant $200 as 'evidence of our bona fide in the matter, ' 90 and disclosed that there was already a larger number of subscribers than they had dared

Building a National Publishing Industry 199 hope for. Grant received $1,800 (or $50 a part) for his editing and the prestige of his name. Grant then rounded up the best journalists of the day - among them were Graeme Mercer Adam, Agnes Maule Machar, Jean Lesperance, Charles Mair, and Charles G.D. Roberts - assigning them essays on the region with which each was associated. They got $60 to $70 per part, except for I.M. Bray, who demanded $100 each for his two pieces. Belden and Grant corresponded all winter on the length of the text and the size of the type. A revised prospectus, corrected by Graeme Mercer Adam, was ready on 15 March 1881. On 15 February Belden told Grant that the compositors and electrotypers would begin setting the first part around I May so that printing could be done in a two-week period after 10 June. This schedule was not maintained, for Frank Schell insisted that the type must not be closed up but spaced open as in Picturesque America, and on 16June C.H. Clarke asked Grant to cut the text of each part by 1,200 words. Exactly what happened in the Belden plant between late spring and the review of the advance sheets of Parts I and 2 in the December 188 1 Rose-Be/ford's Canadian Monthly and National Review is a curious mystery that was partially explained over three years later. For one thing, the work was accepted as a landmark Canadian production, as a review in The Week of IO January 1884 makes clear: It argues well for the success of artistic and literary enterprise in Canada that a work of this nature, large and costly, furnishing nothing in the way of illustrations but what comes under the head of pure art, making no concessions, either in letterpress or sketches, to local interests or ambitions should find, as it has, such prompt appreciation in Canada. This proves, what we have long contended, that Canadians are ready enough to give a cordial reception to any home production which proves itself equal in merit to what they can procure from abroad.

This review prompted a 'Disappointed Subscriber' to reveal to The Week (20 March I 884) some unpleasant facts about the Beldens, who had 'scorched' the rural districts years before with their notorious 'Belden Atlas,' and who had laid a 'cunningly devised trap' for those Canadians who had lent their names to Picturesque Canada. The Beldens had moved their 'press, plant and entire establishment secretly to New York, where the senior proprietor permanently resides.' Here, apparently, art students doctored the illustrations, and perhaps some foreign scenes were passed off as Canadian ones. Of the many steel plates promised, only one was included. If 'Disappointed Subscriber' is correct, the move is puzzling in view of the fact that the Belden atlases proved that Toronto engravers and lithographers were capable of first-class work. 9 '

200 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada But subscribers had other complaints. The work was advertised as having twenty-four parts but subscribers' contracts indicated there might be as many as thirty-six, and in a court trial in 1883 H. Belden said it might even run to forty parts! Thirty-six parts in fact were issued fromJ anuary 1882 to mid-1884. The cover of Part 15 (pages 353-76) announced that the 'cost outlay in the preparation of the initial numbers already exceeds $110,000'; and if this figure is accurate, then Picturesque Canada was the most expensive Canadian book of the century, far more than the $80,000 John Lovell spent on his 1871 Canadian Dominion Directory. The parts were issued under the imprint of the Art Publishing Company, while the two-volume edition usually has the Belden Brothers imprint. After the mid-188os the Beldens almost disappeared from public view. By 1888 Howard was in Australia and Reuben was the manager of the Home Knowledge Association, an educational subscription house that actively canvassed Ontario and offered a discount on textbooks and up to 60 per cent on other books, much to the distress of retail booksellers. 92 James Clarke, one of the Belden employees, issued a cheap edition in parts of Picturesque Canada with his Toronto and New York imprint in 1894, and this may be the same set offered to subscribers of the Toronto Globe that year. The other leading Canadian subscription house was The Bradley-Garretson Company of Philadelphia, which established a branch in Brantford about 1876, and by 1879 was under the management of the Reverend Thomas S. Linscott (1846-1919), a retired Methodist-Episcopalian clergyman. In his informative study of subscription publishing, Alexander H . Brodie speculated that Linscott co-operated in some ventures with a rival subscription house, the United Publishing Company of Guelph, which was managed by James Walter Lyon. 93 Lyon himself was also connected with another Guelph operation, The World Publishing Company, which in 1880 issued one of the finest compilations of the period, John Macoun's Manitoba and the Great North-West: The Field for Investment; The Home of the Emigrant, Being a Full and Complete History of the Country. This handsome book, with its coloured maps and numerous engravings, was printed by the Burland Lithographic Company of Montreal, and its contributors included two of Macoun's friends, George Monro Grant and Alexander Begg. By 1882 The World Publishing Company grandly advertised itself as 'the largest subscription house in Canada,' with 'a large export trade in our books to foreign countries, which no other house in Canada has, having exported over a million dollars worth of books during the past three years. ' 94 By the 1890s Linscott was connected with a cluster of firms, one of them carrying his own name as The Linscott Publishing Company. One author

Building a National Publishing Industry 201 frequently associated with the Linscott group was John Castell Hopkins, one of the most prolific journalists at the turn of the century. Hopkins issued five subscription books, and each of the imprints was different. His Life and Work of Mr Gladstone (Toronto: Bradley-Garretson 1895) had sales of 4,000; his Life and Work of the Rt Hon. Sir John Thompson (Toronto: United 1895) had sales of 11,000; and his Queen Victoria Her Life and Reign (Toronto: Bradley-Garretson 1896) sold 8,000 copies. 95 Hopkins' next task was editing the first Canadian encyclopedia, the five-volume Canada: An Encyclopaedia of the Country (1898), which bears the Toronto imprint of The Linscott Publishing Company, while Hopkins' 1900 offering, Progress of Canada in the Nineteenth Century ... , has the imprint, 'Toronto: Brantford and Guelph: The Progress of Canada Publishing Co'; but both these works were copyrighted by the Bradley-Garretson Company in Canada and the United States. If Graeme Mercer Adam saw no threat to booksellers from subscription firms in 1872, these houses made such inroads into the consumers' pockets that Books and Notions in the early nineties was advising retailers to change their methods and canvas their customers as well. One bookseller in western Ontario soon reported that he had sold twenty-five copies of a Christmas illustrated, rather than the usual twelve copies, by canvassing. 96 Indeed, the subscription houses also cut into the wholesalers' business as well, and one reason why George Foster imposed a new tariff in 1894 was to encourage the 'book publishing interest,' which, he observed, does not occupy the position that it did many years ago. The large book houses which were then scattered in almost every considerable city, doing business in their special way, have largely gone out of the business, and it has taken other channels of distribution, most widely among which is that of the subscription sale and the distribution of books by means of agents through the towns, villages, and rural portions of the country.97

Although the heyday of the subscription publishing companies was over by 1900, occasionally subscription publishing itself was used for prestige series. Hopkins moved on to edit The Canadian Annual Review, which was published under an arm of Copp, Clark, and George Morang successfully marketed his The Makers of Canada (1903-8) in this way. During the First World War, a former employee of both Linscott and Morang, Robert Glasgow (1875-1922), who was one of the least known but one of the most innovative Canadian publishers, issued his Chronicles of Canada ( 1911-16), Canada and Its Provinces (1914-17), and the Chronicles ofAmerica (1918-20) by subscription.

202 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada TEXTBOOK PUBLISHING IN TORONTO BECOMES A MAJOR INDUSTRY

Textbook printing and publishing also flourished in the 1870s because provincial school systems were organized to fund larger numbers of students. On the political level the school question was characterized by bitter crises over language and religion because the British North America Act placed education in the hands of the provinces, and New Brunswick, Manitoba, and the North-West lost no time in restricting the education rights of their minorities. Indeed, of the two far-reaching national rifts in the last years of the century, one was the dispute over the execution of Louis Riel after his abortive 188 5 rebellion, and the other was the distrust caused by the Manitoba school question of the 1890s, which dropped French as a second language in that province (until 1979) and abolished provincially-supported denominational schools. Less well known today were the struggles among publishers and booksellers over the distribution of authorized textbooks, for once the provinces regulated the use of texts, printers of those books were ensured of large profits. In the wake of these struggles came two important changes to the schoolbook trade, one of them the influence of Thomas Nelson & Sons of Edinburgh, which was the first instance of a foreign publisher's direct participation in our book trade, maintained not through a branch office but by its financial interest in the Globe Printing Company and in James Campbell & Son, and by its ownership of popular readers used in every province. A second change was the success of three Toronto firms with their provincial readers in Ontario, Manitoba, and the North-West, and their increasing share in the Maritimes market. By their aggressiveness and their political connections in the largest city in the most populous English-speaking province, these three companies - Copp, Clark, William Gage, and The Methodist Book and Publishing House - had virtual monopolies in some regions of the country on textbooks, discounts, and retail prices. Their activities made Toronto the printing and publishing centre of Canada. The first of these struggles took place in the Ontario school system in 1876. A left-over from the sixties, it was reactivated by the School Act of 1871, which implemented free and universal education, abolished the grammar schools and replaced them with high schools (for commerce and science) and collegiate institutes (for academic subjects). In 1874 when a Ministry of Education was established in anticipation of Egerton Ryerson's retirement, Graeme Mercer Adam issued a pamphlet Reform in the Education Office (1874), which was favourably received in government circles. For some time Adam had offered to act as an 'intermediate agency' 98 between English textbook publishers and the Depository, but John George Hodgins told him

Building a National Publishing Industry 203 finally on 25 September 1873, 'as we are in communication with the English Publishers ourselves, we are not in a position to order Books except from them direct. ' 99 Perhaps Adam's failure to get this lucrative market hastened his bankruptcy in 1874. The Depository could maintain lower prices without the services of a 'commission merchant,' as Ryerson referred to Adam. In spite of these rebuffs, Adam avoided personal insult when he attacked the Depository as a 'standing menace to the Book Trade of the Country.' 100 Adam showed that the Depository was a 'notable illustration' of government 'inefficiency, extravagance, and public loss. ' 101 He suggested that booksellers supply books and maps on the same terms as the Depository and that tenders be called for Depository work like engraving and printing. Sir Oliver Mowat then told Ryerson that the new Ontario Education Act must allow the booksellers that right, thus breaking the Depository's monopoly - but only theoretically, as it turned out. On 4 February 1876 a group of Ontario booksellers petitioned the Ontario legislature to reorganize the Depository, 102 a move timed with the retirement of Ryerson and the appointment of Ontario's first Minister of Education, Dr Adam Crooks. Then on 2 3 February James Campbell, William Warwick, and Hunter, Rose (along with eight other firms) made their next move and formed a new Canadian Booksellers' Association, whose aims were to curtail the Depository and to tackle the discount problem. At their first meetings on 8 and 9 March, the eighty-eight wholesalers and retailers complained that the Depository was still supplying books to Sunday schools and Mechanics' Institutes, contrary to the intention of the 1874 act, and insisted that booksellers be allowed to supply books without restriction as to edition and publisher. 103 There was confusion about Depository finances. Either it had made great profits under the old rate of 20¢ to the shilling, or it was losing thousands under the new rate of 1 8¢ to the shilling. When other booksellers offered texts as 18¢ to the shilling, the Depository undercut them by offering a 10 per cent discount to schools and buyers. For several years, however, Toronto wholesalers had supplied books at two-thirds of the Depository's price. They pointed out that the Depository's imports were only $16,000 or $20,000 out of $800,000 worth of book imports annually. Whereas Ryerson had used similar proportions in 18 58 to argue that the Depository did not interfere with private business, the booksellers now used these figures to prove that the Depository was not fulfilling its mission. They also complained that publishers and authors whose texts were authorized had to sell their copyrights to the Chief Superintendent of Education, who could then award printing contracts to a firm of his choice. 104

204

The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada

Crooks had the Depository's financial operations since 1850 investigated (it was exonerated), and proceeded to mend fences with the book trade. By August when the Booksellers' Association held its first annual meeting, President James Campbell said that the old antagonism between the Depository and the booksellers seemed to have dissolved, and he assured his audience that Crooks would carry out the intentions of the 1874 act. The new Central Committee of the Education Ministry had even invited Campbell to its meetings in order to make the reforms which the book trade wanted. 'Gentlemen, things are moving,' Campbell announced, 'there is progress here; not so fast, perhaps, as we could desire, but still progress. ' 105 It was, all told, one of the more optimistic booksellers' conventions held in the last century. As for the Depository, it stopped distributing books in 1877 and Crooks closed it down in 1881. However, back in March 1876 when the new Booksellers' Association dealt with uniform retail practices, a rift developed over cash discounts as it became clear that in an organization composed of printers, jobbers, publishers, and retailers, some of the same individuals wore a lot of different hats. For years wholesalers and retailers had allowed cash discounts to professionals (lawyers, teachers, and clergymen), Sunday schools, and library institutes. Because there was no standard discount, underselling had become a major problem and city retailers could offer better discounts than small-town stores. Speaking as a wholesaler, William Campbell argued that only retail dealers should have discounts. James Bain, speaking as both publisher and bookseller, believed that no customer or institution should have a discount. But Samuel Edward Dawson, referring to the American situation, pointed out that 'to force booksellers to conform to a rule would be useless, and the public would think that the Convention was called for the purpose of raising the prices of books and controlling the trade which they had no right to do. ' 106 In the end a modest compromise was reached and the following recommendation was passed: 'That this Association is of opinion that the Retail Trade should be left in the hands of the Retail booksellers; and that no discounts should be allowed by the Retail Trade, excepting 10 per cent. to CLERGYMEN and TEACHERS, and a maximum discount of 20 per cent. to INSTITUTIONS. ' 107 It was a rule more honoured in the breach than in the observance. The next crisis in the textbook market developed over the inauguration of The Ontario Readers in 1884, and what began as a free enterprise competition ended as a monopolistic combine. In 1882 Crooks announced that James Campbell's Canadian Series of Readers would be replaced by a new series, and the next year there were three different series vying for the affections of the public and the minister in a huge advertising campaign. These were

Building a National Publishing Industry 205 Nelson's The Royal Readers, to be printed by James Campbell & Son; William Gage's The Canadian Readers, adapted from the Nelson series; and The Canada Publishing Company's The Royal Canadian Series. ' 08 This latter firm, managed by James Campbell's son William, had come up with the only native series, under the editorship of Graeme Mercer Adam, but the contract was awarded to Nelson and Gage for a one-year trial period in 1883-4. Meanwhile the ailing Crooks, who was subject to periods of insanity, was replaced by a new Minister of Education, George W. Ross, whose regime was to be noted for a rigid control over the authorization, subject-matter, distribution, price, manufacture, and copyrights of textbooks. ' 09 After so much expense had been incurred by the three firms, Ross decided there should only be one series, and he asked the three, Gage, James Campbell & Son, and The Canada Publishing Company, to come up with one uniform series to be known as The Ontario Readers. These would be introduced in the autumn of 1884, and the publishers would get an exclusive ten-year contract to produce them. ' ' 0 They were rumoured to have invested $90,000 in these series. 11 ' All these financial risks took their toll on James Campbell & Son, which went bankrupt in October 1884 in the middle of a serious recession. In the 1870s Campbell had become the largest textbook publisher in the country,'' 2 and he had branched out into trade books as well. He published fiction by Agnes Maule Machar and two popular travel books, George Monro Grant's Ocean to Ocean (1873), which was an account of Sandford Fleming's 1872 expedition to survey the route of the CPR, and Thomas Stinson Jarvis' travels in the Middle East, Letters from East Longitudes (1875). But the overexpansion in the 1880s brought Campbell and his partner William Darling Taylor to ruin. Their liabilities of $353,130 against assets of $265,221 was the most spectacular book trade failure of the century. 113 Campbell hi~self retired from business in 1886, two years before his death. As a result of the bankruptcy, Thomas Nelson purchased his share of Campbell's rights in the new Ontario Readers, to the annoyance of the Campbell estate creditors and the native book trade, and resold this ten-year right to Copp, Clark for $20,000. '' 4 The arrangements between the Department of Education and the three firms brought an outcry from the trade. R.A.H. Morrow of Saint John reminded Books and Notions that five years earlier the New Brunswick government had given a textbook monopoly to Nelson, who then came to Saint John and told local publishers he would not share his business with them.'' s A bookseller from London, Ontario, observed that now Gage had a virtual monopoly on textbooks in Ontario, Quebec, and Manitoba.' 16 The schoolbook publisher William Warwick announced that he would pay the

.206 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada

education minister $50,000 for a set of plates to print the new readers at a lower cost to school children and still give a large discount to retailers. 117 On 14 January 1885 Ross was presented with a booksellers' petition bearing 614 signatures, many of them members of the new Ontario Booksellers' Association. Books and Notions, which] .J. Dyas had begun five months earlier in the interests of the retailers, guessed that the three firms had convinced Ross that the middle man and the consumer should pay for the expenses of the trial series of 1883 . 'Never before in the history of book-making was there any such well-contrived plan to recoup the loss on this, the biggest blunder of the blundering Education Office. ' 118 William Gage and Henry Clark stated that they would be forced into bankruptcy if they did not give smaller discounts. 119 In the time of Ryerson and Crooks, textbook discounts had usually been .2 5 per cent to 30 per cent with an additional I 5 per cent for large orders over$ I ,ooo ; but now Ross proposed to cut the discount to .20 per cent, with an additional Io per cent for large orders. The earlier 30 per cent had hardly been adequate, but the reduction came at a time when many booksellers were going bankrupt. The booksellers told Ross they could prove that 'the average profits on the sale of these Readers .. . would not be less than one hundred per cent. on the cost of manufacture ... ,' 120 and he agreed to try for .2 5 per cent. Meanwhile, the booksellers said they would withdraw their accounts from the three publishers until they got better discounts. Evidently a flexible discount was possible, for a Manitoba dealer told Books and Notions that retailers in his province got 30 per cent so that they could sell textbooks at Ontario prices. However, dealers outside Winnipeg had to charge 5¢ to I 5¢ more than the Winnipeg retail price because their costs were 10 per cent higher than in the capital. m Although William Campbell's Canada Publishing Company disappeared by 1890, the ten-year contract ensured the survival of Copp, Clark and Gage, and certainly improved the condition of the Methodist Book and Publishing House, during one of the worst recessions of the late nineteenth century. The 1884 shuffle turned them into major textbook publishers, a position they have maintained up to our own times. All three firms, under other names and proprietors, had been in business for many years. Incorporated in 1885, Copp, Clark's origins were in Hugh Scobie's establishment, where William Copp (18.26-94), a native of Devon who emigrated to Canada in 184.2, served as an apprentice. Scobie's bookstore passed into the hands of Thomas Maclear in 185.2. Maclear's printing office was styled Maclear, Thomas (1854-8), his partner being George Elliott Thomas, whose sister Caroline married Copp in I 8 51 . Henry J . Clark (18.2.2-9.2), a Londoner who left dry goods to go into bookselling, arrived in

Building a National Publishing Industry 207 Toronto in 18 55 to join the Maclear bookstore. He soon became well known as a lecturer and debater, and an advocate of early closing hours. Maclear sold the bookstore in 1857 to Dr William Chewett, Copp, and Clark, while Maclear himself continued printing and publishing subscription books under his own name. The three partners kept the Maclear name for the bookstore until 1863, when the style was changed to W.C. Chewett& Company, which continued to issue the Scobie-Maclear publications such as The Canadian Almanac, The Canadian Independent Magazine, The]ournal of the Board of Arts and Manufactures for Upper Canada (1861-8), as well as law journals such as The Upper Canada Common Pleas Reports, Upper Canada Law journal Monthly, and the Upper Canada Law Directory. Chewett (1828-97), a member of a distinguished Ontario Loyalist family, retired from the company in 1866, and although he never practised medicine, he returned to bookselling when he joined the music publishers A. & S. Nordheimer in the 1870s. 122 Copp, Clark conducted the bookstore under the Chewett name until 1873 when it was sold to S.R. Hart and Thomas Rawlinson. By this time Copp, Clark had decided to concentrate on publishing and wholesaling, and their first publications under their own name were probably The Canadian Almanac and The Canadian Entomologist in 1869. By 1894, the year of Copp's death, his family controlled most of the firm; his son William Copp (1864-1950) was appointed vice-president just three years after entering the business, and his first cousin Arnold Thomas was secretary-treasurer; but the presidency went to a long-time employee, Henry Thompson, who had been in charge of the wholesale and the school book publishing departments. Copp, Clark's operations were spread through two buildings, the wholesale and jobbing departments on Front Street (this building was destroyed in the 1904 fire), and the factory on Colbourne Street, which housed the printing, lithographing, and binding departments. Their business extended throughout Canada and into the United States. 123 Up to the mid-nineties Copp, Clark published primarily educational and scholarly works, including two popular textbooks, Agnes Maule Machar's Heroes of Canada (1893) and James Wetherell's Later Canadian Poems (1893). William James Gage ( 1849-1921 ), a native of Brampton, had taught school briefly before he joined Adam Miller's educational company as a bookkeeper in 1873, and he became a partner a year later. R. & A. Miller, who conducted a textbook company in Montreal, bought W.C. Caverhill's bookstore in Toronto in 1860 in order to extend their business. Because the Canada East and West educational markets began to diverge, the brothers dissolved their partnership and Adam carried on in Toronto, closing out the retail store in

208 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada 1871. After Miller's death in 1875, his widow and Gage continued the partnership until 1878 when she sold her share to S. G . Beatty. Beatty left in 1880 and Gage conducted the firm as W.J. Gage& Company until 1893 when it was incorporated with a capital of $150,000, with Gage himself as president and W.P. Gundy as general manager and treasurer. 124 In 1897 a subsidiary firm, The Educational Book Company, was set up, and a year later the plant was enlarged and refurbished. After the disastrous fire of 1904 levelled Toronto's stationery district, Gage moved to a new five-storey building at 82-94 Spadina Avenue, which it occupied until its move to the suburbs in 1958. While textbooks made up the major part of the publishing program, they were only a portion of the entire business. Gage's sixty-fifth anniversary pamphlet issued in 1909, to mark the establishment of R. & A. Miller in Montreal in 1844, proudly advertised those extensive operations, from the fine colour printing on its Miehle printing presses to the blank books, writing tablets, and envelopes, the paper for which came from Gage's own mill in St Catharines, the Kinleith Paper Company Ltd. Twelve travellers covered the Dominion. 125 William Gage, an active member of the protectionist Canadian Copyright Association, became involved in many capitalistic and philanthropic ventures in his distinguished career. He was a director of the Traders' Bank, the Imperial Bank, the Ontario Sugar Company, and the Anglo-American Fire Insurance Company, but it was his outstanding contribution in the fight against tuberculosis - he and Hart Massey established the first tuberculosis sanitorium in Canada - that gained him a knighthood in 1918. The firm founded by Egerton Ryerson back in 1829 to publish The Christian Guardian had evolved over the years into a complex, highly capitalized organization with a corresponding broadening of its program. Yet it still remained the publishing and bookselling arm of the Methodist Church, and its Book Stewards, although elected by the Church Conference, had great autonomy in the day-to-day business routine. The depository, variously known as the Wesleyan Book Room or the Methodist Book Room, was always a favourite meeting place for clergy and customers, some of whom often used the Book Room as an informal post office. The printing plant issued tracts and catechisms as well as the Guardian, Sunday school papers (the first one appeared in 1847) such as the Banner, and since 1875, the Canadian Methodist Magazine, a literary magazine begun and edited by the Reverend William Withrow. After 1843 the editor of the Guardian no longer looked after the other departments, which came under the direction of a series of capable Book Stewards. Under the Reverend Samuel Rose's stewardship (1865-78), the publishing list was broadened to include hymn books,

Building a National Publishing Industry 209 historical works, travel books, biographies, and even some fiction of a devout and didactic nature. 126 Until the nineties, however, these were not speculative ventures, for production costs were covered either by the author, by subscription, or by pre-publication sale. With the appointment of the Reverend William Briggs as Book Steward in 1879, the Methodist Book and Publishing House, as it now became known, began a forty-year period of growth as its own denominational papers and books, as well as the trade books and textbooks it printed for other firms, reached every part of Canada, Newfoundland, and the Territories. Briggs (1836-1922) was born in Ireland and educated in Liverpool, and came to Canada in 1859. For the fifteen years following his ordination in 1863, he served in charges around Ontario, and in the seventies he showed his administrative skills in official positions in the Methodist Conference. He quickly became a shrewd and far-sighted bookman, successful enough even in the eighties to pay cash for and thus get the best discounts for the American and British books he carried. Briggs transformed the Methodist House into the largest printing and publishing house in Canada by the early 1890s, when sales averaged over $400,000 a year and nearly 200,000 copies of the periodicals rolled off the twenty cylinder presses each week. In the new (1889) premises on Richmond St West and Temperance Street, operations were now divided into eight departments employing 170 people in printing, binding, electrotyping and stereotyping, periodicals, book publishing, subscription books, wholesale books and Bibles, and the retail bookstore. 127 Briggs personally made all the buying trips abroad for many years, and in 1885 he sent out C. W. Small as the House's first regular traveller in Canada. 128 By this time the other Canadian textbook companies were also sending out travellers on a regular basis, and American firms were sending their travellers into Canada. Two of these Americans who later became Toronto publishers were George Morang, who settled in Toronto in 1888 as Appleton's agent, and George McLeod, who travelled for Grosset & Dunlap and A.L. Burt while maintaining his headquarters in Toronto. Even the British started to pay attention to Canada. Years earlier, Robert Chambers had visited Halifax in 1853, and Thomas Nelson made visits in 1863 and 1879. By the nineties British travellers included Canada as part of their North American circuit; in the summer of 1892 travellers from Eyre and Spottiswoode, Marcus Ward, Collins, and Walker all visited Halifax in the same week, 129 and in 1893 M. H. Hodder and J .M. Dent made the first of their trips to Toronto. 130 W.J. Gage, Copp, Clark, and the Methodist Book and Publishing House had their contracts for The Ontario Readers renewed for another ten years in 1896, and retailers continued to complain about discounts at their annual

210 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada

meetings or at confrontations with the publishers, such as the one held in 1889. 131 And by 1900 the three firms had secretly agreed on uniform discounts for textbooks in Ontario. 132 While textbooks and denominational works remained their bread and butter, these prosperous activities permitted William Copp and William Briggs to transform trade publishing in English Canada in the mid-nineties. The fortunes of these larger firms demonstrate how complex and specialized were all sectors of the book trade in Toronto. Printing firms turned out trade books, textbooks, law books, religious books, newspapers, children's papers, literary and trade magazines, all of which were distributed throughout the country. Other printing firms concentrated on illustrations, engraving, lithographic work, and music printing. Publishers operated by subscription selling to agents, or by wholesaling to retail bookstores, or by direct sales to individuals. The city was blessed with dozens of new and second-hand bookstores, among them such well known firms as Britnell's (est. 1893) and Tyrrell's (est. 1894).

6

Towards a Compromise International Copyright; the Manufacturing Clause; Authorship

In 1886 the imperial Parliament brought the British Empire, including Canada, into the Berne International Copyright Convention. For the next half decade there was great suspense to see if the Americans would join the Convention, for whatever the Americans decided would have an impact in Canada. The reprint publishers, fearing that control of the Canadian market would shift from the hands of the American 'pirates' to a joint monopoly by the Americans and the British, clamoured for a manufacturing clause in the copyright act as the only guarantee of protecting their market from outside invasion. The retailers, who did not care where the books they sold were made, were more concerned with a profitable mark-up on those books. Nor did the public care where books were made; consumers wanted the cheapest price possible. In 1891 the Americans passed a new copyright law and signed a reciprocal copyright agreement with the British. This situation had a more profound effect on the Canadian book trade, but a far less alarming one, than the reprint publishers at first predicted. International copyright brought a new set of players into the field, the Canadian authors, who had been pretty well ignored by publishers and legislators. When the authors demanded justice under the copyright laws, they revealed that the reprinters' disregard for them was part of the same lack of concern for the rights of British authors. The flood of pirated reprints dried up, to be replaced by an ocean of editorials, articles, and correspondence on an already complex subject, and it took until the last year of the century to find a compromise between national aims and international obligations. Because of Canada's semi-colonial status, the solution could not simply be a unilateral, internal matter, and the continuing struggle to sort out market rights, which was known as the 'Canadian Copyright Question,' became entangled with the broader constitutional question of Canada's autonomy in other legislative areas.

212 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada Five Canadians played a central part in untangling the copyright imbroglio. The first of these was Sir John Thompson ( 184 5-94), who as minister of justice in Sir John A. Macdonald's last cabinet and then as prime minister himself in 1892-4, acted with scrupulous logic on behalf of the reprinters and with real passion on behalf of Canada's autonomy in its own affairs during his many clashes with the Colonial Office. After his death Sir James Edgar, the speaker of the Commons in the first Laurier years, carried on Thompson's fight for Canadian autonomy but shifted his support (which he had given in the 1880s) from the reprinters to the authors and publishers. Edgar was in the company of three other like-minded liberals, Goldwin Smith, the Toronto author who had an influential voice in British government circles, and Sir Daniel Wilson ( 18 16-92 ), the elderly but still dynamic president of the University of Toronto, who both came to the rescue of Canadian authors. Finally, there was George N . Morang, a pleasant and shrewd young American who established himself as a respected Toronto publisher, and who relentlessly attacked the powerful reprinting interests. The chief difference between Thompson and the other four men was that the latter group supported international copyright and the rights of authors as opposed to those of the book manufacturers. These men did not turn events around without help from other politicians, publishers, and authors (for instance, Gilbert Parker and Louis Frechette), but they did speak with commanding authority to the Americans and British. THE FIGHT FOR CONSTITUTIONAL AUTONOMY: CANADIAN PROTECTIONISM CLASHES WITH INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT

Although the reprinters approved of international copyright in theory, they knew that in practice it would restrict their domestic activities and their plans to expand into the American market. The strongest weapon in the reprint publishers' arsenal in their fight against international copyright was the economic and nationalist one of government protection for local industry, a particularly strong movement in Quebec and Ontario since the late 1840s. One form of protection, high tariffs, first surfaced in Alexander Gait's 1858 budget, and it appeared again twenty years later in Leonard Tilley's National Policy budget of 1878, which was designed to stimulate manufacturing in towns such as Brantford, the 'Elgin' of Sara Jeannette Duncan's novel The Imperialist (1904). Protective tariffs in the book trade would encourage local printing and binding, while reducing imports of British- and American-made books. These tariffs were also supposed to foster young industries although, as Goldwin Smith pointed out, tariffs might prolong their infancy.' Another

Towards a Compromise 213 form of protection was a manufacturing clause in the copyright act, which made the copyright of a work dependent upon its local manufacture, and which, wherever possible, would prohibit non-Canadian editions of a work when it had a local edition. British publishers had defeated that intention in the 1872 act, and reluctantly agreed to local manufacture, under certain conditions, as a condition for Canadian copyright in the 1875 act. But the reprinters never forgot their 1872 defeat, and as they waited for business tb improve in eastern and central Canada and in the North-West, they also planned on exporting to the American market. Their nationalist and protectionist aspirations were interpreted as an attack on publishing interests in the United States. By 1872 British and American publishers expressed fears that Canadian editions of British authors would find their way into the American market, 2 or as Graeme Mercer Adam put it, 'we shall soon see New York and Boston drawing their literary supplies from Toronto and Montreal,' 3 reminding his readers that Sir Charles Trevelyan had attacked the monopolistic London houses and approved of the Canadian proposal to republish for the native and American markets. In fact, official figures indicated that there was only the slightest evidence for those fears. In 1866 the value of printed books exported from the Province of Canada was $6,063, and this amount was tripled in the 1869 total for the Dominion. In the seventies the value of exports reached a high 0{$67,937 in 1872, of which $53,686 went to the United States. Against these modest amounts were the figures for imported books. In 1870 Canada imported $380,480 from Britain, $241,890 from the United States, and $50,416 from France. But in 1875, the first year that importations went over $1 million, Canada imported $531,042 from the United States, $455,292 from Britain, and $54,863 from France. The foreign reprints duties were tabled separately, but everyone knew that these small amounts were unreliable. 4 It is probable that the unrecorded value of books sent to the United States, either as pirated editions or as legitimate ones, could hardly have been more than a drop in the American bucket, just as official export figures for works sent to the United States were but a fraction of the official imports from that country to Canada. Canadian newspapers and magazines always contained book notices that carried American and British imprints, but book notices of Canadian authors in those two countries rarely had a Canadian imprint. One reason for the Canadian protectionist stand was American success with protection. Earlier in the century American printers needed this defence against British books but lately, in the 1870s, the American printers talked about the menace from Canadian printers. The Weekly Trade Circular, soon to change its name to The Publishers' Weekly, attacked the 1872 act because it

214 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada would 'help the Canadian book-manufacturing interests largely, at the expense of that of the United States.' 5 From time to time, of course, it was recognized that American productions found their way into Canada on the same principle. The printers and typographical unions, who feared dumping, called for retaliation against British authors as the best means of fighting Canadian reprinters. The American publishers had fears of another kind of invasion, for after the Civil War several British houses such as Routledge, Nelson, and Macmillan opened branches in New York, partly to publish their own authors in the United States. Among the small group of American publishers who supported international copyright was George Haven Putnam, who thought that it would curtail the activities of those non-American corporate citizens. 6 However, another American publisher, William Appleton, told the Times of London in 1871 that he did not need an international agreement in order to pay his British authors, although he was not opposed to an international treaty. He emphasized that American publishers were willing to negotiate with the British author, but did not want the British publisher or producer included in the contract. Appleton, Harpers, and Scribners met English authors either on their business trips to England or when these authors made American tours. The respectable American publishers bought advance sheets of the British edition to reset them for the American edition, and had gentlemen's agreements not to raid each other's British authors. Many so-called American 'reprints' of the 1870s were neither reprints nor piracies, for they were issued simultaneously with the London edition and with the consent of the British author. Thus the 'control' over the Canadian market by American publishers had the double advantage of protecting local industry and providing a handy source for their own exports. American publishers knew that their editions went into Canada as 'protected' pirated editions - or as Appleton put it, the British government 'colluded' with Yankee pirates 7 - so the Americans insisted that the British author assign them the Canadian market. Dramatic evidence of this was provided by James Anthony Froude before the Imperial Royal Commission on Copyright on 13 March 1877: You seem to doubt whether the Canadian publishers are able to undersell the American publishers. Now my own publishers [possibly Scribner's] in New York write to me on that point ... 'If you will protect us against competition from Canada, we have made an agreement amongst ourselves that we will not bid against one another. If you will protect us against the Canadian publisher, we are now ready to give you such and such a royalty on any book of yours that we publish,' which would

Towards a Compromise 215 amount to a large sum ... My New York publishers write to me and say, 'Do not make an arrangement with any Canadian publisher' .. . The publisher I speak of tells me that in one expensive edition he has been so completely undersold by the Canadian publisher, that the whole thing has been a dead loss to him, and on that he based his offer. 8 One arrangement was to issue a special Canadian edition, for that market only (or simply for the formality of copyright), of American authors, before the appearance of the American edition. In the previous chapter we saw how Twain's attempts to do this did not necessarily stop the Canadian pirates from selling the work in the United States. Several years before Twain's problems, prior Canadian publication was tried for a British author, and even though no piracy was involved, the American publisher was not satisfied with this arrangement either, because the book still circulated in the United States. John Magurn, a Toronto bookseller, negotiated with Henry Stanley, the reporter who had found David Livingstone in Africa in 1873, for a Canadian edition of Through the Dark Continent ( 1878) to be printed from the original American plates ; it was issued in advance of the English and American editions, and sold for half the price of the American edition. Nevertheless, when American booksellers imported and sold the Canadian edition, Harper Brothers, Stanley's American publisher, hit the booksellers with suits, calling it 'unauthorized' and 'pirated. ' 9 Harper's speeded up its own edition to offset those sales. Fifteen years later this same kind of arrangement did in fact work, and helped save Canadian publishing. Stanley's book was evidently one of the straws that broke the camel's back. In late 1878 the New York Sun carried a threatening article entitled 'The Canadian Invasion' in which J .W. Harper, jr, raised the possibility of 'retaliation' against England by sending American reprints there. G . W. Carleton, interviewed for the same article, admitted that the Canadian reprints were legal in Canada, but he spoke of the 'gross outrage' in which 'those Canada devils go to work, and take our American books and reprint them for one-tenth of our prices, and sell them, not only in Canada, which they have a right to do, but in our own country, to our own customers. " 0 The Montreal Gazette's amused reaction to these complaints was an editorial entitled 'Canadian Wickedness' ( 12 December 1878), which praised the Canadian pirates for beating the Americans with their own gunstick. But George Haven Putnam in his pamphlet International Copyright (1879) pointed out that as long as American postal and customs regulations allowed Canadian reprints in the United States, there would be no progress towards international copyright. 11

216 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada In Europe the movement towards international copyright had been gaining momentum since the 1840s, first as the German states, then the United Kingdom and other countries, signed reciprocal copyright treaties. By the 1870s plans were under way to include all those treaties within one international convention. In Great Britain there had long been a powerful lobby of authors and publishers in favour of international copyright, which was just one of the subjects under investigation by the Royal Commission on Copyright that was appointed in late 1875 to help prepare a new imperial copyright act. After only thirty years the 1842 Literary Copyright Act was no longer adequate to serve a radically changed book trade, and a series of amendments and court decisions had merely added to the anomalies and contradictions. Another of the Commission's tasks was to investigate colonial copyright, and the 1878 Report and Evidence, running to 500 pages, was very sympathetic to the Canadians, particularly in the dissenting notes of Sir Louis Mallet, Sir Drummond Wolff, Thomas Farrer, and Sir John Rose. The commissioners recommended that the 1875 Canadian act should be left alone, and a licensing system was proposed to ensure a proper royalty to the original owner. The Foreign Reprints Act, which was no longer appropriate to Canada, could be retained for smaller colonies such as Newfoundland. Reprints from the colonies would still be prohibited in Great Britain unless otherwise stipulated by the British author. Most important of all was that first publication in the colonies should secure copyright throughout the Empire. 12 These recommendations - and they remained just that for many years - at first raised the expectations of Canadians for immediate changes, but the real significance of the Royal Commission was to force Canadians to think seriously about the theory of copyright. Graeme Mercer Adam hailed this fresh approach of the British to treat copyright as a statutory privilege rather than as a property right under common law. But Adam saw that the enemy, the British publisher, would fight to keep his monopoly and his high prices. 13 In fact, Farrer's support for Canada was based on his own antagonism towards those monopolies because they denied cheap reading for the British masses; so he suggested that colonial reprints compete with the original editions in the British market, and he encouraged the Canadian reprinters as his way of supporting the British author in the United States. Given several years of Canadian competition in American markets, Farrer believed, the American publishers would then be ready for an international agreement, and after that time the Canadian reprint industry would be of little account. 14 In a way, Farrer was uncannily accurate. With friends like that, the Canadians did not need enemies. In 1879 the draft of yet another new imperial copyright bill was circulated

Towards a Compromise 217 to the colonies, but nothing came of it partly because the United States Congress in 1880 was about to pass a new copyright act that would permit an Anglo-American international copyright agreement. George Haven Putnam supported this in his pamphlet, and in Canada the lawyer Ernest Lafleur examined the question for readers of Rose-Be/ford's Monthly (October 1880 ), drawing on both French and English court cases to show how authors' rights were protected respectively by legislative privilege and common law. 15 But the American act was stalled by the printers and typographical unions, and the American government therefore invited the British to Washington for a Copyright Conference in November 1881 and March 1882. Canada was also invited, and for the first time all three countries met on this question. Long before the meeting took place, Goldwin Smith expressed strong doubts about its success, first in his Bystander (May 1881), and then in a speech before the Social Science Congress at Dublin in October 1881, in which he warned that the American demand for cheap books would override their support for international copyright because Congress would never pass a law denying Americans their access to cheap reading : There is nothing for it now, as I believe, but to get, if possible, free trade in books, and in publishing to give up etiquette, and come down to commercial principles. We [that is, the British] must print our books as we would make our cottons, for the market, and not expect the public to give an etiquette price for reading matter more than for any other article. 16

Like his predictions of reciprocity and annexation, Smith's advocacy of free trade in books was an anticipation of worse things in store for Canadian reprinters. Because cheap books which sold for 5¢ to 30¢ returned no royalty, for practical purposes the Washington Conference would have to consider authors' rights. There was the British author, who was pirated; the American author, who had little chance of being published; but there was no mention at all of the Canadian author. Yet two weeks before the first meeting, the Canadian delegate, Sir Leonard Tilley (who was accompanied by Samuel Edward Dawson as his adviser), prepared a confidential report on the Canadian priorities - and these would have surprised the printers: 'there are three objects to be kept in view by the Dominion Government in dealing with this matter: ( 1) the protection of the Canadian author; (2) the protection of the Canadian reading public; and (3) the protection of the Canadian publisher. n 7 Although the Conference reached partial agreement, the American copyright bill, which was the main reason for the conference, failed in Congress because the typographical unions would not allow the manufactur-

218 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada

ing clause to be dropped. Another problem not resolved was the way contracts would be drawn up. Publishers' Weekly, which strongly favoured international copyright, had stipulated as early as 1878 that international copyright should not be retroactive, and that American copyright should be given to the foreign author alone, not to his publisher or assignee. 18 This was always an important plank in the American position, one that explains how American publishers protected themselves from outside control. Not unexpectedly, the presence of the Canadians was misinterpreted. In the March 1882 number of The Century Magazine, Arthur Sedgwick observed that the Canadian delegate would protect Canadian 'interests,' namely, 'those of Canadian publishers. Canada is a flourishing industrial and agricultural community, which has produced no body of literature and probably will not for a long time.' 19 Sedgwick believed that negotiations between rival publishers would detract from the main purpose of establishing the authors' 'right of property on a secure footing. ' 2 ° Commenting on the stalemate some months later, the New York Evening Post (1 September 1882) compared the present-day pirates with the American reprinters of the last generation. The lesson of the pirate, said the Post, is that 'he is teaching the publishers all over the world that to protect themselves they must protect authors.' 21 It took some Canadian reprinters another fifteen years to see that point. What was clear to them in 1882 was their probable fate if the Europeans signed an international copyright treaty, followed by an Anglo-American one. If the Americans belonged to an international treaty, then piracy would end and both legitimate American and British books would circulate in Canada. If the Americans did not belong, then the British would shut out the pirated editions and have a monopoly in Canada with their own expensive and cheap editions. The Canadian reprinters decided to work for a manufacturing clause as a condition of Canadian copyright, and to retaliate against American authors until Canadian publishers got reciprocal treatment in the United States. In February 1882 the printers formed the Canadian Publishers' Association, 22 just as another trade recession was beginning. The real power in this association was in the hands of the reprint publishers, and they were fortunate to get sympathy for their proposals during the rest of the decade because their plans for Canadian publishing did not seem incompatible with the development of a native literature or the strengthening of the retail trade. Later that year when Samuel Edward Dawson addressed the law school at Bishop's College on the subject of copyright, he argued that British authors ought to register their works in Canada. 23 In The Week (6 December 1883) J.E. Collins supported Dawson and insisted that the American monopoly in Canada must be broken. 24 Further support {ur the publishers came from

Towards a Compromise

219

William Kirby, who in late 1883 addressed the Royal Society of Canada, claiming that the native publisher was the best means of developing Canadian authorship and literature. 25 Yet the American invasion continued; and in October 1884 George Maclean Rose had a change of heart about his views a decade earlier and told J .J. Dyas, the proprietor of the new trade magazine Books and Notions, that the 1875 act no longer worked, for it did not shut out cheap reprints. 26 When it became known in early 188 5 that the Berne Convention was about to be signed, the printers persuaded the Board of Trade of Toronto to petition Ottawa, urging that English copyrights be licensed for Canadian reprint editions. Clauses 5 and 7 spelled out clearly their aims; indeed the wording was a direct provocation to the Americans and the British: that were the Canadian publishing trade free to reprint English copyrights, with due recognition of the authors' rights, [the native publisher] would not only be in a position to supply the wants of our own people (now supplied by the foreigner), but it would be within his power to extend the area of his operations into the United States, and endeavour to compete with the piratical American reprint. (Clause 5) That so long as the United States makes no reciprocal concessions in the matter of literature to Britain or to British Colonies, Canada should be exempt from respecting the copyright privilege granted by the mother country to American writers, who may produce their works first in England. (Clause 7) 17 We can imagine how New York and London reacted to this petition when it appeared in Publishers' Weekly. Clause 5 argued for licensed piracy within the Empire, and ignored the fact that the British would consider it their business to dispose of their copyrights in the United States. Clause 7 would suggest to the Americans that the Canadian ideal in trade matters was piracy. Sometimes the Canadians did not phrase their arguments too well, and yet the petulant tone of the petition captures the colonial dilemma. The printers found an enthusiastic and capable ally in James Edgar, a respected Liberal member of Parliament from Toronto. At their urging, he sponsored an address to the Queen to exempt Canada from the operation of imperial copyright statutes in order to give Canada a clear authority to legislate in copyright matters. His speeches on their behalf during the 188 5 session led to his appointment in 1886 as head of a Select Committee to Study the Copyright Laws, specifically the ramifications for Canadian publishing when the Berne Convention took effect. In 1885 the European nations established the International Union for the Protection of Literary and Scientific Works (known hereafter as the Berne

220

The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada

Convention), and British adherence took the form of The International Copyright Act (49 & 50 Viet., cap. 33) in 1886, to come into effectthroughout the Empire on 5 September 1887. The Berne Convention simplified copyright protection by repudiating the place of manufacture as a requisite for obtaining international protection. This gave an important privilege to Canadian authors, who would now obtain imperial and international copyright by first publication in this country, a matter that had been in dispute for two decades. The United States did not sign (and never did) but was able to benefit anyway because a book of American authorship and manufacture could be offered for sale in London, which was considered as the equivalent of 'publication, ' whereupon it acquired protection throughout the Empire and in Berne Convention countries. In the wake of the Berne Convention came even wider splits in Canada, but in the long run these clarified the question of the ownership and distribution of intellectual property. In May 1888 when the minister of justice Sir John Thompson announced Canada's intention of adhering to the Berne Convention, there was a huge protest meeting in Toronto on 16 May and Thompson subsequently withdrew his bill. On 1 1 June the reprinters organized the Canadian Copyright Association in order to lobby for a strong manufacturing clause and retaliation against the United States,2 8 and the Association won the support of the Booksellers' and Stationers' Association of Ontario at the latter's annual meeting in October. 29 Then the president of the Canadian Copyright Association, John Ross Robertson, and Toronto music-bookseller G.H . Suckling drafted a new copyright bill that they brought in a well-publicized delegation to Ottawa on 22 January 1889, along with a memorial containing 2,000 signatures. 'Today,' Robertson was reported to have said, in The Evening Telegram (2 3 January 1889), ' the Americans can obtain copyright in Canada through English publishers where the Canadian, with his machinery, types, energy and enterprise, cannot obtain it.' It was a long, convincing speech, full of examples of lost business and unfair treatment by the Americans and British; and Robertson struck the right chords by appealing to protection and nationalism: In fact, the American author can obtain a British copyright

BY ASSIGNING HIS

to an English publisher, and this copyright covers Canada. No Canadian can obtain a copyright from the United States under any system although the American can secure protection under the system of simultaneous copyright whatever that means. COPYRIGHT

Towards a Compromise 221 While it is understandable that Thompson, as a Conservative cabinet minister, would be converted by these appeals to the National Policy, we can only speculate why this intelligent lawyer for the next six years remained spellbound by the arguments of a small group of businessmen, a minority in their own trade, and at the same time remained almost deaf to the counsels of authors and other publishers, who warned him against taking Canada out of the Berne Convention. Thompson's attitude is all the more surprising when we remember that it was his father, John Sparrow Thompson, the journalist friend of Joseph Howe, who did so much to advance literary endeavours half a century before. The likeliest explanation is that Thompson saw the copyright question as one aspect of his strategy to assert Canada's constitutional autonomy. 30 At any rate, John Ross Robertson's draft bill became Thompson's 1889 Act to Amend 'The Copyright Act,' Chapter Sixty-two of the Revised Statutes (52 Viet., cap. 29). This brief act consisted of two amendments to the 1875 Copyright Act that would give Canadian copyright to American authors on the same terms that Canadian and foreign authors got American copyright. This was the 'reciprocity' that the Conservative Robertson talked about, for he assumed that the Americans would adhere to the Berne Convention, and therefore the first amendment, the new Section 4, granted copyright to 'Any person domiciled in Canada or in any part of the British possessions, or any citizen of any country which has an International copyright treaty with the United Kingdom, in which Canada is included ... ' The other amendment - the new Section 5, Subsection 1 - which was known as the manufacturing clause, had a history of appearing in copyright acts from 1848 to 1924: The conditions for obtaining such copyright shall be that the said literary, scientific, musical or artistic work shall, before publication or production elsewhere, or simultaneously with the first publication or production thereof elsewhere, be registered in the office of the Minister of Agriculture, by the author or his legal representatives, and further that such work shall be printed and published or produced in Canada, or reprinted and republished or reproduced in Canada, within one month after publication or production elsewhere ...

There were the expected cries of outrage from the United States and Great Britain, but no one foresaw that the disputes would continue for six years, at a time when publishing and retailing in Canada were in one of their most depressed conditions. The 1889 bill was passed again in 1890, 1891, and 1895;

222

The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada

each time it received royal assent but was reserved by the Colonial Office. The years 1891 to 1893 were a period of rising tempers and challenges, and the years 1894 and 1895 were marked by threats and ultimatums that forced all sides into compromise. There were meetings in Canada and Britain, memoranda flying between Ottawa and Westminster, addresses to the Queen, threats of retaliation and unilateral action, and bitter words in the daily newspapers and the magazines of all three countries. The lobbying by Robertson and his group paid off in publicity if not in accuracy. They got the support of the Wholesale Booksellers' Section of the Toronto Board of Trade and the Toronto Trades and Labour Council. In support of the Canadian Copyright Association, Dan A. Rose began The Canadian Bookseller (1888-190?), and in 1889 he tried unsuccessfully to persuade the Canadian Booksellers' and Stationers' Association to desert Books and Notions (which his rivals the McLean Brothers had purchased in 1888) and make The Canadian Bookseller their official organ. Meanwhile, Rose's editor, Richard T. Lancefield, a former book canvasser and now the librarian of the Hamilton Public Library, began the short-lived The Canadian Bibliographer and Library Record (1889-90). Some time in the mid-189os, however, Lancefield had resumed the editorship of Rose's The Canadian Bookseller. 31 Lancefield, who had a hand in drafting the 1889 act, filled both his periodicals with gossip and news about the contemporary book trade, and made the shrillest attacks of any Canadian on the British and Americans. Parliament approved the 1889 bill, but over the next five years it emerged that most MPs, including the ones from Toronto, did not know anything about copyright. The Week displayed some inconsistencies over the legislation; it gave reluctant support to the act as a means of curbing the British publishers' monopoly in Canada (this was the only point on which practically all Canadians were agreed), 32 but was disappointed that in this era of imperial federation the British government would sacrifice Canadian interests to those of the United States. 33 Even though The Week suggested improvements to the 1889 act, it also supported the government's right to legislate in its own interest, 34 and, most important of all, The Week came out strongly for the rights of authors. 35 Similar attitudes were expressed by The Dominion Illustrated, 36 but The Canadian Magazine, surprisingly, tended to side with the publishers. 37 While Books and Notions supported the growth of Canadian publishing, its comments were moderate, and it did not wish to see copyright protection for authors diminished in any way. 38 Goldwin Smith was the best known and most influential opponent of the reprinters and the protectionist manufacturing interests. He argued that there was no Canadian publishing because the

Towards a Compromise

223

reprinters existed on the works of foreign authors and did not engage in the usual activities of publishers, and he claimed there was no Canadian market beyond the regional one of southern Ontario. 39 As a free trader, internationalist, and prophet of the eventual union between Canada and the United States, Smith appeared to other Canadians as the devil's advocate, and some of his accurate comments on the copyright question were ignored or refuted due to the unpopularity of his other views. Slowly Smith attracted influential authors and publishers to his position, among them Sir Daniel Wilson and John C. Ridout, a Toronto lawyer who specialized in patent law. By the end of the decade Smith had modified his own views on Canadian publishing and authorship, and he persuaded the British not to accede to the reprinters or the Canadian Copyright Association, but to come to terms with more flexible and reputable publishers like George Morang. The Americans predicted that the 1889 act would deny protection to American authors who did not print in Canada, and that pirated Canadian editions of American authors would then flood the American market. Although extremists still demanded retaliation against English authors as the best means of getting the British government to bring the Canadians to heel, there were moderates such as Richard R. Bowker, the editor of Publishers' Weekly, who kept insisting on authors' rights. In one of the best analyses of the Canadian copyright question in Publishers' Weekly (19 January 1895), Bowker sympathized with the 'colony's' present quarrel with its 'mother,' and observed: 'What Canada really proposes is not the recognition of authors' rights, but an enforcement of publishers' payments, on a scale determined by law, in contravention of all rights of the author.' Bowker hoped that the Canadian publishers would not break down 'the very lines of international principles to which they must ultimately look for political justice to themselves. ' 40 In the United Kingdom the new Society of Authors (1883) complained that the one-month period of grace allowed for the registration of copyrights was too short, and insisted that Canada must stay in the Berne Convention.4' They too feared that pirated Canadian editions would flood the United States. But it was the publishers, through their Copyright Association, the Publishers' Circular, and frequent meetings with the Board of Trade and the Colonial Office, who provided the strongest opposition to the Canadians. The British Board of Trade pointed out that the 1889 act was inconsistent with imperial and international copyright, 42 and the Colonial Office stalled until 1891, by which time the new American copyright law had come into force and an Anglo-American agreement had been drawn up. Even after 1891 the British government was reluctant to bow to the Canadian government and the

224 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada

reprinters, well aware that the Australians, the Indians, and the South Africans were watching to see how far Canada could go. 43 Meanwhile, one of the first meetings to discuss the crisis was held at Ottawa on 25 September 1889 when Sir John Thompson and John Lowe, the Deputy Minister of Agriculture, met with Dan A. Rose and A.F. Rutter of the Canadian Copyright Association, and with F.R. Daldy, who represented the Colonial Office and the (British) Copyright Association. When Thompson was in London during the summers of 1890 and 1891, he presented in great detail the views of the Canadian Copyright Association to the Colonial Office, while Lord Knutsford patiently waited to hear the results of the Chace copyright bill in Congress. The new American Copyright Law, which was finally passed by both houses in the fall of 1890, came into effect on I July 1891, and gave foreigners American copyright protection on the same terms that American citizens got it, namely, that the work be typeset, printed, and published within the United States. This privilege was granted to authors whose countries extended similar privileges to American authors. Another section of the act forbade the importation of more than two copies of a foreign work that was copyrighted in the United States. Thus the Americans preserved both their sense of honour and their protectionist laws. However, the way was now clear for the long awaited Anglo-American Reciprocal Copyright Agreement, and the Proclamation was signed by President Harrison and Queen Victoria in September. No matter if it were not a treaty, which was the key word used in the 1889 Canadian act, it was enough to end the piracy of British copyrights in the United States and turn the Foreign Reprints Act into a dead letter in Canada. On 29 September 1891 Parliament sent an address to the Queen on Canada's right to legislate in its own interests, and that autumn the Copyright Office in Ottawa, acting on advice from Thompson, began refusing Canadian copyright to all Americans who applied for it. Thompson argued that the proclamation was an agreement, not a treaty. 44 But the nature of Canada's 'inclusion' in the proclamation caused apprehension in the United States, and in December James Blaine, the American Ambassador to the United Kingdom, reminded Lord Knutsford that Britain had specified the protection of American copyrights in Canada in the Proclamation. 45 Presumably the British assurance was given because American copyrights could be protected in Canada under the 1842 Imperial Copyright Act, and because Canada was an adherent of the Berne Convention. Blaine hinted at retaliation of British authors in the United States, but the status of American authors in Canada remained uncertain throughout 1892 and 1893. For all the public sympathy that the Canadian reprinters got, by 1891 their

Towards a Compromise 225 extreme demands were doomed to failure even though they remained a force to reckon with for another decade. Between 1892 and 1895 support slowly shifted from the reprinters, with their emphasis on the British publishers' monopoly, to support for the rights of British authors and thence to the rights of Canadian and American authors. Quite simply, the reprinters were not to be allowed to undo international copyright, and a group of determined Canadians set out to fight them. Graeme Mercer Adam called the agitation by this new generation of reprinters 'mischievous,' contending that his generation's attempts to shut out pirated American reprints in favour of authorized native ones ended with the 1891 agreement. 46 But the market-place itself changed so much between 1885 and 1895 that the reprinters' solutions, based on circumstances of the 1870s and 1880s, now appeared far less appropriate. Despite the reprinters' arguments to the contrary, the Canadian market was changed for the better by the Berne Convention, by the American Copyright Law of 1891, and by the Anglo-American Reciprocal Agreement, as well as by two other factors, the return of good times and the appearance of best-selling Canadian authors. THE EXPANSION OF WHOLESALE JOBBING AND THE GROWING MARKET FOR BOOKS IN THE I

890s

The Canadian market throughout the nineteenth century was based on the supply of cheap books, which by the late 1880s came from three sources: the United States, which sent in pirated reprints of British copyrights as well as cheap American books; the United Kingdom, which began to export cheap 'colonial editions' all over the Empire; and Canada, which had its own cheap reprint industry in both the English and French languages. Any dramatic change in the unauthorized reprint business - such as the new 'colonial editions' and the end of American piracy in 1891 - would seriously undermine the Canadian market as it had been shaped since the 1840s. Thus once again, transformations in the book trades outside Canada gave new urgency to the question of copyright ownership in the Canadian market and brought about a reorganization in wholesale and retail bookselling. In competition with the recent upswing of American and British activity in Canada, the Canadian reprint libraries themselves enjoyed another boom in 1889, but unlike the 'libraries' of ten years earlier, many of the titles were new works and fewer of them were pirated. One popular new series was Lovell's Canadian Copyright Series of Choice Fiction (1889-91), in which sixty titles were issued, most of them by arrangement with their authors. During the 188os the competition among the cheap book publishers in the

226 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada

United States became so cutthroat that it threatened to ruin everyone in the trade, for books were again retailing for 5¢, 10¢, and 15¢. What averted the disaster was John W. Lovell's giant combine, the United States Book Company, which swallowed up the rival cheap-book companies, their plates and their sheets, into one efficient operation. Books and Notions said the effects were also felt in Canada, most of them beneficial: publishers stopped competing with retailers, many discounts (except those to the trade) were ended, the 30 per cent discount to American retailers was worth about 20 per cent in Canada, and retail prices went up slightly.47 There were further changes after the 1891 Anglo-American Agreement: pirated editions disappeared in the United States and Canada, and the price of some imported American books again rose in Canada now that British authors had to be paid. But cheap books did not disappear in Canada after all, and the method by which Canadian editions were arranged had the further effect of stabilizing the market. In this process the Canadian reprinters became jobbers or jobbing reprinters, by importing from London and New York popular new fiction in the form of plates for printing here or unbound sheets, and issuing these in paper-covered Canadian editions. This trend began in 1892, and by 1893 new fiction in paper covers took Canada by storm, 48 a publishing phenomenon that continued until 1906, long after it had run its course in the United States, and which put the Canadian book trade in the black. The Rose Publishing Company introduced its Premier Library of 50¢ titles in 1892. Hunter, Rose's Primrose Series contained recent and new titles by such authors as Allen Pinkerton, Frank Stockton, W.D . Howells, Rider Haggard, Goldwin Smith, Graeme Mercer Adam, and Mary Anne Fitzgibbon. These firms, as well as The National Publishing Company and William Bryce, issued from six to twelve titles a month in 1892-3. Both the wholesalers and retailers were able to make a profit on these books, which were usually printed in editions of 1,ooo to 1,500 copies. If a 50¢ novel were imported in sheets, its wholesale cost of 29¢ to 32¢ was broken down as follows : Original price of sheets 15% duty Freight from New York City Binding, paper for cover, printing the cover Window bills Circulars Post cards Loss on surplus stock. 49

Towards a Compromise 227 The Toronto News Company's edition of Rider Haggard's Nada the Lily ( 1892) was sold to the trade for 40¢ (paper) and 67¢ (cloth), to retail at 60¢ and $1.00 respectively, and its edition of Robert Louis Stevenson's The Wrecker ( 1892) was sold to the trade for 53¢, to retail at 75¢. 50 W. Foster Brown's Canadian Copyright Edition of Trilby (1895) cost him 35¢ to produce, and retailed for 75¢. About 6,000 copies of this edition were sold. 51 On the other hand, there must have been very little profit on the Copp, Clark paper edition of Robert Barr's The Adventure ofJennie Baxter (1889), which was sold to the trade for $1 .20 per dozen and retailed for 15¢. 52 About 3,000 copies of it were sold in the summer of 1899. Books and Notions' 1893 survey of re¢, 25¢, and 50¢ paper novels indicated that the 50¢ novels sold well in Ontario (Ottawa, Kingston, Berlin, London, St Catharines), where dealers might order several hundred copies of each title. In the North-West (Moosomin, Winnipeg, Brandon, Regina, Calgary) and in Vancouver and Victoria, dealers ordered five to ten copies, and sometimes reordered two or three times. In smaller centres (Saint John, Sydney, Lethbridge, Sarnia, New Westminster), the 2 5¢ novel outsold the 50¢ one by ten to one. 53 Cheap reprint editions were also issued by the French-language firms, chiefly Librairie Beauchemin, C.E. Beauchesne, La Presse, and La Patrie, all of Montreal, and Mercier & Cie of Levis. Outside of Montreal and Quebec, bookselling was concentrated in Trois-Rivieres, St-Hyacinthe, and Sherbrooke, a small market which made distribution simpler than in Englishspeaking Canada. As was the case with expensive books in English-speaking Canada, expensive French editions of $r.oo or more did not sell as well as reprints at 10¢ and 20¢. Ernest Roby of Beauchemin and C.E. Beauchesne rejected the application of the Berne Convention to Canada, and argued that the French author would have to register and print his book in Canada in order to get Canadian protection. Beauchesne played it safe by printing works which were out of copyright in France after forty years, writers of a 'sensational and romantic character' 54 such as Capendu, Lamothe, Carr, Navry, and Feval, who were still popular in Quebec. Granger Freres, a large jobber like Librairie Beauchemin, said that these reprints sold like 'hot cakes. 'SS Beauchemin imported the Fasquelle edition of Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac ( 189 r) and also printed a cheap edition, which was their 'most successful reprint ... during four years,' and sold 'slightly over r,ooo copies' by 1905. 56 The Quebec reprinters were more or less ignored by French authors and publishers, who occasionally complained to London or Ottawa, but little happened until 1904-5 when the journalist Louvigny de Montigny, a strong supporter of the Berne Convention, took the Quebec pirates to court in a test case. 57

228 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada The other transformation of the Canadian market was brought about by the popularity of the 'colonial editions,' the series of cheap, well-made, usually cloth-bound, books issued by British publishers such as Ward, Locke, Macmillan, Blackie, and Nelson. These books were either printed from the original plates of the expensive first edition or set in new editions; they featured good paper and handsome design, one of the benefits of the revival of fine printing and design in late nineteenth-century British book-making, which was associated with the Art Nouveau movement. It is probable that these 'colonial editions' accounted for the substantial increase in the importation of British books between 188 5 and 1890, from $184,962 to $268,758. But the sale of these editions created several new problems. Which editions were legal in Canada? Should two or even three legal editions compete with each other? Several well-publicized conflicts illustrated these problems, and were used by the reprinters as arguments for their protectionist copyright legislation. There was the case of Mrs Humphry Ward's Robert Elsmere (1888), the daring best-seller about a clergyman who loses his faith, which was one of the last incidents to prove how costly the Foreign Reprints Act was to British publishers and authors. Mrs Ward's London publisher, Smith, Elder, refused to let William Bryce, the Toronto reprint publisher, issue a Canadian copyright edition, and told him to buy the American edition, which had been pirated by John W. Lovell, 58 who then came to terms with Mrs Ward. But Bryce had his own edition of 10,000 copies printed in the United States, imported them illegally, and sold them for 50¢. This sounded much like John Lovell's manoeuverings with Foul Play.John Ross Robertson estimated that Canadian printers lost $6,000 worth of business on this deal, and that Mrs Ward lost about $1 ,ooo in royalties.59 Furthermore, it was now possible for the English author inadvertently to sell the Canadian rights twice, as happened with Sabine Baring Gould's Pennycomequicks ( 1889 ), over which John Lovell and William Bryce went to court, each claiming the priority of purchase. 60 Then there was the case of S.R. Crockett's The Raiders in 1894. William Briggs got the exclusive rights to publish this work for five years in Canada, by paying T. Fisher Unwin, the London publisher, £25 for a set of stereoplates. Briggs published this edition at his own expense, sold it at Unwin's stipulated price of not less than 1s.9d. (45¢), and paid Unwin a 15 per cent royalty on all copies sold. 61 Within three months, The Canadian Bookseller and Stationer reported, Unwin sent in his own colonial edition to compete with Briggs's edition. 62 There were rumours in the Toronto trade in 1894 that some British publishers were refusing to rent or sell plates to Canadian publishers, presumably because they wished to keep the book

Towards a Compromise 229 production monopoly to themselves or were pressured by American publishers. 63 The absurdity of competing editions was reached in 1895, when Samuel Edward Dawson found side-by-side in a Montreal bookstore three editions of George DuMaurier's best seller Trilby ( 1894). 64 The year before, the English publisher Osgood, Mcilvaine refused to allow a Canadian edition, yet when one was issued in 1895, it was arranged with the American publisher. Thus Montrealers could get the 'colonial edition' for 65¢; or the expensive American cloth edition for$1. 50, issued by Harper Brothers; or the Canadian Copyright Edition for 75¢, issued by W. Foster Brown. This buyer's paradise made a mockery of territorial ownership, and it allowed Canadian publishers to argue that no one would get adequate profits in this kind of market. 65 One solution was to streamline the distribution of imported books. As long as the Foreign Reprints Act was in effect, anyone could import any number of copies of a pirated edition by simply paying the duty, for no one in Canada owned the 'rights' to a pirated edition. Now, however, with the Berne Convention, the new American copyright law, the Anglo-American Agreement, and the Foreign Reprints Act off the law books in 1894, American copyrighted books were protected in Canada if they were published in London. Since retail bookstores did not want large stocks of unsold titles on hand, it became practical for larger firms in Toronto and Montreal to act as wholesale jobbers for retailers across the country. This was one step towards the establishment of exclusive agencies and branches in Canada. In October 1890 Books and Notions pointed out the anomaly of having two channels of import supply in the country, the wholesale or 'conventional and normal medium' 66 and the retail. Confusion arose when one Canadian dealer was directed to import a British book through its New York house while another dealer could order the same title from a British jobber such as Simpkin, Marshall. Pursuing this subject several months later as part of its attempt to define and analyse the ills of bookselling, Books and Notions argued that instead of allowing every jobber in Toronto to import American reprints of a British book, it would be preferable to have a Canadian house reprint it because the 'distribution of copies of that book from one centre instead of from many, would bring the trade in it from under the sway of the department stores and would make publishers independent. ' 67 A year later Books and Notions stated that the time had come for foreign and local firms to arrange for more than one title at a time: Many British firms who try to do their Canadian business through New York are making a huge mistake. It cannot be done efficiently by means of an agent who calls

230 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada once or twice a year. If a number of firms would place their business in the hands of one agent or broker here, they could find their business more carefully and profitably managed, while this method would cost them but little. 68

The prices of books would increase, but there would be a better margin of profit for the jobber and the retailer. Although such a reorganization might not be useful to large retail firms that had dealt directly with American and British suppliers for decades, it had obvious advantages in bad times for small retailers across the country. However, French-language retail booksellers continued to do their own importing until the 1960s. Many retail booksellers had experienced the same cycle of prosperity and decline since the 186os that the publishers had known. After Confederation they enjoyed good profit margins on books and periodicals, but changes in postal regulations, competition from canvassers, public libraries, and department stores, and shrinking profits all played havoc with traditional bookselling. In January 1889 a delegation of booksellers to Ottawa told the Postmaster General that American packages sent to Canada cost one cent per pound while Canadian booksellers had to pay 4¢ per pound for their packages sent anywhere in Canada. This arrangement made it cheaper to have British magazines imported in bulk to New York and then shipped by freight to Canada rather than being sent direct from Britain. 69 The retail booksellers faced a serious threat from subscription books sold by canvassers because the latter group got better discounts from publishers and had no overhead costs to speak of. The subscription houses, especially The Methodist Book and Publishing House and the Willard Tract Company, advertised in denominational papers so that clergymen and readers in small towns were able to order books more cheaply by mail from Toronto than from local booksellers. Retailers complained that Mechanics' Institutes and public free libraries stocked large quantities of cheap fiction, which, besides cutting into the booksellers' sales, was not the role of such organizations. (In 1884 some Toronto merchants even gave away a free book with the purchase of a pound of tea!)7° Furthermore, colleges and public libraries imported directly from foreign jobbers and publishers. This practice became serious when James Bain, jr, the bookseller who was appointed Chief Librarian of the new Toronto Public Library in 1883, went on a shopping spree in Europe and returned, said The Week, with a large 'haul. ' 7 ' Substantial amounts went to Germany and the United States after 1884, when books over seven years old were admitted duty free. The situation was further aggravated when new categories of free books were established by the federal government, purchases for public free libraries ( 1890), and books for the University of

Towards a Compromise 231 Toronto Library (1891-3), a change that was made after a disastrous fire in February 1890 destroyed the main building of the University of Toronto, including its library. In 1894 college textbooks were admitted free. These well-intentioned gestures led to 'buying around,' for a large portion of import business was taken out of the hands of wholesalers and retailers and placed in the hands of libraries, institutions, and college bookstores, and in time Canadian agency publishers would have insurmountable difficulties trying to get this local business. 71 The retailers might have lived with the competition from the subscription canvassers, or with the numerous news depots in railway stations and bookstalls on trains, and even with high postal rates, but all of these, in addition to books sold as loss leaders by the big department stores such as Simpson's and Eaton's, drove dozens of them into bankruptcy in the eighties and nineties. Eaton's in February 1891 offered the Pansy shilling books for 19¢ postpaid anywhere in Canada. Since the Pansy books cost 18¢ wholesale in Toronto and postage was 3¢, Books and Notions calculated that Eaton's must be losing 2¢,73 but of course no retailer could buy these books from foreign jobbers in such bulk and receive the special large discounts that were given to the department stores. And all across the country the catalogues of the two department stores offered the authorized provincial textbooks at a 20 per cent reduction, including free postage. But it was the decreasing profit margin that was so alarming. The retailer made practically no profit on the 5¢, 10¢, and 20¢ cheap libraries of the late 1870s. In 1895 The Monetary Times explained that ten years earlier when a merchant sold 1,000 books at $1.00 each, his profit was 30¢ to 40¢ per book, but on the paper-covered fiction of the 1890s that sold for 50¢ and 75¢, the profit was only 10¢ and 20¢, so that only the top best sellers were worth while handling by the retailers.7 4 Finally, in 1895 William Briggs suggested that the Toronto wholesalers - of which a handful of firms had practical control of the trade of the country - allow cash discounts of at least 20 per cent on book orders, to give the retailers an additional margin, and 'arrive at a well-defined basis of graded cash discounts. ' 75 If we consider the popularity of the paper-covered fiction in the light of other events in 1892 and 1893, we get an indication of the character the book trade would assume in the twentieth century. In June 1892 at the Royal Society of Canada meetings, Sir Daniel Wilson spoke forcefully on the importance of authors' rights in Canadian copyright legislation, and over in London a young Canadian, Gilbert Parker, had his first international best-seller with Pierre and His People, a book of tales about the North-West. Retail booksellers across the country reported another dull year, apart from

232 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada

the other international best-sellers by James M. Barrie, Rudyard Kipling, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Hall Caine, and textbooks in September. 76 There were modestly good sales at Christmas of books, cards, Christmas numbers of periodicals, and the annuals. 77 In 1893 Books and Notions for the first time issued a seasonal list- not yet a catalogue - of new books for sale in Canada, indicating which publishers and agents handled them. The Canadian Magazine (1893-1939), a popular magazine devoted to current affairs, short fiction, and photographic essays, appeared in March, under the capable editorship of John A. Cooper, and for years it was an important outlet for professional authorship in this country. The year 1893 was also a banner year for the poets: Charles G.D. Roberts' Songs of the Common Day and Bliss Carman's Low Tide on Grand Pre both received critical acclaim in the United States and Great Britain. Duncan Campbell Scott issued his first volume, The Magic House and Other Poems, and Pauline Johnson, exotic and noble in her Indian princess regalia, captivated Boston and New York that autumn with her poetry readings. It was an auspicious time for Canadian authorship. The success of the cheap fiction publishers and jobbers did not create a universal interest in Canadian authors, however. One publisher told Books and Notions that 'as far as his business was concerned he would never publish another work by a Canadian author unless the author would give security for the cost of the edition .. . ' 78 It was this kind of attitude that drew the scorn of Archibald Lampman and his friends Duncan Campbell Scott and Wilfred Campbell in their Globe column 'At the Mermaid Inn.' Campbell lamented the commercialization of literature on 4 February 1893: The growth of large publishing houses as commercial ventures has turned literature into a trade. A certain class of clever-mediocre men have usurped the place of literary men, and genius is being gradually driven out. Even poetry is regarded as a business .. . The great magazines and the great publishing houses are the stairways by which one must climb to the literary heavens, and to do so the aspirant must conform to their ideal, which is a purely commercial one. 79 What was clearly evolving in the 1890s was the distinction between serious literary works, the sales of which were hard to forecast although they might be small and steady for years, and popular best-sellers, written by formula and sometimes very successful for a season or two. Although the dichotomy between the two kinds of books was never absolute, it was also evident that the more homogeneous market for books that had existed sixty years earlier was now gone. In those days a book or periodical was probably read by all

Towards a Compromise 233 readers, no matter what their social or educational background; but by the end of the century, with so many levels of literacy to be catered to in the hundreds of new books appearing each season, the same claim could no longer be made. Even Canadian writing and authorship reflected this new condition. CANADIAN AUTHORS AND THEIR PUBLISHERS

By 1890 there was some French and British, and considerable American, interest in Canadian literature, which ranged from Albert-Alexis LeFaivre's Conference sur la litterature canadienne (Versailles: Bernard 1877), to speeches such as that of George Stewart, jr, before the Canadian Club of New York in 1887, and appreciations such as those of W.B. Harte's in The New England Magazine (September 1890) and one in the Edinburgh Review (April 1895). To some extent such notices reflected the increasing number of authors as well as an improvement in quality; as Gordon Roper points out in the Literary History of Canada, between 1888 and 1914 new novelists (and this was true for poets) appeared in print almost every year. This was the era when the 'North American market for fiction expanded rapidly,' 80 and many English-Canadian authors published regularly in New York and London. Even the presence of Canadians on the editorial staff of Boston and New York papers gave sustenance to our writers. One such editor, Bliss Carman, helped find American publishers for Gilbert Parker and Archibald Lampman, and Carman included Parker and Charles G.D. Roberts in his 1894 series on contemporary poets in The Chap-Book. The international attention focused on Canadian writing, both 'serious' and 'commercial,' was flattering and timely. Although the pressing question now was authors' rights, this topic was connected to three other problems faced by Canadian writers, the precariousness of professional authorship, the difficulty of getting a Canadian imprint, and arguments over the existence of a thing called Canadian literature. None of these problems was resolved in the 1890s, although there were some improvements now that Gilbert Parker, Sara Jeannette Duncan, Charles G.D.Roberts, and others were identified as Canadian authors. These writers faced the same difficulties that had hampered Americans earlier in the century, although the situation in Canada was far more desperate. Back in 1870 when George Stewart, jr, had predicted prosperity for the wholesalers and reprinters, his outlook for authors was much gloomier. Authors, he said, had to contend with cautious publishers, who were afraid of poor sales and uninterested in a national literature, and with the 'strong and deep-rooted apathy evinced by the public towards books of Canadian origin.' 81 A handful of books had done well financially : among

2 34

The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada

them George Monro Grant's Ocean to Ocean (1873), John Bengough's Caricature History of Canadian Politics ( 1876), John Charles Dent's The Last Forty Years (1881) and The Story of the Upper Canadian Rebellion (1885), and John Bourinot's Parliamentary Practice (1884). Against these successes were the disasters, such as the 1,000 copies of Old Spookses' Pass, Malcolm's Katie, and Other Poems (1884) that Isabella Valancy Crawford paid for, of which only fifty copies were sold. 82 Besides, as James Douglas shrewdly observed in 1875, 'a Canadian book is sure, with the stigma of a colonial imprimatur upon it, not to circulate beyond the confines of the Dominion. ' 83 Of the above list, Grant's and Bourinot's works both did well abroad - in British editions. It is not surprising that few authors were full-time professionals, while most of them had positions as teachers, clergymen, or civil servants. Professional authors had to find publishers abroad, not only for renown and recompense, but often out of a lack of appreciation and the means to survive at home. It was a bitter pill to swallow, and the point was made constantly by authors. Before she left Canada to become a successful author in India and England, Sara Jeannette Duncan, who kept readers of The Week abreast of culture, authorship, and copyright, explained in her article entitled 'American Influence on Canadian Thought' (1887) that 'the market for Canadian literary wares of all sorts is self-evidently New York, where the intellectual life of the continent is rapidly centralizing.' She concluded that this situation would influence the way Canadians wrote, with 'an eye upon immediate American appreciation,' and 'in the spirit and methods of American literary production. ' 84 This has been true of our writers from Haliburton to Arthur Hailey, and explains much about the two most successful writers of the 1870s, May Agnes Fleming and James De Mille, who had no direct dealings with Canadian publishers as far as we know. These two New Brunswick natives had no illusions about creating great literature; rather, as good story-tellers and spinners of light entertainments, they usually followed popular fiction trends, and in the sense of Duncan's comment, were the forerunners of generations of successful Canadians who tailored their products for the American and international mass markets. Living and writing in the United States after her marriage, Fleming (1840-80) often introduced references to Canada in her silver-spoon society novels, from which she was reputed to have made $10,000 a year. 8 S A more complex writer, De Mille (1833-80) turned his hand with equal facility to historical romances, detective thrillers, and adventure stories with an international cast, all of them laced with comedy and racy dialogue. While he was not interested in consciously 'Canadian' subjects, he occasionally used

Towards a Compromise 235 Canadian characters and settings. What is more important is that De Mille was the first writer of boys' stories in Canada. These eleven tales appeared in two series, The Young Dodge Club, which followed the European adventures of a group of North American boys; while the other series, The Brethren of the White Cross, published by Lee and Shepard of Boston, was based on De Mille's own boyhood years around Wolfville, Nova Scotia. His novels for adults were usually serialized in Harper's Weekly, and then issued in cheap libraries by Harper Brothers. He was paid $2,000 for each of The American Baron (1872) and The Living Link (1874), 86 and in 1887 his widow was paid $800 for A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder (1888), 87 which Harper's had to publish anonymously to protect their copyright. 88 It is the only work by De Mille that is still in print. For his textbook, The Elements of Rhetoric (1878), he got an 8 per cent royalty from Harper's, but this work failed to sell well because a similar text issued earlier creamed the market. 89 Well into the 1890s and later, Canadians had trouble getting Canadian editions for their works, or sometimes the Canadian 'edition' was no more than a copyright formality. F. Blake Crofton, the Nova Scotia journalist and author of boys' stories, told a correspondent that his Hairbreadth Escapes of Major Mendax (1891), published by Hubbard of Philadelphia, was issued in a Canadian edition of 100 copies by A. & W. Mackinlay of Halifax from the American plates, sent in order to secure Canadian copyright. No effort was made to sell them, and they were distributed as review copies because the Philadelphia edition was the one circulated in Canada. 90 Bliss Carman, who resided in the United States, had no Canadian edition of his poems until 1921. 91 While his first volume Low Tide on Grand Pre (New York: Webster 1893) was in press, he asked his editor Arthur Stedman to contact William Briggs, whom Charles G.D. Roberts said was the 'most enterprising and reliable publisher in Canada. ' 92 Carman explained that in order to get Canadian copyright, the presswork would have to be done in Canada although the plates could be sent in bond to avoid the payment of duty. As it turned out, Briggs did not issue an edition. Carman lost his copyright, but he was less concerned about theft than over losing money in the future. He thought a 'hundred or two' copies might be sold in Canada, 'a small market but I am bound to do it justice. ' 93 Yet Carman got imperial copyright because a small edition of 250 copies was issued by David Nutt of London from sheets imported from New York. Canadian authors had difficulty showing the relation between their productions and a healthy publishing trade when the reprinters could point to the profits more easily made from printing American and British authors. Fortunately, there was another group of publishers in Toronto and Montreal more willing to take risks on Canadian authors, even though no firm could

236 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada

have sustained itself on publishing only Canadian authors. Firms such as William Briggs, Copp, Clark, and George Morang, whom John A. Cooper later credited with bringing about important changes, 94 had a solid base in textbooks, and combined this with their extensive wholesale operations to move into agency and original publishing. If a book could not be profitably produced in a local edition, perhaps it was possible to share costs with other publishers, with the local firm responsible for protecting the Canadian copyright and distributing the book across the dominion. William Briggs of the Methodist Book and Publishing House took the lead and subsequently gathered the largest group of native writers. Up to 1894 his lists and the Methodist lists consisted of biographies of missionaries, local histories, some volumes of poetry, and uplifting fiction. Then he made two decisions which characterized the new directions of Canadian publishing. 95 First, he persuaded the Methodist Church to let him expand the trade book division by publishing more history and fiction. This was a challenging move for a denominational publisher because there was still considerable antagonism in the country towards popular fiction as time-wasting and immoral. Many public free libraries, including the Toronto Public Library Board in 1883, placed practically no contemporary fiction on their shelves. Second, Briggs turned the firm into the Canadian agency of many New York and London houses, the most important of which were the Religious Tract Society, Thomas Nelson, Blackie, Oliphant, the Chatauqua Library and Scientific Circle, G.P. Putnam, and the popular Pansy Books written by Annie Swan and Mrs G. R. Alden. Some of Briggs's exclusive agencies, such as Marcus Ward of London (for Christmas cards, calendars, stationery, and albums), ran for a year at a time and were then renewed as long as the principal was happy with Canadian sales. One old and valuable agency, the Cambridge University Press's Bible, prayer books, and other church books, was first negotiated in 1891 and lasted until 1911 when George Stewart, the Cambridge Bible salesman for Canada, left Briggs and joined John McClelland and Fred Goodchild to form McClelland, Goodchild & Stewart. Although there are many variations in agency arrangements, essentially the agent agrees to distribute his principal's books in return for a percentage of the profits in the agent's territory, while the principal agrees to refer enquiries from wholesalers and retailers back to the agent. The agent's name does not appear on the title-page imprint; when it does the local publisher is no longer acting in his capacity as agent. Thus Briggs had one contract as the agency for certain books and lines issued by T. Fisher Unwin of London, but could still make contracts for individual books, such as S.R. Crockett's The Raiders, already mentioned, with U nwin. At the same time Briggs began to make individual contracts, either with

Towards a Compromise 237 foreign firms or with the authors themselves, for a series of best-selling Canadian books. Typical of these arrangements was that for Old Man Savarin, and Other Stories (1895), by E.W. Thomson, a young Canadian journalist who was editing the Youth's Companion of Boston. Briggs first arranged with Thomas Y. Crowell of Boston for the Canadian edition, then signed a contract with Thomson, offering a 10 per cent royalty on the first 2,000 copies sold, and 15 per cent thereafter. 96 Thomson then arranged with Briggs for the Canadian edition of his next book, Walter Gibbs, the Young Boss; and Other Stories ( 1 896); and for Between Earth and Sky, and Other Strange Stories of Deliverance (1897), Thomson lent Briggs the stereoplates on condition that an edition of 1 ,ooo copies be printed within one month of their receipt and that the plates be returned immediately to the American publisher, the American Baptist Society of Philadelphia. Thomson got a 20 per cent royalty on his third book. 97 By a combination of luck, intuition, and aggressive marketing, Briggs and his editors S.B. Gundy and E.S. Caswell brought a string of best-selling Canadian authors and their books to the house over the next fifteen years, among them Charles G.D. Roberts' The Forge in the Forest (1896), W.A. Fraser's The Eye of a God (1899), Ernest Thompson Seton's Two Little Savages (1903), Arthur Stringer's The Silver Poppy (1903), Nellie McClung's Sowing Seeds in Danny (1908), and H.A. Cody's The Frontiersman (1910). Undoubtedly the success of these works helped turn around the 'stigma' of a colonial book, and probably ensured that other books, with equal artistry and smaller sales, would be published. Most of the younger poets of the decade appeared on the Briggs lists: for example, volumes of poetry by W.W. Campbell, F.G. Scott, Thomas O'Hagen, Jean Blewett, and Robert Stead. Two best selling poets were also handled by Briggs, William Henry Drummond's volumes of French-Canadian life, which were distributed in Canada by Briggs in the Putnam editions, and Robert Service with his Songs of a Sourdough ( 1907), which John McClelland had a hand in getting published. 98 The Briggs and Methodist lists continued to include works connected with the social and cultural development of Canada, some of them popular histories and others, more scholarly and limited in their appeal. Among the former were books by women that did well critically and commercially: Lady Matilda Edgar's Ten Years of Upper Canada in Peace and War 1805-1815 (1890), Catharine Parr Traill's Pearls and Pebbles; or, the Notes of an Old Naturalist (1893) and her handsomely produced Canadian Wild Flowers (4th edition, 1895), the Lizars sisters' In the Days of the Canada Company ( 1898), and Agnes Laut's Lords of the North (1900). Three works that marked a growing critical interest in Canadian literature were C. C. J ames's A Bibliography of Canadian Poetry (1899), James Cappon's Roberts and the

238 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada

Influences of His Time (1905), and Archibald MacMurchy's Handbook of Canadian Literature ( 1906). William Briggs was one of the far-sighted bookmen of his era, and his gift for spotting a good book was as important as his ability to attract imaginative employees to the house. Some of those young men became the leading publishers of the next generation - Thomas Allen, S.B. Gundy, John McClelland, and George Stewart. Briggs himself was active in copyright matters, and served as Chairman of the Wholesale Booksellers and Stationers' Section of the Toronto Board of Trade, and President of the Master Printers and Bookbinders' Association. After his retirement in 1919, the imprints 'William Briggs' and 'The Methodist Book and Publishing House' were dropped, and the firm was renamed The Ryerson Press, under which its trade publications thereafter appeared. Denominational publications were issued by the United Church Publishing House after 1925. Briggs's reputation made such a lasting impression on the Toronto book trade that practically every other firm mentioned in this history was ignored or forgotten by the end of the First World War. Lorne Pierce's tribute to the firm as the 'Mother Publishing House of Canada,' 99 and W.S. Wallace's to Briggs as 'the first Canadian publisher to undertake, on a large scale, the publication of books by Canadian writers,' 100 have helped to shape the Ryerson myth. While Briggs's valuable contribution to Canadian literature is in no danger of being underestimated, its exaggeration has unfortunately obscured the contributions by others of his generation. Back in 1892 on another front well removed from the market-place, the authors got support from the academic community. In June Sir Daniel Wilson, himself a scholar with a reputation in Great Britain and the president of the University of Toronto, read a paper on Canadian copyright before the Royal Society of Canada. It was a direct challenge to the reprinters in its assertion that Canada must remain in the Berne Convention, and its insistence that authors have strict control over the production of their work, with a say on the paper and type, and the right to prohibit changes in the text, as well as the right to prohibit new editions of outdated texts. Wilson stressed that Canadian reprinters must not be permitted to act like the American pirates once did, to the detriment of American authorship; and he argued that a just copyright act would not only protect American and British authors in Canada, but also encourage our own literary progress and remove the danger of retaliation against Canadian authors in other countries. Wilson concluded: An honest Canadian Copyright Act will place the author's rights foremost. The fact that he has disposed of the copyright for the British market is no reason why he may not negotiate with the Canadian printer and publisher for its issue here. Native

Towards a Compromise 239 Canadian authors are as yet few; but they are growing in number, and we may hope for a more intelligent and honest recognition of the author's interest being supreme in the right of property in the creations of his mind, and the products of his pen. It is a small return to ask of the civilized world for all the pleasure and the profit it owes to its historians, poets, biographers, scientific discoverers, novelists and other authors, that it shall protect them in the same right to an honest payment for the fruits of their labour, as it extends to the manufacturers of dry-goods or hardware, to the baker, the brewer, the farmer or the tailor. It is creditable to Great Britain that she has never yielded to the temptation to retaliate on the American author, and deny him any right of property in his works. We shall do well and wisely if we follow the honourable example of the mother country, whose authors have a much stronger claim on us. If they are provoked to insist on retaliation against Canadian authors, Canadian literature is just reaching the stage when its effect might prove most adverse. 101

Wilson's paper did not signal a role for authors at the negotiating tables, but his comments had an indirect impact; they were mentioned favourably in The Week and were echoed in letters and articles thereafter in that journal. The concern for authorship was part of the effort to nurture culture and literature in the former colony, particularly in the face of aggressive materialism. It was easy to list twenty or more English and French Canadians who published at home and abroad, but it was an entirely different matter to call their works 'Canadian literature.' It was Canada's misfortune, in an age of rampant cultural nationalism elsewhere in the western world, that its modest efforts to encourage a native literature were either deprecated or treated as a kind of provincial aberration, and even more unfortunate that the two men of letters who denied the existence of a 'Canadian literature' were world-famous Englishmen. When Matthew Arnold came to Canada in 1883, he said there was no such thing as Canadian literature (or Australian or American, for that matter) because good works by Canadians were part of the great tradition of English literature. 102 (It was Arnold who came forward in Goldwin Smith's drawing room to greet the twenty-three-year-old poet Charles G.D. Roberts, saying, 'This is the boy I wanted to meet!') 103 Goldwin Smith took the same line as Arnold, and declared with monotonous regularity that there was no Canadian literature, 104 and claimed that there was no Canadian publishing, and no Canadian market, apart from the small regional one in southern Ontario. 105 THE COPYRIGHT CRISIS IN I

89 5

Because of the continued recession, the government in 1894 tried three new approaches to restraining the importation of legitimate American books. On

240 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada

23 January Canada served notice that it would officially 'denounce' (that is, withdraw from) the Berne Convention, under a clause of the International Copyright Act of 1886 that gave individual colonies this privilege. Second, on 27 March the government announced the suspension of the Foreign Reprints Act one year from that d:iy, not that it mattered any more. Third, a new tariff was introduced, a specific duty of 6¢ per pound to be placed on top of the ad valorem duty of 1 5 per cent on imported books. The Conservatives miscalculated badly with this move, for the new duty was almost universally condemned as a tax on knowledge. Although the target was cheap books from the United States, Wilfrid Laurier and Fran~ois Langelier pointed out that the price of books from France would be increased by 35 per cent; and although the duties might encourage English-language publishers to print local editions, Forques & Wiseman of Quebec City told Langelier why Frenchlanguage publishers would not have the same advantage: 'we find it impossible to publish [schoolbooks] in this country as cheaply as we can import them, and if the duty were raised to 50 per cent., that would not act as a prohibition, especially in regard to books such as Auge's grammar, which is an excellent work, full of wood-cuts." 06 In spite of its unpopularity, this additional tariff was kept for four years. These government actions in the spring of 1894 led to another confrontation as the copyright question moved to its crisis. In a letter to the Times (3 May 1894) Frederick Daldy bypassed the printers, whom he usually attacked, and took aim at the Canadian government. He had always maintained that authors must have the right to enter into contracts with publishers of their own choice, and that governments should not fix royalties or permit the licensing of local editions. While he argued that 'it is no more difficult for Canadian than for United States publishers to enter into contracts with authors and artists direct,' he then alluded to the danger for British authors in the United States if the 1891 proclamation were revoked, 'for the United States Government made the consent of Canada that American copyright should run in the Dominion a leading condition of their conceding it to the British nation. " 07 Relations thereafter between Daldy and Thompson were very cool. Daldy's letter was widely discussed. Richard Marston told The Publishers' Circular (21 July 1894) that the Canadian act was 'as gross a case of legalized robbery as could well be imagined, invented, and drawn up by, and in the sole interests of, a few Canadian publishers and printers,' and he predicted that 'Brother Jonathan will not forget to rub it in that he is excluded from Canada when bargaining for an English edition. ' 108 In August the American Charge d' Affaires in London, James R. Roosevelt, hinted at retaliation in a note to the Colonial Office. 109

Towards a Compromise

24 I

By the end of summer the Canadians had their replies ready. Quoting The Canadian Bookseller and Library Journal, The Globe on 3 I July accused the British publishers of sending in cheap colonial editions into Canada to compete with the legitimate Canadian editions. 110 Although the real culprit here was probably the British jobber, who merely filled orders from Canadian retailers, the Gazette on 27 August gleefully pointed out the inconsistencies in Daldy and Marston's pronouncements on copyright and mocked their trepidation in front of the Americans. 111 'Balderdash!' was one of Richard Lancefield's politer comments on Daldy, 112 and Lancefield's own letter to the Times on 11 October made two important points. 'Canadians are not surprised at the alien United States publishers insisting on the Canadian market being included ... But we are surprised at the British authors and publishers conceding to the demand of the United States publishers.' As for Canada's participation in the I 891 proclamation, Lancefield asserted: 'Our consent was never asked to any such agreement. The British Government could not give the assent of Canada without first securing that consent .. .' 113 The Publishers' Circular said 'Bosh!' to Lancefield; of course the consent of Canada was not given to the proclamation. 114 On 26 November a delegation from the London Chamber of Commerce, the Copyright Association, and the Society of Authors told Lord Ripon to reject the Canadian act. One of the delegates, the constitutional expert Walter Besant, wondered why a country of five million should be 'allowed to wreak all this mischief and wrong upon a world of a hundred and twenty millions in order to enrich two or three publishers by underselling the Americans.' 11 5 By the end of the year, however, support for Canada's position came in two important letters to the Times. The elderly Edward Marston, the sometime publisher of Thomas Hardy and one of the proprietors of The Publishers' Circular, opposed his brother Richard's views, and admitted that a great wrong had been done to Canada (5 December 1894). 'It seems to me,' Marston suggested, 'to be only reasonable that the copyright of British authors obtained in the United States by a commercial process should be absolutely confined to the United States .. .' 116 A distinction should be made between works published serially in magazines or newspapers, and those published in book form. Marston then proposed a 'commercial transaction' outside the copyright law (my italics) whereby the Canadian publisher would become 'possessor by an honourable contract with an English author,' because the Canadian would be the 'best policeman' against copyright infringements in his own market. This system would only work with the co-operation of the British author. On 3 December James Edgar wrote from Toronto in an effort to

242

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strengthen Thompson's position at meetings in London later that month. The letter appeared in the Times on 26 December, but unfortunately Sir John never saw it because he came down with pneumonia at Windsor Castle and died on 12 December. Edgar's point was that Canada's affairs were not to be run by London publishers who gave instructions to the Colonial Office. He told his British readers that since 1885 all Canadian parties were agreed both on the need for a viable copyright act and on the Dominion's right to frame one under the terms of the British North America Act. Furthermore, Canada had expressed its intention of denouncing the Berne Convention, which it was permitted to do under the terms of the 1886 imperial International Copyright Act. Coming from a respected member of the Liberal opposition, this argument for constitutional autonomy left Edgar's readers in no doubt that 'sneers or vituperation directed against us either in letters to The Times or by deputations who are received at Downing-street' would not resolve the problem. 117 Thus both Marston's and Edgar's letters were positive contributions to a new solution, for it was now obvious that the British government would never allow royal assent for the 1889 act. 1894 was another terrible year for everyone in the Canadian book trade except the wholesalers, and The Publishers' Circular noted that failures in Canada were 40 per cent above all previous records. 118 General conditions in the book trade gradually improved in the next year; there were fewer failures, tighter credit restrictions, and better collection of accounts, and everyone was ready for a 'compromise,' a phrase first used at a Toronto meeting on 7 February 1895. When Sir Mackenzie Bowell, the new prime minister, and Sir Charles Hibbert Tupper met a delegation from the book and paper trades, William Bryce told them that the 'present state of affairs has resulted in the almost total annihilation of the Canadian book publishing business,' 119 and even paper manufacturing had been injured. A.F. Rutter then announced that the Trades and Labour Council, the Typographical Union, and the Employing Printers' Association had reached a compromise on the 1889 Copyright Act Amendment. In place of the rigid printing requirement, they agreed to let stereotype plates enter duty-free if the presswork and binding could be done locally. Even so, in late spring Parliament again passed the 1889 act, and the Americans discovered another reason for retaliation. The New-York Tribune (11 August 1895), possibly ignorant of the fact that the act was an annual ritual, concluded that the purpose of the recently passed Canadian Act was 'to flood the American market with cheap pirated editions of European books.' Then came the threat: 'Mr. Chamberlain should be made to understand that if Canada is to play fast and loose with the Berne Convention, the United States will not long be bound by it. If Canadian printers are to flood our markets

Towards a Compromise 243 with pirated reprints, our copyright agreement with Great Britain will promptly be cancelled. ' 120 Three days later the Tribune had its proof, for Thomas Langton of Toronto had sent American booksellers a list of popular authors which he could ship to them in cheap (Canadian) reprint editions. Although such importations by booksellers were illegal, private citizens could receive one or two copies of the titles by mail, under a decision handed down in April by the United States Attorney General. 121 New York publishers immediately charged the Torontonians with piracy. m The situation was so serious that The Monetary Times (30 August 1895) cautioned Canadian printers against ruining their case by flooding the American market with pirated editions. A week later Sir Charles Hibbert Tupper stated in an enthusiastic speech at Toronto (9 September), 'We have the right to misgovern ourselves if we choose as to copyright, as we have in tariff and everything else.' 123 Herbert Spencer and Walter Besant were not amused by this comment on constitutional government. 12 4 The year 1895 was abundant with hundreds of letters and articles on the Canadian copyright question, some of them inspired by the Colonial Office's comprehensive bluebook issued in the summer, Correspondence on the Subject of the Law of Copyright in Canada, which traced the origins of the question back to the 1840s. Other articles were inspired by the news of a new draft copyright bill prepared in the late summer. Well before this news was made public, Canadian authors were stating that they did not agree with the reprinters. John Ridout, a Toronto lawyer with experience in patent law and the author of several legal works, told the Toronto Mail (6 April 1895) that the question was not whether a wrong had been done to Canada, or whether American publishers should be allowed to flood our markets, but whether authors, engravers, printers, sculptors, and photographers were to be deprived of the benefits of the Berne Convention. 'It does not matter one iota to the public where the books are printed and bound, provided they are cheap and good, and it must be conceded that we can get a cheaper and better class of work from Europe and the United States.' 125 A 'Canadian Author' told the Times (21 September 1895) that there should be one copyright for the whole Empire, and that the authors were not with the printers.' 26 In an interview for an English paper, Gilbert Parker was non-committal but admitted his dislike for the manufacturing clause. 127 An altercation took place that autumn in The Canadian Magazine between Goldwin Smith and Dan A. Rose. Smith was still a liberal free trader and annexationist, but his article in the October number signalled a new concern for Canadian writing. He thought it was still too early to expect a national

244 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada

literature, but did not deny the existence of good writing. He warned that if Canadian pirates intruded into the American market, then the American government would take away the rights of British authors. Furthermore, ' the Canadian author of a book of general interest would lose what is in fact his one good market, and Canadian literature would suffer accordingly,' 128 and Smith called on Canadian writers to speak out before any new act was decided upon. But it was his attack on the protectionist printers that roused Rose's anger in the November number. Rose agreed that the 1891 American act improved the prospects for their publishers but questioned (wrongly) whether that act had really helped authors; 129 and he raised the old question, why should Canadian and English authors be solicitous about American publishers, who were wealthy and powerful enough to fend off threats from Canadian publishers? Possibly John A. Cooper, the editor of The Canadian Magazine, commissioned these articles to stir up interest in the Conference on copyright that was held at Ottawa on 25 November 1895 . In September Edward Newcombe, the Deputy Minister of Agriculture, met with Joseph Chamberlain and novelist Hall Caine in London to draft another copyright bill: this was the 'act' that Goldwin Smith wanted the Canadian authors to examine. Caine showed up in November with the revised draft, as part of his publicity tour through the United States and Canada. After the vehemence of the journals and newspapers, the Ottawa meeting was very amicable. Bowell and Tupper represented the government; John Ross Robertson, Dan A. Rose, William Bryce, and Samuel Edward Dawson represented the publishers ; and W. Foster Brown, the booksellers. No one represented Canadian authors. The British government, tactfully, did not send official representatives, so Caine spoke for the Society of Authors, and Daldy for the Copyright Association, that is, the British publishers. Caine's draft bill included the following points : 1 there would be no manufacturing clause; 2 the British author would have from sixty to ninety days to register his copyright in Canada; 3 a licence to print a British book would be limited to one licence only, and that one with the author's consent; and 4 the importation of 'Colonial Editions' from Britain would be stopped. Everyone gave grudging approval but almost everyone had reservations. Tupper said he liked to buy the colonial editions, while Brown complained that even the expensive British editions could be excluded. 1 30 Daldy agreed to the principles behind the bill, but disapproved of some of its particulars. 131 The day ended with a splendid banquet at the Russell House and toasts all around.

Towards a Compromise 245 Reaction was not long in coming. On 4 December Goldwin Smith wrote privately to Thomas Farrer, now Lord Farrer, to say that the Ottawa Conference was not the end of the affair, for already retail booksellers were up in arms, 132 and he said the same thing in a letter to the Times ( 1 3 December 1895). On 6 December a letter appeared in The Week from W.D . Lighthall, who pointed out that Canadian writers had not been consulted at all. 133 And reaction came from an unexpected source, Henry Kleinau, the London representative of Hachette of Paris, who protested that the draft bill ignored England's international copyright obligations in a letter to the Times (30 December 189 5). That bill still contradicted the spirit and the letter of the Berne Convention, as The Week pointed out in February 1896. 134 That same month French authors and publishers vigorously complained to their government, and the French insisted on discussing the Canadian copyright question at the first International Publishers' Conference at Paris that summer. 135 Tupper had told the Ottawa conference that the government was not bound to pass the bill, and complaints flowed in to the government all winter. 136 Thus the bill never got to Parliament, partly because the Conservatives went down to defeat in September 1896. Although the Liberals had other worries, they too found the compromise Caine bill unsatisfactory. In a memorandum to the new prime minister, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, on 2 January 1897, Sir James Edgar, now the Speaker of the House, explained how each party had to be satisfied: your real difficulties will be encountered when you come to legislate. You have to reconcile the assertion of Canadian rights to self-government with the English theory that they can legislate on Canadian Copyright. You must do justice to Canadian publishers without being too hard on English authors, and even Canadian authors must be taken care of. Then, you must try not to offend the American publishers unduly, for they have now taken the English authors under their protection, instead of fleecing them like pirates, as they used to do. 1 37

Then in April 1897 the Liberals, after years of preaching free trade in books, fell into the same trap as the Conservatives and succumbed to the appeal of higher tariffs. Some months earlier the booksellers had complained that the I 894 duty of 6¢ per pound made it hard to estimate the cost of a book when it was ordered, because a bookseller only knew what his profit margin was after he paid the duty. Since this duty was added to the whole weight of a parcel, large orders cost less than small ones. 138 The specific duty favoured the rich, who could afford expensive books, while poorer customers like

246 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada

clergymen and teachers ended up paying a high duty on cheap books. So the specific duty was dropped and the ad valorem duty was raised from 1 5 per cent to 20 per cent, while in six months' time, October 1897, British imports would get a preferential tariff of one-third less duty. In addition, reprints of both English and Canadian copyright books were prohibited. Everyone hated the new arrangements, and protests extended from Nova Scotia to British Columbia. American publishers, who looked upon Canada as a colony and who held the rights for English books in Canada, were enraged enough to speak about the Canadian 'rebellion. ' 139 Now it appeared that even educational and literary works would have to enter in expensive British editions. In June the government relented and worked out a schedule that remained in effect for the next thirty years, a 10 per cent ad valorem duty on cloth books, and 20 per cent on paperbacks and books imported in sheets. American books which were protected under international copyright would also be permitted entry. The Canada Bookseller and Stationer was very pleased with these new arrangements, 140 which paved the way for the Copyright Act Amendment of 1900 and were introduced just as the bookselling trade was on the threshold of an unprecedented boom. But the Canadian publisher's right to print a Canadian Copyright Edition and also import other editions or sheets of the same work had to be clarified, since technically a local edition meant the prohibition of another edition. In June 1895 when the Toronto Customs prevented W.J . Gage from importing 700 copies in sheets of John Ruskin's Sesame and Lilies, Gage contended that he had the right to import because he held the Canadian copyright on the Ruskin title. 141 Fortunately, Minister of Justice Sir Oliver Mowat decided that the 1897 Tariff Act (Item 637) contradicted the spirit of the 1875 Copyright Act (Clause 30), and that Gage could import legitimate sheets or editions of Sesame and Lilies but that other booksellers could not. The Bookseller and Stationer thought this was a sensible judgment since it would allow for importation of a work (duly copyrighted in Ottawa) when there was not sufficient demand for its local printing. 142 As more British and American firms set up agencies in Canada, efforts were now directed towards regulating the new competition. In early 1896 the Methodist Book and Publishing House and Copp, Clark agreed on prices to be charged to retailers for Blackie's English editions of W.H . Henty's popular boys' stories, 143 and in 1898 again agreed to prevent price-cutting on the Scribner's and Blackie editions of Henty. 144 A year later both firms agreed not to compete against each other by importing English or foreign editions when either firm had arranged for a Canadian edition of a book. 145 Hence, when agents and publishers negotiated with the foreign principal,

Towards a Compromise 247 they argued their capacity to sell and protect an edition in the local market. This was the case with Copp, Clark's Canadian Copyright Edition of Parker's The Seats of the Mighty ( 1896) and Morang's edition of Caine's The Christian ( 1897). Commenting on this procedure in 1897, Publishers' Weekly observed that, instead of an imposed 10 per cent royalty duty under a licensing clause, a British publisher would do better by negotiating from 10 per cent to 15 per cent and 20 per cent with a respectable Canadian firm. Under such an arrangement, the British publisher could still control the price of the Canadian edition and arrange to ship in stereoplates. 'In fact,' Publishers' Weekly concluded, 'the Canadian publisher would to all intents and purposes act as his agent.' 146 By the time that the 1897 tariff was in place, the book trade was well on the road to recovery. The turning point came at the end of 1895 when Toronto booksellers reported their best holiday sales in years, and a similar situation prevailed in the 1896 Christmas season. 147 In 1898 booksellers reported that sales of Canadian editions were especially gratifying, 148 and by the spring of 1899 the competition among seven Toronto firms to issue paper editions was so keen that American firms raised the prices of their sheets by 20 per cent, with the result that Canadian paper editions rose from 50¢ to 75¢. 149 For several more years, however, Canadians had an advantage over American buyers, because here popular American novels such as When Knighthood Was in Flower (Toronto: McLeod 1898) and David Harum (Toronto: Briggs 1899) were first issued simultaneously in 75¢ paper and $1.25 cloth editions, while the first American editions of these works appeared in cloth only, priced from $1.25 to $2.00. At the end of 1899, A.S. Irving of The Toronto News Company reported to the Toronto Board of Trade that 'the book business is ... flourishing.' 1 5° AN EXPLOSION OF NEW PUBLISHING HOUSES AND NEW AUTHORS

Following the lead of William Briggs, several older firms began to develop their trade books. Copp, Clark had dealt in trade books for decades, but William Copp had such success with a paperback Canadian Copyright Edition of Gilbert Parker's The Seats of the Mighty ( I 896), that the arrangements for the novel's appearance in Canada were seen as a revolutionary innovation when in fact other works were being published in the same manner. What was revolutionary were the excellent sales of The Seats of the Mighty. This Canadian novel was so successful that Copp was encouraged to issue more Canadians in the same manner, among them Robert Barr, Charles G.D. Roberts, and Sara Jeannette Duncan. In 1898 Copp, Clark even issued a

248 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada

uniform edition of Parker's books, the first Canadian author to be thus treated. Copp, Clark became sole agent for Methuen, Duckworth, Pitman, Nisbet, and Blackie, and for some lines of Hodder & Stoughton, Chapman & Hall, and William Collins, and was for many years the leading Canadian importer of 'colonial editions.' William J. Gage & Company made a more modest entry into trade books, by introducing Canadian Copyright Editions in the Gage Fiction Series, launched in 1899, which included Lily Dougall's Mormon Lady, W.D. Howell's Ragged Lady, and Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim. One of the new firms was the Westminster Company, founded in 1896 by C. Blackett Robinson and three friends, which had a brief, meteoric career as a book publisher due to the immensely popular Ralph Connor novels. Robinson (1837-1927), a newspaperman and job printer for the previous twenty years, was best known as the printer of The Week, which he bought from Goldwin Smith in 1888 when he established The Presbyterian Printing and Publishing Company. The Westminster Company issued The Westminster (1897-1920), which began life as a weekly newspaper. In 1902 it became a monthly, and a new weekly, The Presbyterian (1902-25), was issued, later to be merged into The United Churchman in 192 5. Almost by accident The Westminster Company got into book publishing when it discovered Ralph Connor in 1898, whose career was the miracle that the Canadian book trade had been unconsciously waiting for. A young clergyman in Winnipeg, the Reverend Charles Gordon (1860-1937), sent his novel Black Rock to be serialized in The Westminster. It was popular enough to be considered for book publication as well, but due to a telegrapher's mistake, Gordon's pseudonym of 'Cannor' was misread as 'Connor' and his editor supplied the 'Ralph.'' 51 Although Westminster's records for the first printing no longer survive, Gordon said it was an edition of 5,ooo copies,' 52 and it was so popular in Canada and the United States (where it was widely pirated because it could not be copyrighted) that by 1904 its sales of over 400,000 copies made it one of the all-time best-sellers. Both author and publisher were pleasantly surprised by its success, and here was proof that best-selling professional authorship was possible in Canada. Born and raised in the Ottawa Valley, Gordon attended the University of Toronto, and then served in missions in Alberta, where the vigorous and crude life of the frontier - miners, emigrants, homesteaders - and the materialism of towns such as Calgary impressed him with their energy. He was prompted to draw this life realistically in his novels and to show how the North-West and the Dominion would achieve greatness through work, civility, and humanity. The North American public devoured his stories of

Towards a Compromise 249 muscular clergymen and idealistic businessmen, as well as his stories about growing up in the rough lumbering and farming district of Glengarry County; after all, these were the stories of many of his readers. Black Rock was followed by a new novel almost every year up to the First World War, the earlier ones such as The Sky Pilot ( 1899) and The Man from Glengarry ( 1901) heading the best-seller lists in Canada and the United States. His last successes of any significance were The Sky Pilot in No Man's land (1917) and The Major (1918), published in this country by John McClelland, but by the war the taste for Connor's books had dwindled, although he wrote and published almost up to his death in 1937. A tragic point came when Gordon discovered that his legal counsel and friend had criminally mismanaged much of his fortune. Deeply hurt, Gordon refused to prosecute his friend's firm and he spent the rest of his career liquidating his debts, at a time when he no longer got large royalties from his books. Westminster was Connor's Canadian publisher, but in the United States his publishers were Fleming H . Revell and George Doran. Doran (1871-1962) was an ambitious young Toronto native when he joined the ailing Willard Tract Depository in 1891, and two years later when Fleming H. Revell took it over as a branch office, Doran was made manager. In 1905 the manager of Revell's Toronto branch, S.B. Gundy, absorbed this firm into the new branch of the Oxford University Press. Doran had left Toronto in the mid-nineties because he saw no hope of a major publishing career in Canada. 1 53 While he remained with Revell, Connor stayed with that firm, but when Doran established his own firm in New York in 1909, Connor gave him The Foreigner, which was Doran's first hit and put him on a sound financial base. ' 54 Connor usually made his contract with Revell and Doran, and then Westminster would make a contract with them for the Canadian market. The negotiations for The Man from Glengarry indicate how complicated these contracts could be. Westminster had the rights to publish a first edition of 10,000 in Canada, and a duplicate set of the American plates was loaned by Westminster to William Briggs, who was given the right to print and sell the edition for one year. (Presumably Westminster was too busy to do the printing.) Briggs paid Westminster a royalty of 30 per cent on the retail price of $1.25 for the first 5,000 copies, of which 2,500 were to be printed and bound immediately. A separate contract was to be made for the paper edition.' ss While most of Westminster's book publishing activities were connected with Connor, the firm published a handful of other writers, usually clergymen or the wives of clergy, the most successful being the Reverend Robert Knowles and Marion Keith. Connor severed his relations with

250 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada Westminster between 191 3 and 1916 because Doran wanted the Connor books to be issued by his friend John McClelland of McClelland, Goodchild & Stewart. In 1894 Charles J. Musson ( 1869-1947), a city traveller for Hunter, Rose, opened a bookstore (briefly located at College and Yonge streets), and in 1898 he formed The Musson Book Company. He soon accumulated a number of agencies for British and American firms, and even opened an office in London in order to arrange for Canadian editions of British books and to place Canadian books on the British market. By the First World War, Musson had published poetry by Archibald Lampman, F.G. Scott, W.W. Campbell, and Pauline Johnson. Another Hunter, Rose employee, Thomas Langton (18581918) also set out on his own in 1895 . Langton, a printer by trade, was associated with Musson briefly, and then entered into partnership with W. Carleill Hall until 1905 . Langton operated on his own until his death, and his son Thomas Langton, jr, conducted the firm into the 1920s. Langton received publicity in 189 5 as one of the Canadians who advertised the sale of American reprints in American papers. One brief but spectacular career was that of The Publishers' Syndicate, which opened a sumptuous bookstore in Toronto in late 1897 under the management of Robert Willing, who began his career in the 1870s as a clerk for Adam, Stevenson, and had been a partner in Willing & Williamson, publishers and booksellers, from 1871 to 1884. In March 1900 the firm acquired the printing plant and business of Willing's previous employer, Rowsell & Hutchison, intending to expand its importing and publishing side, 156 but The Publishers' Syndicate got into copyright squabbles with George N. Morang, who took them to court for illegally importing the works of Morang's principals, and by October 1901 The Publishers' Syndicate was in liquidation. A minor story now, perhaps, but one with significance in 1900, as we shall see in the next several pages. Two Americans serving in Toronto as agents and travellers, George J. McLeod and George Morang, saw the advantages of setting up business in Toronto. Before his arrival in Toronto, McLeod (1870-1936) worked inJ ohn Wurtele Lovell's United States Book Company. In 1898, after travelling in Canada for several years, he declined an invitation to join with two former fellow employees of Lovell, the Canadian-born Alexander Grosset and George T. Dunlap, in their new firm in Chicago, and instead began a small wholesale jobbing firm at 7 King Street West, on the second floor above Michie's grocery store. McLeod had an immediate success, as the company's fiftieth anniversary pamphlet described it:

Towards a Compromise 251 At that time he sold, on behalf of his principals, editions in sheet form to wholesalers for their respective territories and bound editions of other books and series to the trade. His first big seller and the first book which he manufactured in Canada with his imprint in 1899 was Charles Major's When Knighthood Was in Flower. This title was followed by a succession of best sellers, including Graustark by George Barr McCutcheon, one of the first novels to carry a coloured wrapper. ' 17

In 1901 McLeod formed a partnership with Thomas Allen (1872-1951), who had been with The Methodist Book Room for twelve years. Their partnership was dissolved in 1916, and both men re-established firms under their own names. The leading publisher of the new generation was George N. Morang, who successfully arranged for Canadian editions and who helped draft the legislation that shaped the book trade in the twentieth century. Born in Eastport, Maine, Morang (1866-1937) joined Appleton's in New York and was sent to Toronto in 1888 as Appleton's agent. In 1897 he formed a brief partnership with Theodore Gregory (d. 1898), but as soon as he was on his own he incorporated the firm as George N. Morang & Company Ltd in 1899. A businessman with a flair for public relations, his concern was to make his Canadian Copyright Editions viable and to protect his rights by court injunctions. In August 1897 he secured the Canadian rights for Hall Caine's The Christian from the author himself rather than, as was common, from the New York or London publisher. This 75¢ paper edition was issued simultaneously with the other editions. Within three months The Christian went through three printings of 7,800 copies, and by mid-1898 had sold over 10,000 copies. ' 58 People read it on trains, electric tram cars, steamboats, in waiting rooms, and at dining room tables. Caine told Morang that its success was 'practical proof of my desire to do what I could to give the publishing interest of Canada a separate existence.'' 59 Morang proudly sent a copy of Caine's letter to Laurier as a postscript to their discussion on copyright in March 1898. Like The Seats of the Mighty, The Christian firmly established a new pattern in simultaneous paperback publishing, and Morang continued it by arranging with the authors themselves for local editions of Edward Bellamy's Equality (1897), Anthony Hope's Rupert of Hentzau (1898), and Arthur Conan Doyle's A Duet with Occasional Chorus (1898). When there was a copyright problem, Morang acted quickly and unequivocally. Henry Sienkiwicz's Quo Vadis (1897) was issued in 3,000 copies in paper and cloth; but because Sienkiwicz had no American copyright, pirated editions of Quo Vadis came across the border, and Morang

252 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada had at least one bookseller (at Kingston) fined $2 5 for selling an illegal edition. 160 When he clashed with William Drysdale and Norman Murray of Montreal in the winter of 1898-9 over their importation of the British 'Colonial Editions,' he carried the fight to the pages of The Publishers' Circular. 161 They attacked the Toronto publishers as monopolists, and Morang defended himself by asking if Conan Doyle and his publisher Grant Richards would be pleased to find the Morang edition of A Duet with Occasional Chorus competing with their British edition in Oxford Street. Richards supported Morang but explained that he was unable to stop British jobbers from exporting his edition of Duet to Canada. 162 The same thing happened with Morang's major coup, a fifteen-volume Canadian edition of Rudyard Kipling's works (1899), reprinted in 1,000 sets. By December 1899 Morang had an injunction against Simpson's for illegally selling five Kipling titles in another edition. 163 The Kipling edition and later Morang's elevenvolume The Works of George Eliot were the first such standard editions of contemporary authors that were issued with a Canadian imprint. The success of these ventures allowed Morang to issue works of Canadian interest, such as Morang 's Annual Register of Canadian Affairs and, between 1904 and 1908, the Review of Historical Publications Relating to Canada. Among his Canadian authors were Bernard McEvoy (who was one of Morang's editors), Archibald Lampman, George T. Denison, Pauline Johnson, and Morang's friend Professor James Mavor. Morang's great achievement was the first major series of Canadian biographies, The Makers of Canada (1903-11). This 21-volume series, under the general editorship of Duncan Campbell Scott and Pelham Edgar (it was William Dawson LeSueur who did the 'serious and constructive editing'f 64 was printed and bound in Canada, and sold by subscription. The results were for the most part worthy of all the time and expense lavished on them, and for years some of the volumes remained models of style and accuracy, in particular Jean Mcllwraith's Sir Frederick Haldimand (1904) and Adam Shortt's Lord Sydenham (1908). Morang was involved in the University Company, a printing firm that produced The University Magazine (1901-20), which was underwitten by Sir Andrew MacPhail; and in 1906 he established the Morang Educational Company Ltd when he was awarded a major contract for textbooks by the Ontario government. In 1911 Morang suffered a bad accident on a construction site in downtown Toronto, and after a lengthy convalescence had to cut back his activities. 165 In 1912 the Morang Educational Company was merged with the Toronto branch of the Macmillan Company, an arrangement that gave Macmillan a decided advantage with authorized textbooks in several

Towards a Compromise 253 provinces. Thereafter, little was heard in the book trade world about Morang because until his death in 1937 he turned to the publication of magazines and subscription books. At the turn of the century, however, Morang was a shaping force on several occasions, for he promoted the Canadian Society of Authors, advised the government on its latest copyright amendment, and served as a vice-president of the International Congress on Copyright held at Leipzig in 1901. THE CANADIAN SOCIETY OF AUTHORS

(1899)

AND THE

COMPROMISE COPYRIGHT ACT AMENDMENT OF I

900

In 1897-8, while John Ross Robertson and his Canadian Copyright Association wondered what had happened to Hall Caine's bill, 166 the British themselves had asked Canada to hold off on the bill so that both governments might pass a new consolidated copyright act at the same time. 167 But behind the scenes Morang, Goldwin Smith, Sir James Edgar, and James Mavor, a professor of political economy at the University of Toronto, were at work on yet another amendment to the 1875 Copyright Act. On 3 June 1898 Smith reminded Sydney Fisher, the new minister of agriculture, that the Caine bill might injure Canadian authors at home and abroad : A Canadian writes an important book in Canada and publishes it in England and the United States. He cannot afford to print a separate edition for the small market of Canada. But if he does not, he will be liable, as I understand the proposed arrangement, to having his book pirated by any publisher in Canada who chooses to bring out a cheap and inferior edition, which would probably find its way, if not to England, at all events to the United States. 168

A month later Smith sent Fisher a memorandum from Morang, which gave 'the Canadian protectionist view, but in a liberal spirit, and I believe with perfectly legitimate aims. ' 169 Smith still opposed a manufacturing clause, but he thought that publishers such as Morang ought to be protected from British jobbers by letting plates be imported into Canada before English publication. In fact, this procedure was often used for the publication of Canadian Copyright Editions up to the Second World War. Then on 6 February 1899 a meeting of authors was called in Toronto by Smith, Mavor, Bernard McEvoy, and George W. Ross, the Ontario minister of education, who was soon to become premier of the province. In his opening address on copyright, Ross called on the authors to support the manufacturers, 170 but he quickly discovered that the authors were not to be

254 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada

prodded in this direction. They decided to place their own interests ahead of those of the publishers and printers, for there was strong feeling against being allied with protectionist printers. Ross proposed an amendment for the new British copyright bill (known as Lord Herschell's bill), namely, that when the British author approved of a reprint edition in a colony, then the original British edition should be excluded from the colonial market; but if there was no reprint edition in the colony, then the original copyright edition should prevail. This simple solution for aiding both the British author and the Canadian publisher was incorporated into the 1900 Copyright Act amendment due to Morang's persistence. Goldwin Smith was unable to attend but sent a message through his secretary, Arnold Haultain: I have always been in favor of an imperial copyright, as the natural adjunct of an empire, though if it can be shown, as Mr. Morang appeared to show, that the colonial publisher is exposed to special injustice fr~m interference by jobbers, I would, of course, concur in any reasonable provisions for his protection from them. I understand Mr. Morang to contend for nothing more. 17 1

By the end of the evening the Canadian Society of Authors was formed . It was active for the next ten years, but its influence had waned by 1921 when a younger group of writers formed the Canadian Authors' Association to fight for authors' rights in the 1921 Copyright Act. While plans went ahead for the new Imperial Act to be passed by both governments, the Copyright Committee of the Canadian Society of Authors prepared a memorandum supporting Ross's amendment, both of which were brought to London in June 1 899 by James Mavor, who met with the Society of Authors and Lord Herschell's Copyright Committee. In an important gesture, Morang and Mavor were invited to give papers at the Third International Congress of Publishers, where F.R. Daldy introduced Mavor by giving a very sympathetic account of the problems faced by Canadian publishers. Canadian authors, Mavor assured his audience, did not support a manufacturing clause, did not want to get out of the Berne Convention, would not disturb the Anglo-American Copyright Agreement, and thought that licensing was too complicated to be practicable. He then read Ross's amendment. At the end of this meeting, C.J. Longman and T. Fisher Unwin moved that British publishers do all they could to remove the 'monstrous injustice' under which the Canadian publishers operated. 172 Morang, whose paper was read by his friend S.S. McClure, examined the central problem of distribution. 'If books are to be distributed to Canadian readers, the work must be done by Canadian publishers. The market is

Towards a Compromise 255 peculiar, widely scattered, and could not possibly be supplied to advantage from Britain. ' 173 What he explained was very obvious to Canadians but it needed a proper context for his European audience, that is, some form of protection for the Canadian publisher in his own market: The making of a Canadian edition is, however, a more precarious speculation for the Canadian publisher than the making of a British one is to the British publisher. When the British publisher makes an arrangement with an author either by out-and-out purchase or by an agreed royalty, and issues a copyright edition, he has the market to himself, and no man may sell a copy of another edition therein. When the Canadian publisher makes an arrangement with an author or copyright owner to bring out a Canadian edition - a speculation involving considerable pecuniary risk, he has to pay for the right to do it, as the English publisher has, but his market is liable to be interfered with under the present state of the law by the influx of copies of the work from the Old Country. 1 74

Like Mavor's paper, this speech apparently convinced the British that Canadian publishers were a respectable lot. Because the Imperial Copyright bill (now called Lord Monkswell's bill) was delayed in the 1899-1900 session, the Canadian government was advised in February 1900 by the Canadian Society of Authors to pass its amendment anyway. But the Cabinet got cold feet because the bill would give Canadian publishers an 'absolute monopoly,' and was not framed in the interests of imperial sentiment, Sydney Fisher reported to Morang. 175 Both Morang and Mavor were angered by Cabinet stupidity. On 9 April the poet Louis Frechette wrote to his friend Laurier from Toronto : 'Serais-tu assez bon pour ne pas prendre aucune decision definitive sur la question avant que j'ai en un moment de conversation avec toi sur le sujet ... j'ai de bonnes nouvelles ate donner sur bien des choses.' 176 Then Morang wrote down his views in point form so that Frechette's first-hand explanation to the Prime Minister would dispel any misunderstanding. 177 The last two things to do were to remove the influence of the printers, whom Deputy Minister Edward Newcome still favoured, and to convince Laurier and Fisher that the British Society of Authors wanted the amendment passed, even if the British bill were not passed. 178 As it turned out, the new Imperial Copyright Act was not passed until 1910. Mavor came to Ottawa in early May to help Fisher with the wording of the bill, and Morang was in London in June conferring with the British government. Given royal assent on 18 July 1900, the Act to Amend the Copyright Act (63-4 Viet., cap. 25) had the 'sanction' of the Canadian Manufacturers' Association and the Employing Printers' Association, and the 'tacit approval'

256 The Beginnings of the Book Trade in Canada

of the publishers. ' 79 Section I of the act permitted a publisher to arrange with an author for a local edition, and to prohibit importation into Canada of any other editions of that work that were published in the Empire. (Individuals and institutions were still free to import two copies for private use.) Section 2 permitted a publisher to import an edition or sheets of a work for which he held the Canadian rights if he did not want to produce a Canadian edition. From now on it would no longer be possible for a British author to part with his Canadian rights twice. It was hoped, too, that American publishers would now be induced to sell their Canadian rights, for American editions could not be imported if the Canadian market were sold to a Canadian publisher. This brief act was the basis for the full-scale development of the agency system and for the branch plant or subsidiary company, which characterized much English-Canadian publishing in the twentieth century . At the same time an important victory had been won, for now the principle and the practice were established in Canada that authors and publishers, not printers, had control of copyright.

Conclusion

This history has dealt with some of the economic forces that shaped the ways in which Canadians obtained their literary culture. The events related here examine the tribulations as well as the benefits that a colonial society experiences on the uncharted path towards self-determination and social well-being, while it slowly discovers its own self. This sense of identity may be found in more than one way, but certainly one that nineteenth-century Canadians used was their connection to France, Great Britain, and the United States. Canada did not develop its book trade or foster its literature in isolation. There was optimism and enthusiasm in the Canada of 1900, a sense that dreams could be brought to fruition, not an unusual thing at the turn of the century. The excitement of the Klondike gold rush turned out to be ephemeral, but there were more precious things than gold. The emigration pamphlets circulated in Europe and the British Isles painted a vision of opportunity, equality, independence, and land: a not impossible dream. In the last, best West there was a series of excellent crops for over a decade, and the gross national product was rising. Canada before the First World War is sometimes seen as an age of innocence; it was nothing of the sort, of course, for the country had its share of poverty, drunkenness, political graft, and plenty of racial suspicion. But it could review the previous century with pride, even complacency, for all those accomplishments that seemed so spectaculaar for a nation of eight million people. These were stirring events - the settlement of half a continent, political autonomy, universal education, a national railway, and on a more modest level, the transformation of printing and bookselling to serve all social and economic groups, not simply an elite. Retail booksellers across the country did a flourishing business in stationery, newspapers, magazines, and books, but they depended upon

258 Conclusion textbook sales each September and special orders of illustrated annuals at Christmas. Most of their magazines, such as Macmillan's or Frank Leslie's, were imported from Britain and the United States. Most of their books were international best-sellers or standard classics that were made in Britain or the United States, although occasionally one found a Canadian author and a Canadian-made book on their bookshelves. Canadian books were more attractive in the nineties than in previous decades, but they were a far cry from handsome, well-bound British books. This is the side of the trade that the ordinary book buyer knew about. Behind the scenes there was optimism as well. Young men in Toronto set up as publishers, their quarters consisting of one or two rooms, often down the hall from other novices with whom they played golf on week-ends. They began as wholesalers, importing sheets or books, and made important contacts with travellers or with publishers in London and New York. They also kept their eyes open for good manuscripts. The risks were great but one best-seller could save a company. The real profits were in the printing business, and major firms had their presses running constantly as they turned out daily newspapers, trade journals, and a host of church magazines and Sunday school papers. These good conditions were partly due to international prosperity in general, just as the Anglo-American Reciprocal Copyright Agreement in 1891 had improved conditions for the Canadian book trade by paving the way for the compromise copyright act amendment of 1900. The copyright situation was not perfect but many inconsistencies had been cleared up. It is difficult to predict all the long-term consequences of a compromise, except to assume there will be some good ones and some evil ones. Few people foresaw in the 1840s that the Americans would gain control of the Canadian market because a British act was passed in order to provide Canadians with cheap reading material; after all, one of the great liberal platforms of the nineteenth century was cheap reading for everyone. This situation led to the Canadian market's becoming a battleground for American and British publishers, and skirmishes continued into the twentieth century because the British presence remained significant until the 1920s. Throughout the nineteenth century it was hardly surprising that Canadians also fought to obtain control of their own territory, and many a Canadian printer wished a plague on both the British and American houses. Ownership of territory has several connotations in this context. In the nineteenth century most Canadian firms that served the public (that is, printers, publishers, retail booksellers) were owned in this country by Canadian residents. The ownership problem was to a large extent one of

Conclusion 259 copyright, that is, the right of the author - or more often, his assignee, the British or American publisher - to determine the manufacturing and distribution rights. It was not really the ownership of businesses or, significantly, the ownership of books by Canadian writers, that was at stake. The 1900 amendment to the Copyright Act of 1875 encouraged two situations (and these were occurring in other industries as well) that were seen as a way around high protectionist duties that were intended to shut out foreign goods: the establishment of a branch plant that would produce, assemble, and distribute a book, or else import the principal's book, and these activities would be run by local people. At the same time, the foreign firm ('foreign' covers British or American firms) might underwrite a local business by owning the controlling shares in it. The branch plant publisher does a combination of original and agency publishing, but control is still directed from outside the country. These arrangements evolved not merely because the Canadian book market was important in itself but because of that market's potential threat to the American market, a threat that existed by reason of the · undefended border and the similar reading tastes of Canadians and Americans. Although foreign book agencies proliferated like rabbits in the first decade of the twentieth century, it was not until the depression of the 1930s that the full implications of branch plant publishing were evident to Toronto publishers, who by then were accustomed to having their publishing programs determined by New York and Lon4on. The fact is that Canadian publishers rarely obtained world rights for the authors they published, a situation possibly connected to the relatively unimportant place of Canadian authors in the international book world and the fact that Canada was not a leading political or economic power. The branch plant industry is a twentieth-century version of economic colonialism. In another way Canada was also a part of the larger world, for it shared in the movement towards universal literacy. This situation was a corollary of industrial democracy, for the developments in technology - and these included power presses, rail services, even cheap paper and cheap postal rates - were used by liberal journalists and politicians (along with profit-minded entrepreneurs) to broaden the base of literacy, so as to have an informed and responsible electorate. To be literate in the nineteenth century was to be in contact with all the diversity of life itself, ranging from religious controversies to Darwinistic views of the nature of man, from utilitarian books on chemistry to utopian books on reshaping society. The Canadian reader was as much aware of these tides abroad as he was aware of more local, but no less important, matters such as the French-Canadian past or nation-building in the West.

260

Conclusion

The author's role in society had changed as well, and his or her function reflected the complexity of society that wanted information, entertainment, or merely diversion in books. Traditionally, authors had been associated with the court or a similar establishment, and had thus reflected the attitudes of a small elite of upper-class patrons. In the nineteenth century this all changed, much to the advantage of North American authors. The patrons became the mass market, and copyright laws - particularly in Europe - clarified the professional author's economic rights. Novel writers such as Charles Dickens or Mrs Stowe or Emile Zola might even wield great social power. If there were not such worldly accolades for Canadian writers, there was certainly a group of men and women who had achieved both profit and praise, and whose writings gave imaginative shape to the land and voiced the aspirations of its people in North American accents.

Notes

INTRODUCTION

The background for this survey has been compiled from standard works on the book trade. Among them are S.H. Steinberg, Five Hundred Years of Printing (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books 195 5); Hellmut E. Lehmann-Haupt, The Book in America: A History of the Making and Selling of Books in the United States, 2nd ed. (New York: Bowker 1952); John Tebbe!, A History of Book Publishing in the United States: The Creation of an Industry 1630-1865, 1 (New York: Bowker 1972); Philip Gaskell, A New Introduction to Bibliography (New York: Oxford 1972); Warren Chappell, A Short History of the Printed Word (Boston: Nonpareil 1980); G. Boleme, et al., Livre et societe dans la France du xvme siecle (Paris: Mouton 1965); Antoine Roy, Les Lettres, Les sciences, et Les arts au Canada sous le regime franfais (Paris: J ouvre 1930); and Henri-] ean Martin and Roger Chartier, eds, Histoire de /'edition franfaise: Le Livre triomphant 1660-1830 (Paris: Promodis 1984). 1 Hellmut E. Lehmann-Haupt, 'Johannes Gutenberg,' The New Encyclopaedia Britannica Macropaedia (1982) vm, 505-6. A clear description of typecasting is found in Canadian Book of Printing 73. 2 Steinberg, Five Hundred Years of Printing 20 3 Howard F. Cline, Mexico: Revolution to Evolution, 1940-1960 (London: Oxford 1962) 181-208 4 Rene Baudry, 'Marc Lescarbot,' Dictionary of Canadian Biography 1 ( 1966) 469-72 5 David Galloway, 'The Voyagers,' in Literary History of Canada, ed. Carl F. Klinck 2nd ed. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press 1976) 1, 12 6 Ibid. 14. See also Gillian T. Cell, 'Robert Hayman,' DCB 1 ( 1966) 365-6.

262

Notes to pages

8-11

7 Marine Leland, 'Quebec Literature in Its American Context,' in The Canadian Imagination: Dimensions of a Literary Culture, ed. David Staines (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press 1977) 190-2 8 Marcel Trudel, 'New France, 1524-1713,' DCB 1 (1966) 30 9 W.J. Eccles, Frontenac: The Courtier Governor (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart 1959) 297-9 10 Antonio Drolet, Les Bibliotheques canadiennes 1604-1960 (Montreal: Le Cercle du Livre de France 1965) 23 11 Baron de Lahontan, New Voyages to North-America, ed. Reuben Gold Thwaites (Chicago: McClurg 1905) 1, 89 12 Donald Creighton, Dominion of the North (Toronto : Macmillan 1959) 129 13 E.-Z. Massicote, 'Libraires-papetiers-relieurs a Montreal au xvme siecle,' Le Bulletin des recherches historiques xxv1 (May 1930) 298-9; and 'Le Libraire relieur Bargeas,' BRH, xxv1 (August 1930) 466-9 14 Quoted by Aegidius Fauteux in The Introduction of Printing into Canada (Montreal: Rolland 1930) 13 15 Drolet, Les Bibliotheques canadiennes 32, 34, 36. See also Richard M. Saunders, 'The Cultural Development of New France before 1760,' in Essays in Canadian History Presented to George Mackinnon Wrong, ed. Ralph Flenley (Toronto: Macmillan 1939) 330 16 Drolet, Les Bibliotheques canadiennes 25 17 Ibid. 26 18 Reuben Gold Thwaites, ed., The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents (New York: Pageant 1959) xux, 167 19 Fauteux, Introduction of Printing into Canada 6. Fauteux presents a convincing argument that there was no printing press in New France before 1763 in answer to hypotheses that there may have been, put forward by Phileas Gagnon in Essai de bibliographie canadienne (Quebec: author 1895) 381-5; and by P.-G. Roy in 'L'Imprimerie clans la Nouvelle France,' BRH x (1904) 190-1. 20 Quoted by Peter E. Greig in 'Fleury Mesplet (1734-1794), the First French Printer in the Dominion of Canada: A Bibliographical Discussion,' MA thesis (Leeds: University of Leeds 1974) 1 [microfilm, Toronto: McLaren Micropublishing 1978] 21 Lawrence C. Wroth, The Colonial Printer (Charlottesville: Dominion Books 1964) 38-9, 173-6; and Tebbe!, A History of Book Publishing in the United States, I, 19-20, 44-7, 175-8 22 See Laurence Hanson, Government and the Press 1695-1763 (Oxford: Clarendon 1936, reprinted 1967). 23 C.P. Stacey, Quebec 1759: The Siege and the Battle (London: Pan 1973) 125-6

Notes to pages 13-14 263 CHAPTER ONE : THE ORGANIZATION OF THE PIONEER BOOK TRADE

Background studies for this chapter include Andre Beaulieu and Jean Hamelin, La Presse quebecoise des origines a nos jours, 1, 1764-1859 (Quebec: Les Presses de l'universite Laval 1973); Aegidius Fauteux, The Introduction of Printing into Canada (Montreal: Rolland 1930); H . Pearson Gundy, Book Publishing and Publishers in Canada before 1900 (Toronto: Bibliographical Society of Canada 1965); H. Pearson Gundy, Early Printers and Printing in the Canadas (Toronto: Bibliographical Society of Canada 1964); John Hare and Jean-Pierre Wallot, Les lmprimes dans le Bas-Canada 1801-1810 (Montreal: Les Presses de l'universite de Montreal 1967); Helmut Kallmann, Gilles Potvin, and Kenneth Winters, eds, Encyclopedia of Music in Canada (Toronto : University of Toronto Press 1981); Frances M. Staton and Marie Tremaine, A Bibliography of Canadiana (Toronto: Public Library 1934), and First Supplement, 1959, ed. Gertrude M. Boyle and Marjorie Colbeck; and Marie Tremaine, A Bibliography of Canadian Imprints 1751-1800 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press 195 2). Useful sources on the craft of printing include The Canadian Book of Printing (Toronto: Toronto Public Libraries 1940); Harry Carter, A View of Early Typography (Oxford: Oxford University Press 1969); Herbert Simon, Introduction to Printing: The Craft of Letterpress (London: Faber and Faber 198o);Joseph Moxon, Mechanick Exercises on the Whole Art of Printing (1683-4), ed. Herbert Davis and Harry Carter, 2nd ed. (New York: Dover 1978); Geoffrey Ashall Glaister, Glossary of the Book (London: George Allen & Unwin 1960); and Lawrence C. Wroth, The Colonial Printer (Charlottesville: Dominion Books 1964). 1 Massachusetts Historical Society, Mascarene Papers, Margaret Hutchinson (nee Mascarene) to Margaret Mascarene, 6 August 1780 (microfilm, RMC] 2 John Tebbe!, A History of Book Publishing in the United States: The Creation of an Industry (New York: Bowker 1972) 1, 86. Tebbe! does not mention that Rivington was in Nova Scotia. 3 Shirley B. Elliott, 'Robert Fletcher,' DCB 1v (1979) 267 4 Tebbe!, A History of Book Publishing in the United States 1, 262-3. Tebbe! does not mention that the Swords brothers were in Nova Scotia. 5 Edith Finh, comp., The Town of York 1793-1816 (Toronto: The Champlain Society 1962) 210 n47 6 F.A. Mumby, Publishing and Bookselling (London: Cape 1954) 176-7, 204 7 John Lambert, Travels through Canada, and the United States of North America, in the Years 1806, 1807, 1808... , 3rd ed. (London: Cradock and Joy 1816) 1, 328

264 Notes to pages 15-20 8 Mumby, Publishing and Bookselling 205-6 9 E.-Z. Massicote, 'Le Libraire relieur Bargeas' BRH xx.xv, (August 1930) 466-9 ro Lawrence M. Wilson, This Was Montreal (Montreal: privately printed for the Chateau de Ramezay 1960) 43 r r Tremaine, A Bibliography of Canadian Imprints 1751-1800 r 55 12 'To the Public,' The British North American Magazine and Colonial journal I (February 1831) 2 13 Tebbe!, A History of Book Publishing in the United States ,, r 3 14 Advertisement in Upper Canada Gazette (York), 15 January 1818 r 5 George Patterson, A History of the County of Pictou, Nova Scotia (Pictou: The Pictou Advocate 1916) 73 16 Hilda Neatby, Quebec: The Revolutionary Age 1760-1791 (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart 1966) 240 17 Church Historical Society, Austin, Texas, Peters Papers, Jacob Bailey to Samuel Peters, 19 May and 30July 1788 [microfilm, PANS] r 8 Advertisement (dated 22 June r 821) in The Montreal Gazette, 23 October 1822

19 'Roseharp' [pseud.], 'On Reading THADDEUS of WARSAW,' The York Gazette, 18 May 1811 20 V.L.O. Chittick, Thomas Chandler Haliburton ('Sam Slick'): A Study in Provincial Toryism (New York: Columbia University Press 1924) 50. In an 1825 letter Haliburton says that his friend Simon Bradstreet Robie had a delightful tour of the settings of Sir Walter Scott's poems and novels. 21 Claude Galarneau, 'Valentin J autard,' DCB IV (1979) 391 22 Archibald MacMechan, Old Province Tales (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart 1924) 189 23 Note in The Halifax Monthly Magazine I (February 1931) 366 24 H. Pearson Gundy, Book Publishing and Publishers in Canada before 1900 r 25 J .B. Brebner, The Neutral Yankees of Nova Scotia (New York: Columbia 1937) 196 26 Peter Delaroche, The Gospel of Christ Preached to the Poor (Lunenburg: Printed: At the Author's Expence, To be Given and not to be Sold, 1773) iii-iv. Although the title page gives Lunenburg as the place of printing, there was no printing press known to be in the town at that time, and Anthony Henry of Halifax was probably the printer. 27 Walter Johnstone, Travels on Prince Edward Island ... in the Years 1820-21 (Edinburgh: Printed for David Brown 1823) 20, 72, 120-1 28 'Annual Report of the Halifax Diocesan Committee of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, for 1816,' The Free Press (Halifax), 14January 1817 29 E.C. Woodley, The Bible in Canada (Toronto: Dent 1953). See Chapter r.

Notes to pages 20-7 265 30 Adam Shortt and A.G. Doughty, eds, Documents Relating to the Constitutional History of Canada, 1759-1791, 2nd and rev. ed. (Ottawa: King's Printer 1918) II, 919 31 Mrs F.C. Warren and E.-Fabre Surveyer, 'From Surgeon's Mate to Chief Justice: Adam Mabane (1734-1792),' Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, 3rd Series, XXlV (1930) Section II, 197. The French version is given in Tremaine, A Bibliography of Canadian Imprints 1751-1800 xix. 32 Lambert, Travels through Canada 1, 325 33 John Graves Simcoe, The Correspondence, ed. E.A. Cruickshank (Toronto: Ontario Historical Society 1923) I, 49 34 Janet Carnochan, 'Niagara Library, 1800-1820,' Niagara Historical Society 6 (1900) 5-30 35 Neatby, Quebec 244 36 Shortt and Doughty, Documents ... 1759-1791 II, 739 37 Rapport du Comite du Conseil, sur l'objet d'augmenter !es moiens d'education (Quebec: Samuel Neilson 1790) I2 38 Shortt and Doughty, Documents ... 1759-1791 II, 739 39 Rapport du Comite du Conseil 20 40 W.S. MacNutt, New Brunswick: A History 1784-1867 (Toronto: Macmillan 1963)89, 106, llJ 41 Simcoe, The Correspondence III, 349 42 A general background for this section is J. Donald Wilson, Robert Stamp, and Louis-Philippe Audet, eds, Canadian Education: A History (Scarborough: Prentice-Hall 1970). See Part Two, 'Colonial Beginnings of Canadian Education.' 43 'Palemon' [pseud.), 'Letter v,' The Montreal Herald, 22 July 1815 44 Simcoe, The Correspondence 1, 48 45 Thomas McCulloch, The Nature and Uses of a Liberal Education Illustrated,. Being a Lecture, Delivered at the Opening of the Building, Erected for the Accommodation of Classes of the Pictou Academical Institution (Halifax: Published by the Trustees of the Institution; A.H. Holland, Printer 1816) 5 46 E.J. Devereux, 'Early Printing in Newfoundland,' Dalhousie Review XLIII (Spring 1963) 58 47 Douglas Lochhead has found that the 1749 settlers in Halifax included a printer (HerbertJefferie), two stationers (Robert Garnes and John Marvin), and a bookbinder (Thomas Blackwell). Nothing is known about their activities. See 'Herbert J efferie: First Canadian Printer?', Papers of the Bibliographical Society of Canada rv (1965) 19-20 48 Donald F. Chard, 'John Bushell,' DCB 1 (1974) 91 49 Douglas G. Lochhead, 'Anthony Henry,' DCB rv (1979) 342

266 Notes to pages 27-33 50 Isaiah Thomas, The History of Printing in America (Albany: Munsell 1874) 1, 359 5I Tremaine, A Bibliography of Canadian Imprints 600. In his memoir of his grandfather Isaiah Thomas, Benjamin Franklin Thomas says that Isaiah was responsible for the attack on the Stamp Act. See Thomas, History of Printing 1, xxxu-xxxv.

52 Public Archives of Nova Scotia, Bailey Papers, Bailey to John Howe, 31 December 1780 53 The Greens and the Drapers were also related to each other. John Howe's master Richard Draper (1726/7-74) was trained in the office of his maternal grandfather, the elder Bartholomew Green (1666-1732). The latter was the father of the first Halifax printer. Draper married his cousin Margaret Draper, who after her husband's death continued The Massachusetts Gazette and Weekly News-Letter until 1776, with the help of John Howe. Margaret Draper stayed at Halifax until 1780 when she sold her equipment to Howe and went to England to live for the rest of her life. 54 Joseph Howe, The Speeches and Public Letters (Boston: Jewett 1858) 11, 20 55 Mary Jane Edwards, 'The History of Emily Montague: A Political Novel,' in The Canadian Novel: Beginnings, ed. John Moss (Toronto: NC Press 1980) 19-27 56 Frances Brooke, The History of Emily Montague, ed. Carl F. Klinck (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart 1969) 90. Quoted by Linda Shohet, 'An Essay on The History of Emily Montague,' in Moss, The Canadian Novel: Beginnings 29 57 The 1783 Hymns is not mentioned in Tremaine, but may have been printed by Anthony Henry around 178 3 and mentioned by Jonathan Scott in his Brief View (Halifax: Howe 1784). See T.B. Vincent, 'Some Bibliographical Notes on Henry Alline's Hymns and Spiritual Songs,' Canadian Notes and Queries 12 (1973) 12-13 58 D. Jay Rahn, 'Stephen Humbert' and 'Union Harmony: or British America's Sacred Vocal Musick,' in Encyclopedia of Music in Canada 438, 944 59 Alexander Croke's 'The Inquisition' is included in Thomas B. Vincent's Narrative Verse Satire in Maritime Canada 1779-1814 (Ottawa: Tecumseh 1978) 143-72. The version that Croke published in The Progress of Idolatry (Oxford: Parker 1841) softened the specific targets of satire. 60 Simcoe, The Correspondence 1v, 196 61 Public Archives of Canada, 6 Prince Edward Island, State Papers, Series A (M. 404-E) 183, Governor Fanning to the Secretary of State, 6 December 1788; with an enclosure written by Lt Col W. Edmeston, 26 October 1778. Courtesy of PEI Heritage Foundation, Robertson Family Files 62 Devereux, 'Early Printing in Newfoundland' 60 63 J. Russell Harper, 'Christopher Sower,' DCB IV (1979) 721-2 64 W.O. Raymond, ed., Winslow Papers, A.D. 1776-1826 (1901; reprint ed., Boston: Gregg 1972) 418-20

65 MacNutt, New Brunswick: A History 1784-1867 114-15; and T.B. Vincent, ed., Narrative Verse Satire in Maritime Canada 1779-1814 117-42 66 Robertson Family Files, Governor Fanning to Lord Sydney, 6 December 1788 67 W.L. Cotton, 'The Press in Prince Edward Island,' in Chapters in Our Island Story (Charlottetown: Irwin 1927) 60 68 Devereux, 'Early Printing in Newfoundland' 58 69 PAC, Neilson Papers, MG24 BI, Vol 49, Brown & Gilmore Account Book, Memorial A, 5 August 1763-2July 1774 70 Francis} . Audet, 'William Brown (1737-1789). Premier imprimeur, journaliste et libraire de Quebec. Sa vie et ses oeuvres,' Memoires de la Societe royale du Canada, 3me serie, xxv (1932) Section 1, 102. See also Jean-Francis Gervais, 'William Brown' and 'Thomas Gilmore,' DCB 1v (1979) 105-7, 294-5 . 71 Francis J. Audet, 'John Neilson,' Memoires de la Societe royale du Canada, 3me serie, XXII (1928) Section 1, 81-97 72 The Quebec Magazine was edited by the Reverend Alexander Spark of St Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Quebec, who was paid £59.10 for this task. Tremaine, A Bibliography of Canadian Imprints 636 73 Mumby, Publishing and Bookselling 123-4, 151 74 Tremaine, A Bibliography of Canadian Imprints 272 75 Ibid. 562-3 76 Helmut Kallmann, A History of Music in Canada 1534-1914 (Toronto : University of Toronto Press 1960) 63. See also 'Colas et Colinette,' Encyclopedia of Music in Canada 205-6. 77 The prospectus for Robertson's printing of Burns's poems appears in The Quebec Gazette, 18 June 1789. 78 John Charlton Fisher (1794-1849) was an Englishman who edited The Albion (New York), one of the most popular American weeklies that circulated in British Nonh America. He came to Lower Canada in 1823 to be editor of Neilson and Cowan's The Quebec Gazette, but soon was appointed by Lord Dalhousie as editor of a new government paper, The Quebec Gazette. Neilson was thoroughly annoyed by Dalhousie's use of his newspaper's name. After losing the commission of King's Printer in 1831, Fisher edited Thomas Cary, jr's The Quebec Mercury for ten years. 79 PAC, Neilson Papers, MG24 BI, Vol. 185, Pierre Edouard Desbarats to Mr Cowan, 19 February 1801, 1746 80 Charles Roi's name appears as printer and publisher in the first number of Le Canadien (Quebec) on 22 November 1806. By January 1807 its printing office was L'Imprimerie canadienne. 81 R. W. Mclachlan, 'Fleury Mesplet, the First Printer at Montreal,' Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, 2nd Series, XII (1906) Section II, Appendix o, No. 29. Reprinted from the Library of Congress, Extracts from Journals of the Continental Congress, 26 February 1776

268 Notes to pages 40-5 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90

91

92

93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100

Ibid. 214-16 Claude Galarneau, 'Valentin J autard,' DCB IV (1979) 391 Hare and Wallot, Les Imprimes dans le Bas-Canada 1801-1810 330 Simcoe, The Correspondence 1, 48 Ibid. III, 298 Elizabeth Posthuma Simcoe, Mrs Simcoe's Diary, ed. Mary Quayle Innis (Toronto: Macmillan 1965) 93 Simcoe, Correspondence III, 298 PAC, Neilson Papers, MG24 BI, Vol. 1, John Bennett to John Neilson, 20 August 1801, JIO PAC, Military 'c' Series, RG8 1 (Microfilm c-3232-c.688.c.) 38. John Cameron wrote to Lt-Col. Coffin on 16 May 1813: 'I beg leave to state to you, that after the unfortunate Event at this place [York] the Enemy with other Government property, destroyed this Printing Press, Types, and every other Material confounding all my share of the Materials with Government's. - I attempted to follow to Kingston, but unequal to the task, was under the necessity of stopping near Town - - - . I should have apprised you of this at an earlier date, had not I prepared to get to Kingston in some way or other - but from this step my friends here having dissuaded me I shall wait directions.' Joel Munsell, 'The Newspaper Press in Kingston, Canada West,' The Typographical Miscellany (Albany : Munsell 18 50) 75-80. Stephen Miles's letter to 'C' is reprinted in H .P. Gundy's 'Reminiscences of Printing in Canada: A Letter to the Editor of the Chronicle & Gazette, January 1, 1847,' Historic Kingston 4 (October 1955) 37-9. Marie Tremaine, 'A Half-Century of Canadian Life and Print, 1751-1800,' in Essays Honoring Lawrence C. Wroth (Portland, ME : Anthoensen 1951) 388-9 Lawrence C. Wroth, The Colonial Printer (Charlottesville, VA: Dominion Books 1964) 155 PAC, Chipman Papers, MG23 01, Vol. 61, 'Lawrence Collection,' Book 5 George E. Fenety, Life and Times of the Hon . Joseph Howe (Saint John: Carter 1896) 21 New Brunswick Museum, Chubb Family Papers, 'Indenture between Jacob Mott, Printer, and Henry Chubb, Apprentice,' 1 December 1801 Samuel Thompson, Reminiscences of a Canadian Pioneer for the last Fifty Years (Toronto: Hunter, Rose 1884) 13 NBM, Chubb Family Papers, Emma Forrester to Lewis Durant, 22 July 18 39 William Lawson Grant, The Tribune of Nova Scotia (Toronto: Glasgow Brook 1915) 20 Ibid. 19

Notes to pages 47-8 269 101 Saint John Regional Library, Jack Collection 'The Howe Press,' Nova Scotian and Weekly Chronicle (Halifax), 31 May 1907 102 Samuel Thompson, Reminiscences 146 103 'A New Departure,' The Globe (Toronto), 15 April 1880 104 George H. Winship, 'My First Flat-Boat Ride Down the Red River, and Incidents Connected Therewith,' The Story of the Press (Battleford: Canadian North-West Historical Society Publications 1928) 14 105 Colonial presses had long lives. The Coates press, which is now in the Fort George museum at Niagara-on-the-Lake, was supposed to have been purchased by Louis Roy from the Neilsons and to have been used by successive government printers at York: Waters & Simons, Bennett, Cameron, Horne, and Robert Stanton. Stanton sold an old press to William Stephens, who later sold it to Thomas Hull, whose daughter in turn sold it to John Ross Robertson in 1901. In 1908 Robertson's The Telegram (Toronto) donated the press to the Ontario government, which displayed it for many years in the old Normal School. See J. Ross Robertson 'Press of the Olden Time,' Landmarks of Toronto, 5th series (Toronto: Robertson 1908) 39-40. On pp. 174-5 of the same volume Robertson describes how this press worked. There is a tradition that the first printing press used in Yarmouth in 18 3 r was imported, along with the types, from Bermuda by Jackson & L'Estrange. Alexander Lawson printed The Yarmouth Herald on it from r 833 to r 836. The press passed first to James Bowes of Halifax from 1836 to 1839 and then to George Fenety, who used it for The Saint john News (1839), which was the first penny newspaper in the country. This 'primitive' machine had a wooden frame, a stone bed, and a mahogany platen, and printed only one page at an impression. See J. Murray Lawson, Yarmouth Past and Present (Yarmouth: Herald 1902) 17. According to Augustin Cote, who in 1896 prepared a catalogue of his imprints since 1842, the printing press on which he first issued Le journal de Quebec was an old one used in the Brown-Neilson office: 'et la presse primitive, en usage depuis 1764 jusqu'a vers 1834, pour la doyenne des journaux canadiens [la Gazette de Quebec], servit au tirage du nouveau venu.' See [Augustin Cote), Catalogue avec quelque notes ([Quebec: Cote r 896)) r. 106 Mclachlan, 'Fleury Mesplet' 204 107 William R. Riddell, 'Joseph Willcocks: Sheriff, Member of Parliament and Traitor,' Ontario Historical Society Papers and Records x.x1v (1927) 480. See n23 on that page. 108 H. Pearson Gundy, Early Printers and Printing in the Canadas 12n 109 Tremaine, A Bibliography of Canadian Imprints 595 110 'The Historic "Joe Howe" Press,' The Morning Chronicle (Halifax), 1 January 1925

270 Notes to pages 48-9 I I I PAC, Joseph Howe Papers, MG24 B29, Vol. 32, Letterbook, Howe to Robert Hoe & Co., 15 October 1836 I 12 The 'Smith Imperial Patent Press' may be the Washington press that is now in the Mackenzie Museum at Queenston, Ontario. In this connection Mackenzie announced in The Colonial Advocate (Toronto) on 8 December 1825 that he had imported from New York 'a Patent PRINTING PRESS, constructed on a new and much improved principle, combining elegance in design with neatness and despatch in execution.' See Canadian Book of Printing iii. The 'Large and Powerful Standing Press' may be the B.F. Brown Improved Standing Press that was advertised by Robert Hoe of New York in The Advocate, Supplement of 15 December 1825 . I 13 In the 28 November 1833 Colonial Advocate advertisement, Mackenzie says that the type came from George Bruce's foundry in New York City. 114 'Prospectus,' Mackenzie's Weekly Message (Toronto), 25 December 1852. See also J .J. Talman, 'The Printing Presses of William Lyon Mackenzie, prior to 1837,' Canadian Historical Review xvm (December 1937) 414-18 . See also Mackenzie's advertisement for the sale of his office, in The Hallowell Free Press (Picton), 10 November 1834. 115 Mclachlan, 'Fleury Mesplet' (Appendix F, No. 73) 287. Presumably a printing press is not listed here because Mesplet did not own his press after 1784. I 16 PAC, Neilson Papers, MG24 BI, Vol. 49, Memorial A, Brown & Gilmore Account Book, 5 August 1763-2July 1774 (£96.7.8¼). In Vol. 50, Brown & Gilmore Account Book, 7 June 1764-7 January 1774, a different amount (£169.9. I 11/2 Quebec currency) is entered. u7 Louis Roy's order for his Newark office (dated 7 October 1792) for supplies from England indicates what was necessary for the well equipped office in the wilderness : Requisition Type for Printing Office, u.c. 1 fount of Brevier Roman, 250 lbs 1 fount of Brevier Italic, 100 lbs 1 fount of Long Primer Roman, 3 50 lbs 1 fount of Long Primer Italic, 250 lbs I fount of Pica Roman, 300 lbs 1 fount of Pica Italic, 200 lbs 1 fount of Great Primer Roman, 150 lbs 1 fount of Great Primer Italic, 100 lbs 1 fount of Double Pica Script, 100 lbs 1 fount of Small Pica Black, 100 lbs Also the following alphabets of two-line letters:

Notes to pages 49-5 3

118 119 120 121 122 123 124 12 5

271

5 alphabets of 5-line Pica 7 " of 2-line English 8 of 2-line Small Pica ., IO of 2-line Small Primer ., of 2-line Brevier 12 ., of 2-line Pica 9 ., of 2-line Great Primer 8 N.B. The letter founder is requested in casting these new founts to cast figures, braces, rules, fractions, references, small capitals, etc., and also signs of the zodiac, planets, aspects, etc., and a complete assortment of flowers, King's coats of arms, for folios and for quartos; beside some ornamented forts and woods, quotations, etc. Stationery: - 40 reams of Crown paper 80 reams of demi 20 reams of foolscap 20 reams of printing post 6 reams of 4th gilt post 3 reams of wrapping post 1 ledger and day book 2 barrels ink This requisition is reprinted in Robertson, Landmarks of Toronto , 2nd series (Toronto: Robertson 1896) 743. [William Lyon Mackenzie], 'Manufactures and Trade of Upper Canada' by Peter Russell [pseud. ), The Colonial Advocate (York), 8 March 1827 George Carruthers, Paper-Making (Toronto: Garden City Press Co-operative 1947) 237 Ibid. 297 Wroth, The Colonial Printer 126 Tremaine, A Bibliography of Canadian Imprints 13 Nina L. Edwards, 'The Establishment of Papermaking in Upper Canada,' Ontario History 39 ( 1947) 7 Clement Morin, 'Graduel Romain,' and Maria Calderisi, 'John Neilson,' in Encyclopedia of Music in Canada 389, 672 Oliver Goldsmith, The Autobiography of Oliver Goldsmith , introd. Wilfred E. Myatt (Toronto: Ryerson 1943) 4 CHAPTER TWO: THE QUEST FOR A COLONIAL LITERATURE

Background studies for this chapter include Centre de recherches de litterature canadienne-frarn;aise de l'universite d'Ottawa, Archives des lettres canadiennes, 5 vols (Montreal: Fides 1961 -76); Fernand Dumont and Jean-Charles Falardeau, eds,

272 Notes to pages 53-7 Litterature et societe canadiennes- fran,aises (Quebec: Les Presses de l'universite Laval 1964); Carl F. Klinck, ed., Literary History of Canada (Toronto: University of Toronto Press 1965; rev. ed. 1976); Gerard Tougas, History of French-Canadian Literature, 2nd ed., translated by Alta Lind Cook (Westport, CN: Greenwood Press 1976); Seraphin Marion, Origines litteraires du Canada franrais (Hull: Editions l'Eclair; Ottawa: Editions de l'universite 1951); Seraphin Marion, Les Lettres canadiennes d'autrefois, 9 vols (Ottawa: Editions de l'universite d'Ottawa 1939-58); and Maurice Lemire, ed., Dictionnaire des oeuvres litteraires du Quebec. Tome premier. Des origines a 1900, 2nd ed. (Montreal: Fides 1980). Although there are many articles on the nineteenth-century newspaper press, very few of them are primarily concerned with the literary activity of the newspapers and magazines. See J .M.S. Careless, The Union of the Canadas. The Growth of Canadian Institutions 1841-57 (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart 1967), chap. 9; D.C. Harvey, 'Newspapers of Nova Scotia, 1840-1867,' Canadian Historical Review XXVI (September 1945) 279-301; Carl F. Klinck, 'The World of the Scribbler,' journal of Canadian Fiction IV (No. 3, 1975) 123-48; Robert L. McDougall, 'A Study of Canadian Periodical Literature of the Nineteenth Century', PHO thesis (University of Toronto 1950); J .S. Martell, 'The Press of the Maritime Provinces in the 183o's,' Canadian Historical Review xrx (March 1938) 24-49; George L. Parker, 'Literary Journalism before Confederation,' Canadian Literature 68-9 (Spring-Summer 1976) 88-100; J .J. Talman, 'The Newspaper Press of Canada West, 18 50-60,' Proceedings and Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, 3rd Series, Section II, xxxm (1939) 149-74. I

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

William Charvat, Literary Publishing in America 1790-1850 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press 1959) 9 Andrew Shiels, The Witch of the Westcott (Halifax: Joseph Howe 183 1) preface, unpaged Catharine Parr Traill, The Backwoods of Canada: Being Letters from the Wife of an Emigrant Officer... (London: Charles Knight 1836) 153-4 J .S. Martell, 'The Press of the Maritime Provinces in the 183o's' 27 [William Lyon Mackenzie], 'On Printers & Publishers,' by Peter Russell, [pseud.], The Colonial Advocate (Toronto), 6 April 1826 W.S. Wallace, 'The Periodical Literature of Upper Canada,' The Canadian Historical Review XII (March 19 3 1) 1o [Anthony Henry Holland], editorial in The Acadian Recorder (Halifax), 19 January 1822 Egerton Ryerson, The Story of My Life (Toronto: Briggs 1883) 93 James B. Brown, Views of Canada and the Colonists, 2nd ed. (Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black 18 51) 420-1. As well as bringing books, Brown advised

Notes to pages 57-63 273

10 11 12 I3 14

15 16

17 18 19 20 21 22

23 24

25

26

emigrants to bring reading matter for the sea voyage, 'Chambers's Journal and Information for the People, the Penny and Saturday Magazines, or even a few odd numbers of Punch, the Illustrated London News ... ' D.C. Harvey, 'The Intellectual Awakening of Nova Scotia,' Dalhousie Review XIII (1933) 1-22 George Carruthers, Paper Making (Toronto : Garden City Press 1947) 263-5 Marjorie Whitelaw, 'Thomas McCulloch,' Canadian Literature 68-9 (SpringSummer 1976) 142 Ibid. 142 Preface to The Acadian Magazine I Quly 1826) i-ii. Murdoch was identified as the editor by Gwendolyn Davies, 'The Editorship of the Acadian Magazine, July, 1826-January, 1828,' Canadian Notes & Queries 26 (December 1980) 10-1 I. John S. Thompson, 'History,' Halifax Monthly Magazine m (September 1832) 156-7 Gertrude Tratt, 'William Cunnabell,' Dictionary of Canadian Biography IX (1976) 186-7. I am indebted to Miss Tratt for providing me with information on the Cunnabells before this article was published. George E. Fenety, Life and Times of the Hon. Joseph Howe (Saint John: Carter 1896) 22-3 J . Murray Beck, ed., Joseph Howe: Voice of Nova Scotia (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart 1964) 21-4 PAC, Joseph Howe Papers, Vol. 32; Vol. 33, Howe to Haliburton, 2 January 1841 / bid. Vol. 33, Howe to Haliburton, 2 January 1841 'Notions of Sam Slick,' Bentley's Miscellany XIV (1843) 81 David Kaser, The Cost Book of Carey and Lea 18.25-1838 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press 1963) 231-2. The first printing of The Clockmaker, Series 1, of 1,000 copies cost $185, and the second printing of 2,000 copies cost $256. PAC, Howe Papers, Vol. 32, Howe to Bentley, 16 October 1837 British Museum, Add. MSS 46,000, Bentley Letterbook, 183, memorandum of letter from Bentley to S. W.G. Archibald, who was also informed that at the suggestion of Colonel Fox, a piece of plate had been forwarded to Haliburton in acknowledgment of Sam Slick. See also Bentley Letterbook, Bentley to Haliburton, 26 February 1838, 191. PAC, Howe Papers, Vol. 45, Diary, 7 June 1838. Howe kept this diary during his trip to Britain that summer in company with Haliburton. See also Vol. 33, Howe to Haliburton, 2 January 1841. William H . Bond, ed., 'The Correspondence of Thomas Chandler Haliburton and Richard Bentley,' The Canadian Collection at Harvard University, ed. by William Inglis Morse, Bulletin 1v (Cambridge: Harvard University Press 1947) 59-60

274 Notes to pages 64-74 27 PAC, Howe Papers, Vol. 32, Howe to Lea & Blanchard, 18 June 1839 28 Bond, 'The Correspondence of Thomas Chandler Haliburton' 64 29 PAC, Howe Papers, Vol. 32, Howe to Lea & Blanchard, 20 June 18 39 30 Ibid. Vol. 33, Howe to Haliburton, 25 December 1840 31 Bentley Papers, Authors' Accounts, Thomas C. Haliburton, Reel 54, 117B, p. [26) (crossed out: 64). I am indebted to the Centre for Editing Early Canadian Texts, Carleton University, Ottawa, which provided me with a microfilm, courtesy of the Center for Research Libraries, Chicago. 32 Note in The New-Brunswick Reporter (Fredericton), 15 August 1845 33 George Renny Young, On Colonial Literature, Science and Education (Halifax: Crosskill 1842) 34 D .C. Harvey, 'Newspapers of Nova Scotia, 1840-1867' 292 35 W.G. Macfarlane, 'Walter Bates,' in New Brunswick Bibliography (Saint John: Sun 1895) 7 36 Andrew Spedon, Rambles among the Blue-Noses (Montreal: John Lovell 1863) 89 37 Ibid. Introductory address (unpaged) 38 'International Copyright,' The Provincial 1 (September 1852) 324 39 George Stewart, jr, 'The History of a Magazine,' Dominion Illustrated Monthly 1 (August 1892) 400 40 Carl F. Klinck, 'Samuel Hull Wilcocke,' journal of Canadian Fiction II (Summer 1973) 13-21 41 PAO, Macaulay Papers, MS 78, Adam Hood Burwell to John Macaulay, 23 August 1831 42 Mary Lu MacDonald, 'Some Notes on the Montreal Literary Scene in the Mid-182o's,' Canadian Poetry 5 (Fall/Winter 1979) 35-6 43 [William Lyon Mackenzie], 'Canadian Review and Magazine,' The Colonial Advocate (Toronto), 30 March 1826 44 Newton Bosworth, Hochelaga Depicta (Montreal: William Greig 1839) 208 45 'New Publications,' The Canadian Magazine and Literary Repository II (April 1824) 464 46 Lawrence M. Lande, Old Lamps Aglow: An Appreciation of Early Canadian Poetry (Montreal: Author 1957) 165 47 Gerard Tougas, History of French-Canadian Literature 5 48 L.M. Lejeune, 'Joseph-Ludger Crevier Duvernay,' Dictionnaire general (Ottawa: Universite d'Ottawa 1931) 1, 567 49 Jean-Louis Roy, Edouard-Raymond Fabre, libraire et patriote canadien (17991854), contre l'isolement et la sujetion (Montreal : Hurtubise HMH 1974) 50 Robert Rumilly, Histoire de Montreal (Montreal: Fides 1970) II, 93 51 Susanna Moodie, 'Introduction to Mark Hurdlestone,' in Life in the Clearings, ed. Robert L. McDougall (Toronto: Macmillan 1959) 288

Notes to pages 74-83 275 52 Susanna Moodie, Roughing It in the Bush, ed. Carl F. Klinck (Toronto : McClelland & Stewart 1963) 63 53 H. Pearson Gundy, 'Hugh C. Thomson : Editor, Publisher, and Politician, 17911834,' in To Preserve and Defend: Essays on Kingston in the Nineteenth Century, ed. Gerald Tulchinsky (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press 1977) 212 54 E.B. Sissons, Egerton Ryerson: His Life and Times (Toronto : Clarke, Irwin 1937) I, 109, 124-5 55 'The Editor's Table,' Barker's Canadian Monthly Magazine 1 (April 1847) 668 56 Canada (Province), Legislative Assembly, Journals, 1858 937-8 57 McGill University, McLennan Library, Rare Books, Sangster Papers 58 'To Subscribers for The Canadian Magazine and the Public,' The Canadian Magazine l (April 1833) 382 59 [Egerton Ryerson], Special Report of the Separate School Provisions of the School Law of Upper Canada ... (Toronto: Lovell 1858) 45 60 PAO, Kirby Papers, Henry Rowsell to William Kirby, 19 February 1847 61 Mary Jane Edwards, The Evolution of Canadian Literature in English: Beginnings to 1867 (Toronto: Holt, Rinehart and Winston 1973) 207 62 David R. Beasley, The Canadian Don Quixote: The Life and Works of Major John Richardson, Canada's First Novelist (Erin, Ont. : Porcupine's Quill 1977) 58 63 Desmond Pacey, 'A Colonial Romantic: Major John Richardson, Soldier and Novelist,' Canadian Literature 3 (Winter 1964) 48-9 64 'To Our Readers,' The Literary Garland 1 (November 1839) 537 65 Note in The Literary Garland 1 (September 1839) 487 66 William F.E. Morley, A Bibliographical Study of Major john Richardson (Toronto: Bibliographical Society of Canada 1973) 5. Richardson made this comment in the introduction to the 1851 New York edition of Wacousta. 67 John Richardson, Eight Years in Canada ... (Montreal : H .H . Cunningham) 108 68 Moodie, 'Introduction to Mark Hurdlestone' 290 69 Susanna Moodie, Roughing It in the Bush (London: Bentley 1852) II, 194-5 70 Monica C . Grobe!, 'The Backwoods of Canada,' Times Literary Supplement, 13 February 1930, 122 71 Queen's University, Archives, Susanna Moodie to John Lovell, 26 November 1842 72 British Library, Add. MSS 46, 641, Bentley Letterbook, 188-9 73 / bid. Bentley Letterbook, Bentley to Mrs Moodie, 29 June 18 52, 237 74 Ibid. 237 7S [Remarks on the Law of Copyright in Canada], 'The Editor's Shanty,' AngloAmerican Magazine l (October 1852) 355 76 Bentley Papers, Authors' Accounts, Mrs Susanna Moodie, Reel 54, 117B, p.[11] (crossed out: 49)

77 C.P. Lucas, ed., Lord Durham's Report on the Affairs of British North America (Oxford: Clarendon 1912) II, 294 78 Universite d'Ottawa, Centre de recherche en civilisation canadienne- frarn;aise, A. N. Morin to Garneau, 22 January 184 5 79 CRCCF, N. Aubin to Garneau, 21 November 1845 80 Canada (Province), Legislative Assembly, Journals, 1849 [Montreal: Rollo

Campbell 1849] 342 81 CRCCF, Garneau to E.B. O'Callaghan, 17 December 1849 82 CRCCF, Garneau to Etienne Parent, 18 February 18 50 83 CRCCF, Garneau to X. Marmier, 20 December 1850 84 CRCCF, Garneau to E. R. Fabre, 26 July 18 53 8 5 Canada (Province), Legislative Assembly, Journals, 18 58 (Toronto: Rollo Campbell 1858) Part 2,937 86 Gustave Lanctot, Garneau, historien national (Montreal: Fides 1946) 60 87 William F.E. Morley, 'Andrew Bell,' Dictionary of Canadian Biography

IX

(1976) 42 88 CRCCF, Garneau to John Lovell, 13 May 1862 89 CRCCF, Garneau to John Lovell, 26 May 1862 90 Canada (Province), Legislative Assembly, journals, 1854-5 473-4 91 [Augustin Cote], Catalogue de livres, brochures. journaux, etc. sortis de l'imprimerie generale A. Cote ... 7 92 PAC, RG I EI, Canada, Executive Council, State Papers, P, p. 5 51, 2 5 September 1855 93 [Cote], Catalogue de livres 7 94 Raymond Tanghe, 'Sources primordiales en bibliographie,' Cahiers de la Societe bibliographique du Canada I (1962) 52

9 5 David Hayne, 'Charles Guerin,' Dictionnaire des oeuvres litteraires du Quebec r, IOI

96 James Huston, 'Introduction,' Le Repertoire national: ou Recueil de litterature canadienne (Montreal: Lovell & Gibson 1848) 1, iv 97 Mason Wade, The French Canadians 1760-1948 (Toronto: Macmillan 1968) n, 2 97 98 Tougas, History of French-Canadian Literature 20

99 Les Soirees canadiennes: M emoire des proprietaires-editeurs [Quebec: Brousseau 1862] 3. The most thorough account of this conflict is Rejean Robidoux's '"Les Soirees canadiennes" et "Le Foyer canadien" clans le mouvement litteraire quebecois de 1860,' Revue de l'universite d'Ottawa XXVIII (1958) 411-52. Another account is found in Eveline Bosse's]oseph-Charles Tache (Quebec: Garneau 1971) 172-80. 100 Wade, The French Canadians II, 295; Robidoux,' "Les Soirees canadiennes" '419

Notes to pages 89-93 277 101 Tougas, History of French-Canadian Literature 23 102 Wade, The French Canadians II, 305 103 Hector Fabre, 'On Canadian Literature,' Transactions of the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec, 1865-6, New Series, Part 4, 97 104 Spedon, Rambles among the Blue-Noses 208-9 105 [William Lyon Mackenzie], 'On Printers and Publishers,' The Colonial Advocate (Toronto), 6 April 1826 106 Edward Hartley Dewart, Selections from Canadian Poets (Montreal: Lovell 1864) xiv CHAPTER THREE: BOOKSELLING FROM

1820

TO

1867

Background studies for this chapter include Antonio Drolet, Les Bibliotheques canadiennes 1604-1960 (Montreal: Le cercle du livre de France 1965); William Smith, The History of the Post Office in British North America, 1639-1870 (Cambridge, Eng.: Cambridge University Press 1920); and J. Donald Wilson, Robert M. Stamp, and Louis-Philippe Audet, eds, Canadian Education: A History (Scarborough: PrenticeHall 1970). Useful works on the theory and history of copyright include R.R. Bowker, Copyright: Its History and Its Law (Boston: Houghton-Mifflin 1921); Walter A. Copinger, Law of Copyright, 7th edition, ed. F.E. Scone James (London: Sweet & Maxwell 1936); H.G. Fox, The Canadian Law of Copyright (Toronto: University of Toronto Press 1944); E.J. Macgillivray, A Treatise upon the Law of Copyright in the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the Crown, and in the United States of America ... (London: Murray 1902); Marjorie Plant, The English Book Trade (London: George Allen & Unwin 1939); and Barbara A. Ringer, 'Copyright Law,' The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, 15th ed., Macropaedia v (1982) 152-7. The book trade for this period is examined in James J. Barnes, Authors, Publishers and Politicians: The Quest for an Anglo-American Copyright Agreement 1815-1854 (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul 1974); Canada (Province), Legislative Assembly, Sessional Papers, No. 2 ... of the Journals, 1843 [Kingston: Edward John Barker 1844], See Appendix P.P., 'English Copyrights Act: Report of the Select Committee ... '; Great Britain, Colonial Office, Canada, Correspondence on the Subject of the Law of Copyright in Canada (London: HM Stationery Office 1895); Frank Luther Mott, Golden Multitudes: The Story of Best Sellers in the United States (New York: Macmillan 1947); George L. Parker, 'The British North American Book Trade in the 184o's: The First Crisis,' Papers of the Bibliographical Society of Canada XII (1973) 82-99; Allan Smith, 'American Publications in Nineteenth-Century English Canada,' Papers of the Bibliographical Society of Canada 1x (1970) 15-29; Madeleine B. Stern, ed., Publishers for Mass Entertainment in Nineteenth Century

278 Notes to pages 93-101 America (Boston: G.K. Hall 1980); and John A. Wiseman, 'Silent Companions : The Dissemination of Books and Periodicals in Nineteenth-Century Ontario,' Publishing History xu (1982) 17-50. I Ian Jack, English literature 1815-1832 (Oxford: Clarendon Press 1963) 38-9 2 A.C. Baugh, ed. , A literary History of England 2nd ed. (New York: AppletonCentury-Crofts 1967); see 'Reviews and Magazines : 1802-1830; The Essayists' I 176-91. 3 Canada (Province), Legislative Assembly, Journals, 1843, Appendix PP, 'English Copyrights Act: Report of the Select Committee' [p. 2] 4 James J . Barnes, Authors, Publishers and Politicians 6-7 5 Robert Gourlay, Statistical Account of Upper Canada, Compiled with a View to a Grand System of Emigration (London: Simpkin Marshall 1822) I, 246 6 D.C. Harvey, 'Early Public Libraries in Nova Scotia,' Dalhousie Review xiv (1934) 436-7 7 Drolet, Les Bibliotheques canadiennes 116 8 Ibid. I 14 9 Audrey Saunders Miller, ed ., The journals of Mary O'Brien 1828-1838 (Toronto: Macmillan 1968) 125 IO Thomas McCulloch, The Stepsure letters, introd. Northrop Frye (Toronto : McClelland & Stewart 1960) 66 I I Richard D. Altick, The English Common Reader 189-90 12 Drolet, Les Bibliotheques canadiennes 122 13 Mason Wade, The French Canadians 1760-1968 (Toronto: Macmillan 1968) 1, 343-5 14 Carl F. Klinck, ed. , literary History of Canada, 2nd ed. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press 1976) 1, 167 I 5 Smith, 'American Publications in Nineteenth-Century Canada' 16. The thrust of the 1843 Province of Canada 'English Copyrights Act: Report of the Select Committee' is to show that American books and periodicals had circulated widely in British North America for years. 16 Archives nationales du Quebec, Papiers E.R. Fabre, lettre a Gaume, [sans date]. I am indebted for this passage to an unpublished paper by Jean-Louis Roy, livres et societe Bas-Canadienne, Croissance et expansion de la librairie Fabre 1816-1855 Oune 1972) 33-4. 17 PAC, Neilson Papers, Vol. 161, George Clark & Son to Neilson & Cowan, 31 March 1831, 30 March 1832 18 Ibid. Vol. 160, Neilson & Cowan to Carey, Lea & Carey, 9 October 1827. Neilson & Cowan did in fact order 12 copies of Cooper's Red Rover. 19 Capt. Moorsom's letters from Nova Scotia (1830) are quoted in Archibald

Notes to pages 101-9 279

20 21 22 23 24 25

26 27 28

29

30 31

32

MacMechan, 'Halifax in Books. 1,' Acadiensis VI (April 1906) 116. AnnaJ ameson, Winter Studies and Summer Rambles (New York: Wiley 1839) 1, 189 Helmut Kallmann, 'Abraham Nordheimer,' DCB IX (1976) 600-1 Eugene Exman, The House of Harper: One Hundred and Fifty Years of Publishing (New York: Harper & Row 1967) 15 Tebbe!, A History of Book Publishing in the United States,, 243 W. Dunbar's and George Hardy's advertisements in The New-Brunswick Courier, 28 November 1840 Barnes, Authors, Publishers and Politicians 140 Harper's advertisement for new books in the Montreal Gazette, 28 November 1834; Godey's lady's Book in The British Whig (Kingston), 2 March 1835; and Jemima Mason's advertisement for the British periodicals in the Montreal Gazette, 24 February 1841 Barnes, Authors, Publishers and Politicians 141 James S. Buckingham, Canada, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the Other British Provinces of North America (London: Fisher [1843]) 142 The first work copyrighted under the Nova Scotia Act was Haliburton's The letter-Bag of the Great Western ( 1840); and the first work copyrighted under the Province of Canada Act was Robert Christie's The History of Canada ( 1841 ). [John Lovell and Graeme Mercer Adam], A letter to Sir john Rose ... on the Canadian Copyright Question. By Two Members of the Native Book Trade (London 1872) 5 Edgar Johnson, Charles Dickens: His Tragedy and Triumph (New York: Simon and Schuster 1952) 1, 374-6 James J. Barnes, Authors, Publishers and Politicians 1 54. See Chapter 8, 'The British Law Courts: A Possible Remedy for the Absence of International Copyright.' PAC, Colonial Office 42, Vol. 502, Thomas Wilson to Colonial Office, 3 June 184 2 , 575-7

33 PANS, Colonial Office, Nova Scotia, Post Office Letters from GPO London to GPO, Halifax, Directive, 3 November 1842 34 The New World advertisement in Chronicle and Gazette, and Kingston Commercial Advertiser, 15 April 1843 35 University of New Brunswick Archives, Colebrooke Papers, Lt-Gov. W.M.G. Colebrooke to Lord Stanley, Copy No. 70, 20 July 1843 36 Barnes, Authors, Publishers, and Politicians 24-7 37 Ibid. 143-4 38 Canada (Province), Legislative Assembly, Journals, 1843 II 3 39 Evidence was provided by James Macfarlane (Kingston); James Harrison (Belleville); Hugh Scobie, H. & W. Rowsell, and Lesslie Brothers (Toronto); J .H.

280

40 41 42 43 44

45

46 47

48 49

Notes to pages

109- 1 5

Tebbetts, William Greig and Armour & Ramsay (Montreal); and Thomas Cary and William Cowan (Quebec). A letter from A.F. Reade, Esq., of Fredericton was included, although he was identified as 'signature not legible.' Appendix PP, 'Report of the Select Committee,' Evidence of Hugh Scobie [2] Ibid. evidence of Thomas Cary [6) Ibid. evidence of H. & W . Rowsell [2], and William Greig [4-5) I bid. 'Report of the Select Committee,' [I] Ibid. Alfred F. Reade to the Select Committee, 6 December 1843. Reade's name was not legible to the Kingston typesetter of this Report, but he is identified in Great Britain, Parliament, Coionial Office, Return to an Address of the Honourable the House of Commons dated 12 April 1872 [London 1872). Reade married Lt-Gov. Colebrooke's daughter in 1844 and soon was at the centre of a political crisis when his father-in-law appointed him Provincial Secretary of New Brunswick. National Library of Scotland, MSS No. 4063, Armour & Ramsay to Messrs Blackwood & Sons, 7 March 1843 . 1 am indebted to Professor Carl F. Klinck for transcribing this letter for me. Armour & Ramsay advertisement in The Chronicle and Gazette, and Kingston Commercial Advertiser, 9 December 1843 I have not found any copies of the Armour and Ramsay's Literary News-Letter, but Nos. I-IV are reviewed in 'Our Table, ' Literary Garland m, n.s. (September 1845) 431. 'Notices of New Works,' Literary Garland IV, n.s. (October 1846) 471 Rev. William Snodgrass, A Sermon, Preached on the ISt March, 1857, Being the First Sabbath after the Funeral of Hew Ramsay, Esq. (Montreal: Lovell 1857)

26 50 'The Death of Hew Ramsay,' The Montreal Gazette, 24 February 1857, 83

verso 5I Appendix PP, 'Report of the Select Committee' [4) 52 'Cheap Reading,' The Novascotian, 26 April 1847 53 Great Britain, Parliament, Colonial Office, Colonial Copyright, Return to an Address of the Honourable the House of Commons, Dated 12 April 1872,for Copies or Extracts of Correspondence between the Colonial Office, the Board of Trade, and the Government of Canada ... (London 1872), No. 309, Appendix A, Despatch of Lord Falkland to Lord Stanley, 30 April 1845 54 Canada (Province), Legislative Assembly, Journals, 1844-5, 65 5 5 Nova Scotia, House of Assembly, Appendix No. 31 to the Journal ... 1846 (No. 256), Lord Stanley to Viscount Falkland, 27 November 1845, 104 56 Canada (Province), Legislative Assembly, Appendix K to the Journals, 1847 (No. 49), Message from His Excellency the Governor General, Transmitting

Notes to pages n5-23 281

57 58

59 60 61

62 63 64 65

66 67

68

Copies of Despatches from the Secretary of State, and Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia, 18 June 1847 New Brunswick, Legislative Council, Journals, 1847, Appendix, cxiii-iv During a Commons debate on copyright on 13 May 1874, Alfred Dymond explained Sir Francis Hincks's role in the copyright problems of the late 1840s: 'Sir Francis Hincks was the Minister mainly instrumental in obtaining the passage of the Canadian Act [ 18 50] which was necessary to give effect to this Imperial legislation. [Dymond] understood that at that period an attempt was made to induce Sir Francis Hincks, as a member of the Government by whom the Act was passed, to place Canadian publishers on the same footing as their foreign rivals, but in consequence of the book trade in Canada being at the time insignificant in extent, Sir Francis Hincks declined to accede to the request. [Dymond] was bound to say, in justice to that hon. gentleman, that by his exertions to bring the matter before the British Government and people during the last few years he had done much to redeem what they now saw to have been a mistake.' Quoted in 'House of Commons,' The Globe, l4 May 1874 Canada (Province), Legislative Assembly, Appendix N to the Journals, 1849, Board of Trade to the Colonial Office, 30 June 1848 Wilson, et al., Canadian Education 219 n16 Alexander Davidson, The Canada Spelling Book [ 1840], preface [ unpaged]. Egerton Ryerson refers to the anti-British bias of American textbooks used in Canada West in his Special Report of the Separate School Provisions of the School Law of Upper Canada and the Measures Which Have Been Adopted to Supply the School Sections and Municipalities with School Text Books, Apparatus and Libraries (Toronto: Lovell 18 58) 22 . Nova Scotia, Assembly,]ournals, 1857 (Halifax : Penny 1858), Appendix No. 37, 60 James Gowan, 'The Stationery Trade of Halifax,' Bookseller and Stationer XXII (August 1906) 18 Ian Ross Robertson, 'James Douglas Haszard,' DCB x (1972) 339 Advertisements for the Johnson Foundry type and printing materials frequently appeared in British North American newspapers. Armour & Ramsay's Fifth Book of Lessons (Montreal 18 51) was stereotyped by L. Johnson and Co. 'Business Notes,' Publishers' Weekly XLV (3 February 1894) 297; and 'An Old Established Firm,' Bookseller and Stationer xxm (December 1907) 15 Georges Laberge and Andre Vachon, 'Book Publishing in Quebec,' Royal Commission on Book Publishing: Background Papers (Toronto : Queen's Printer 1972) 374 E.B. Sissons, Egerton Ryerson: His Life and Times (Toronto : Clarke, Irwin 1937) l, II 3

282

Notes to pages

124-31

69 [Ryerson], Special Report on the Separate School Provisions of the School Law of Upper Canada 39, 41 70 'The Government Book Store, Toronto,' The Canadian Literary News Letter and Booksellers' Advertiser I Oune 1855) 83-4 71 John George Hodgins, Documentary History of Education in Upper Canada (Toronto: Cameron 1906) XIII , 314 72 Ibid. 315 73 Ibid. 319-20 74 Hodgins, Documentary History XVIII, 108, 224 75 Tebbe!, A History of Book Publishing in the United States 1, 352. See also George

76 77

78 79

80 81

82 83 84

L. Parker, 'Egerton Ryerson and the Ontario Book Trade in the Mid-Nineteenth Century,' Signum II Oanuary 1975) 21-38; and Linda Wilson Corman, 'James Campbell and the Ontario Education Department, 1858-1884,' Papers of the Bibliographical Society of Canada xiv ( 1975), 17-52. Erastus Wiman, Annual Report of the Board of Trade ... for 1860 (Toronto: Wiman 1861) 30 [Egerton Ryerson], The School Book Question: Letters in Reply to the BrownCampbell Crusade Against the Educational Department for Upper Canada ... (Toronto: Lovell 1866) 31-7 Erastus Wiman, Annual Report of the Board of Trade ... for 1862 (Toronto: The Compiler 1863) 29 Although Thomas Nelson did not establish a firm in Toronto, at least one of his imprints suggests otherwise: Third Book of Lessons for the Use of Schools (Toronto : T. Nelson and Sons 1864). A copy of this book is in the Canadian History Section, Metropolitan Toronto Library Board, No. 5620 in A Bibliography of Canadiana . Ryerson, The School Book Question 19 Hodgins, Documentary History (1907) xx. On 27 July 1867 Campbell agreed to let other printers print his textbooks (p. 56). The deed conveying his copyrights to the chief superintendent is reproduced on p. 61. 'The Ryersonian School Book System,' The Globe, 4 May 1866 Hodgins, Documentary History xx, 3 Susanna Moodie, Life in the Clearings versus Life in the Bush (London: Bentley 1853) 285

8 5 Michael Gonder Scherk, Pen Pictures of Early Pioneer Life in Upper Canada (Toronto : Briggs 1905) 83-4. Erastus Wiman in his Annual Report of the Board of Trade .. . for 1862 29, also mentions the pedlars: 'Books whose only merit was in their bulk and binding, have been hawkled into every nook of the province by a migratory tribe of itinerant pedlars.' 86 Susanna Moodie, Life in the Clearings, ed. Robert L. McDougall (Toronto : Macmillan 1959) 289

Notes to pages 131-7 283 87 Peter Benson, 'Maturin Murray Ballou,' in Publishers for Mass Entertainment in Nineteenth Century America 28 88 Nathaniel H. Puffer, 'Robert M. DeWitt,' in Publishers for Mass Entertainment 93 89 Lawrence Parke Murphy, 'Beadle & Co.,' in Publishers for Mass Entertainment

41-2

90 Sadlier's advertisement in Mackay's Montreal Directory for 1866-67 (Montreal: Lovell 1866) 483; Dawson's advertisement in Mackay's Montreal Directory for 1854 (Montreal: Lovell 18 54) 294; Cosgrove's advertisement in Rowsell's .. . Directory for 1850-1 (Toronto: Rowsell 1850) 197; Westacott's advertisement in Haszard's Gazette (Charlottetown), 4 January 1853, and The People's Gazette (Charlottetown), 12 September 18 57 91 J. & D . Sadlier's advertisement in Robert MacKay's Montreal Directory for 1849 (Montreal : Lovell & Gibson 1849) 272 92 Crawford Kilian, 'The Cheerful Inferno of James De Mille,' Journal of Canadian Fiction 1 (Summer 1972) 61 93 Beaulieu and Hamelin, La Presse quebecoise 1, 166 94 'The Editor's Shanty: The Law of Copyright in Canada,' The Anglo-American Magazine 1 (October 1852) 356 95 Ibid. 3 56 96 'Literary Intelligence,' Publishers' Circular XIX ( 15 November 18 56) 458 97 'Literary Intelligence,' Publishers' Circular xix ( 1 December 18 56) 478 98 Ibid. 478 99 'Literary Intelligence,' Publishers' Circular xx ( 1 5 September 18 57) 394 100 W.S. MacNutt, New Brunswick. A History: 1784-1867 (Toronto: Macmillan 1963) 374 101 Great Britain, House of Commons, A Copy of Correspondence between the

102 103 104 105 106 107

Colonial Office and the Authorities in Canada, on the Subject of the Removal or Reduction of the Duties Charged on British Goods Entering Canada (London: HMSO 1864) 4-7 'Literary Intelligence,' Publishers' Circular XXII ( 1 5 April 1859) 179 Ibid. (16 May 1859) 229 Ibid. (1 June 1859) 254 Ibid. (16 July 1859) 332 A Copy of Correspondence between the Colonial Office and the Authorities in Canada 10 Canada (Province) Sessional Papers, No. 23, Tables of the Trade and Navigation of the Province of Canada, for the year 1859 (Quebec: Thompson 1860) No. 2. 'Summary Statement of the Quantity and Value of, and Amount of Duty Collected on, the Principal Articles of British and Foreign Merchandise entered for Consumption during the Year 1859, and Indicating from what Country Imported'

284 Notes to pages 137-43 Jameson, Winter Studies 1, 189 Moodie, Life in the Clearings 28 5 Wiman, Annual Report of the Board of Trade .. . for 1862 29 'Recent American Literature,' The New Era, 23 July 18 57 J .M. Trout, Annual Statement of the Trade of Toronto ... 1865 (Toronto: The Leader 1866) 50 113 'Men of the Times: Mr W.W. Copp,' Books and Notions vn CTuly 1891) 6

108 109 110 111 112

CHAPTER FOUR : THE MID-CENTURY REVOLUTION IN PRINTING TECHNOLOGY

Background studies for this chapter include Canadian North-West Historical Society, The Story of the Press (Battleford: Canadian North-West Historical Society Publications 1928), I, 4, Part 1; Eugene Forsey, Trade Unions in Canada 1812-1902 (Toronto : University of Toronto Press 1982); Geoffrey A. Glaister, Glossary of the Book: Terms Used in Paper-Making, Printing, Bookbinding, and Publishing (London: G. Allen and Unwin [1960]); Ruari McLean, Victorian Book Design and Colour Printing (Berkeley : University of California Press 1972); Toronto Public Libraries, Canadian Book of Printing: How Printing Came to Canada and the Story of the Graphic Arts, Told Mainly in Pictures (Toronto: Toronto Public Libraries 1940); and J .A. Blyth, 'The Development of the Paper Industry in Old Ontario, 1824-1867,' Ontario History LX (1970) 119-33. 1

2

3 4

5 6 7

8

Bruce Peel, 'Frustrations of the Missionary-Printer of Rossville: Reverend William Mason,' The Bulletin: Records and Proceedings of the Committee on Archives of the United Church of Canada 18 (1965) 20 Birch Bark Talking: A Resume of the Life and Work of the Rei•James Evans (Toronto : The Board of Home Missions 1940) 25 Bruce Peel, 'Rossville Mission Press,' Papers of the Bibliographical Society of Canada I (1962) 28-45 H.P. Gundy, The Spread of Printing: Canada (Amsterdam: van Gendt 1972) 71 Bruce Peel, Early Printing in the Red River Settlement 1859-1870 (Winnipeg : Peguis 1974) 1-2 H.J. Morgan, Bibliotheca Canadensis (Ottawa: Desbarats 1867) 57 'The Past Reviewed,' Manitoba Daily Free Press, 2 April 1888 'The Past Reviewed .' William Coldwell sent this account of his Pioneer I New Nation number to the annual dinner of the Manitoba Press Club on 31 March 1888. Bruce Peel discusses in detail the printing activities of Brown, Coldwell, and Riel's supporters during 1868-9 in his Early Printing in the Red River Settlement 1859-70.

Notes to pages 143-52 285 9 George B. Winship, 'My First Flat-Boat Ride down the Red River, and Incidents

Connected Therewith,' The Story of the Press 18-19. Bruce Peel believes the correct date for the Proclamation is 3 December 1869 (see Early Printing 27), although Winship said it was 2 December. ro Douglas McMurtrie, The Earliest British Columbia Imprint (Chicago : McMurtrie 1931) 7-8 r r 'Our Fair Pacific Province,' Books and Notions I (December 1884) 78; Harold N. Diggon, 'A Bookseller in "Victorian" Victoria,' Quill & Quire IX (March 1943) 35, 38; and Emily Carr, The Book of Small (Toronto : Oxford 1942) 172 12 R. C. Laurie, 'The Saskatchewan Herald,' The Story of the Press 40 13 'Books and Stationery in British Columbia,' Bookseller and Stationer xvi (February 1900) r8 14 Douglas McMurtrie, The First Printing in Alberta (Chicago: McMurtrie 1932) 9 r 5 C.A. Hayden, 'Romance of the Calgary Herald,' The Story of the Press 53 r6 'James C. Linton,' Bookseller and Stationer xxm (August 1907) 28 17 W.K. Kesterton, A History ofJournalism in Canada (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart 1967) 32 r8 Catherine Tulloch, 'Pioneer Reading,' Saskatchewan History XII (Autumn 1959) 98 19 'A Friend to Canada' (pseud. ], Canadian Manufactures: To the People of Canada [Montreal : John Lovell 1858?] ro 20 PAC, Howe Papers, Vol. 32, Howe to Boston Type and Stereotype Foundry, 14 November and 2 December 1832 21 Connor's advertisements in The Globe, r6July 1844 and '1859. The Globe. 1860,' The Globe, 29 November 1859 22 George Bruce advertised in Ross's Weekly, 6 April 1860 and The Montreal Gazette, 23 October 1863. 23 Lovell & Gibson's Specimen of Printing Types and Ornaments (1846) was issued in a facsimile edition in 1975 by the Bibliographical Society of Canada. 24 'Montreal Type Foundry,' The Montreal Gazette, ro September 1863 25 Toronto Type Foundry advertisement in Toronto, The Queen City of Canada, Illustrated, 1893 (Toronto: Consolidated Illustrated Co. (1893]) 68 26 'Another Mile Post Reached in P.E. Island's Newspaperdom,' The Daily Examiner (Charlottetown), 20 July 1905 27 Mackenzie's advertisement 'Canadian Edition of the Scriptures,' The Constitution (Toronto), 27 July 1836 28 'A New Departure,' The Globe, 15 April 1880. This two page article with its five illustrations is one of the most useful articles on nineteenth-century printing presses, particularly those used by The Globe. 29 F. St George Spendlove, The Face of Early Canada (Toronto: Ryerson 1958) 66

286 Notes to pages 152-8 30 H. Pearson Gundy, 'Samuel Oliver Tazewell, First Lithographer of Upper Canada,' Humanities Association Review xxv11 (Fall 1976) 466-73 31 J . Russell Harper, Paul Kane's Frontier (Toronto: University of Toronto Press 1971) 44 32 Peter Desbarats, The Canadian Illustrated News (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart 1970) 1o 33 Samuel de Champlain, Oeuvres (Quebec: Desbarats 1870) 1, 'Preface' iv-v 34 Jean Talon Lesperance, 'The Literary Standing of the New Dominion,' Canadian Illustrated News, 24 February 1877, 119 3 5 Beaulieu and Hamelin, La Presse quebecoise 11, 140 36 Quoted by Peter Desbarats, The Canadian Illustrated New~ 11 37 Ibid. 11 38 Harper, Paul Kane's Frontier 44 39 Quoted in Robert Stacey, The Canadian Poster Book: 100 Years of the Poster in Canada (Toronto: Methuen 1979) ix 40 John A. Cooper, Men of Canada (Montreal & Toronto : Canadian Historical Co 1901-2) [1-2] 41 D.C. Harvey, 'Newspapers of Nova Scotia,' Canadian Historical Review xxv1 (September 1945) 288 42 Edgar Andrew Collard, A Tradition Lives (Montreal: The Gazette 1953) 29-30 43 SaintJ ohn Regional Library, D.R. Jack, Notes for a History of the Press in the Maritime Provinces of Canada and Newfoundland; 'Our City Publishers,' The Sun (Saint John), 3 April 1879 44 As far as I can determine, W .E. Logan's Remarks on the Mining Region of Lake Superior (1847) is the first Lovell & Gibson imprint that mentions their 'SteamPrinting Establishment.' The Lovell steam-power press was the first one in Canada East, despite Elizabeth Waterston's claim for David Kinnear's Montreal Herald in the early 1850s. See Waterston, 'David Kinnear,' Dictionary of Canadian Biography IX (1976) 430. Furthermore, by mid-1851 Derbishire & Desbarats had a steam press in their Montreal plant. See Canada (Province), Legislative Assembly, Appendix DD to the Journals, 18 51, 'Fifth Report of the Standing Committee on Printing' [8-9] 45 J .M.S. Careless, Brown of the Globe (Toronto: Macmillan 1959) 1, 177 46 See Globe advertisement, 27 November 1867. 47 'J . Starke & Co.'s Printing Office,' The Montreal Gazette, 29 October 1863 48 Lovell's advertisement in Mackay's Montreal Directory for 1866-67 63 49 Charles Perry's advertisement in The Patriot and Farmer's Monitor (York), 7 December 1832. I have not discovered whether Perry actually built any printing presses; the advertisement indicates only that he was prepared to do so. 50 Canadian Manufactures 8

Notes to pages 158-66 287 p [William Lyon Mackenzie], 'On Printers and Publishers,' by Peter Russell [pseud.], The Colonial Advocate, 6 April 1826 52 William Smith, The History of the Post Office in British North America 16391870. Edmund Ward's conflict (1830) withJ ohn Howe, jr, is discussed on 186-8; William Lyon Mackenzie's conflict with Thomas Stayner, on 196-8 . 53 Robert Sellar, 'Reminiscences of 1856,' in A History of Canadian journalism (Toronto: Canadian Press Association 1908) 179 54 Lesperance, 'The Literary Standing of the New Dominion' 119 55 J . R. C. Honeyman, 'The Regina Leader,' The Story of the Press 68 56 Thomas Clark, 'The Macleod Gazette,' The Story of the Press 48-9 57 Geoffrey Glaister, Glossary of the Book 256-7 58 W.J . Gage & Co., A Story of Sixty-Five Successful Years (Toronto: [Gage 1909]) 11 59 Sally F. Zerker, The Rise and Fall of the Toronto Typographical Union 1832197.2: A Case Study of Foreign Domination

60 61 62 63 64 65

66 67 68

69

(Toronto: University of Toronto Press 1982) 44-6 Charles Lipton, The Trade Union Movement in Canada 18.27-1959 (Montreal: Canadian Social Publications 1966) 22 Information about the number of firms engaged in printing and bookselling has come from the city and provincial directories of the years indicated. Canada (Province), Legislative Assembly, Appendix DD to the Journals, 1851, 'Fifth Report of the Standing Committee on Printing' [6] John Lovell, 'Preface,' Lovell's Canadian Dominion Directory for 1871 (Montreal: Lovell 1871) 48-9 Canadian Manufactures 9 'Recent American Literature,' The New Era, 23 July 1857 [George Stewart, jr], 'Introductory,' Stewart's Literary Quarterly Magazine 1 (April 1867) 1 Mary Jane Edwards, 'The Case of Canadian Homes,' Canadian Literature 8 1 (Summer 1979) 147-54 [Thomas D'Arcy McGee], 'Protection for Canadian Literature,' in The Search for English Canadian Literature, ed. and introd. Carl Ballstadt (Toronto: University of Toronto Press) 21-4. See also The New Era , 24 April 1858. Canadian Manufactures 9 CHAPTER FIVE : BUILDING A NATIONAL PUBLISHING INDUSTRY

Background studies for this chapter include H. Pearson Gundy, 'The Development of Trade Book Publishing in Canada,' in Royal Commission on Book Publishing, Background Papers (Toronto : Queen's Printer and Publisher 1972); Elizabeth

288 Notes to pages 167-72 Hulse, A Dictionary of Toronto Printers, Publishers, Booksellers and the Allied Trades 1798-1900 (Toronto: Anson-Cartwright 1982); Viola Parvin, Authorization of Textbooks for the Schools of Ontario 1846-1950 (Toronto: Canadian Textbook Publishers' Institute and University of Toronto Press 1965); Gordon Roper, 'Mark Twain and His Canadian Publishers: A Second Look,' Papers of the Bibliographical Society of Canada v ( 1966) 30-89; Raymond Shove, Cheap Book Production in the United States, 1870 to 1891 (Urbana: University of Illinois Library 1937); John Tebbe!, A History of Book Publishing in the United States. Vol. 11: The Expansion of an Industry 1865-1919 (New York: Bowker 1975); and Great Britain, Parliament, Copyright Commission, Minutes of the Evidence Taken before the Royal Commission on Copyright Together with an Appendix (London: Eyre and Spottiswoode 1878), and The Royal Commissions and the Report of the Commissioners (London: Eyre and Spottiswoode 1878). 1

2

3

4 5

6 7 8

Canada, Parliament, Sessional Papers, 1869, No. 11, Correspondence. CopyRight Law in Canada 5-6 Thomas D' Arey McGee, 'The Mental Outfit of the New Dominion,' The Montreal Gazette, 5 November 1867; James Douglas, jr, 'The Intellectual Progress of Canada During the Last Fifty Years, and the Present State of Its Literature,' The Canadian Monthly and National Review vu Oune 1875) 471 Correspondence. Copy-Right Law in Canada (1869) 5 Ibid. 5 Ibid. r r. In this same memorandum Rose points out that the foreign reprints duty is so widely 'evaded,' despite the fact that Canada 'receives large supplies of American reprints of English Copy-right books,' that the total duties collected on foreign reprints averaged only £ r r 5. r. 3 sterling a year between r 864-7 and £164.5-3 for 1868 (p. 9) Ibid. 6 Ibid. 7 'Literary and Musical Copyright Property,' The Athenaeum, 17 July 1869,

84-5 9 Note in Monthly Bulletin r (16 August 1869) Sr. This periodical is bound in with the British Library copy of The Publishers' Circular (1869).

ro Thomas Longman, Some Observations on Copyright and Our Colonies (London: Longmans, Green 1872) 11-13 r r 'House of Commons,' The Globe, 14 May 1874 12 John Lovell, 'John Lovell's Printing Office,' [letter] Publishers' Weekly m (30 January r 873) 107-8 13 'The Copyright Law,' The Montreal Gazette, 5 January 1872 14 'Copyright,' The Globe, 12 January 1872

Notes to pages 173-83 289 15

16 17 18 19

20 21

22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39

PAC, Macdonald Papers, Vol. 202, Private Correspondence between the Hon. Sir ]. Rose and T.H. Farrer Esq. on the Subject of Colonial Copyright (London: Eyre & Spottiswoode 1872), Farrer to Rose, 1 February 1872 Minutes of the Evidence Taken before the Royal Commission on Copyright, Trevelyan to Longman, 12 February 1872, 328 'Copyright in the Colonies,' Canada Bookseller I, n.s. (May 1872) 53 Ibid. 53 Canada, Parliament, Sessional Papers, 1875, No. 28, Return to an Address of the Senate, dated 23rd February 1875, the Earl of Carnavon to the Earl of Dufferin, 15 June 1874, 1-2 'The New Copyright Act,' Canada Bookseller II, n.s. Quly 1872) 1 Uohn Lovell and G. Mercer Adam], A letter to Sir John Rose, Bart., K.C.M.G., on the Canadian Copyright Question, by Two Members of the Native Book Trade. London, August 15, 1872 (n.p., n.d.) 6-7 'House of Commons,' The Globe, 14 May 1874 'An Appeal for Justice,' The Evening Telegram (Toronto), 23 January 1889 Archives of Ontario, Campbell Papers, Thomas Ryan to Sir Alexander Campbell, 26 September 1872 'House of Commons,' The Globe, 14 May 1874 Lovell 'John Lovell's Printing Office' 107 Ibid. 107 'Literary Intelligence,' Publishers' Circular xxxm (1 September 1870) 533 [George Stewart, jr], 'Republishing in Canada,' Stewart's Quarterly IV anuary 1871) 447-8 [Graeme Mercer Adam], 'Canadian Reprints,' Canada Bookseller II, n.s. (April 1871) 5 [Graeme Mercer Adam], 'Canadian Publications and Native Intelligence,' Canada Bookseller II, n.s. (April 1871) 22 George Maclean Rose, 'The Copyright Laws,' The Globe, 15 January 1872 'Death of Mr G.M. Rose,' The Globe, 11 February 1898; and 'Daniel A. Rose of Printing Firm Dies in His Home,' The Globe, 16 October 1933 Metropolitan Toronto Library Board, Canadian History Section, Canada Bookseller Catalogues 'The Approaching Book Season,' Canada Bookseller II, n.s. (October 1872) 26 Queen's University, Douglas Library, Special Collections, Insolvent Act of 1869, Assignment notice of Adam and Stevenson, 11 November 1874 Nellie McClung, The Stream Runs Fast (Toronto: Thomas Allen 1965) 66 Tougas, History of French-Canadian literature 64-5 Arthur Conrad, 'Book Publishing in Canada,' Bookseller and Stationer XXI (August 1905) 298

a

40 Great Britain, Parliament, Colonial Copyright, Correspondence Respecting Colonial Copyright (London: Harrison 1874) 9-10 41 Dawson Brothers' letter to Tache was printed in Report of the Copyright Association for the Year 1874-5 (London : Longmans, Green 1875) 14-17 42 Ibid. F.R. Daldy to the Earl of Carnavon, 1 June 1874, 12-13 43 S.E. Dawson, Copyright in Books (Montreal: Dawson 1882) 21-5 44 Annabel Jones, 'Disraeli's Endymion: A Case Study,' in Essays in the History

45

46 47 48 49 50

p

52 53 54

of Publishing in Celebration of the 2 50th Anniversary of the House of Longman 1724-1974 , ed. Asa Briggs (London : Longman 1974) 164 'Important Copyright Question,' Publishers' Circular XJO{.I ( 15 May 1868) 264; and 'Important Decision in the House of Lords Relating to Copyright,' Publishers' Circular, XJO{.J (1 June 1868) 296-300 'Literary and Musical Copyright,' The Athenaeum (20 November 1869) 663 'Smiles v. Belford,' The Mail (Toronto), 19 March 1877 'Copyright Notes,' Publishers' Weekly x (28 October 1876) 700 J. Stewart Tupper, Report of Cases ... Court of Appeal (Toronto : Rowsell & Hutchison 1878) 1, 446 [Editorial], Books and Notions v (October 1889) 3-4 PAC, Grant Papers, Vol. 33, Belford Brothers to Grant, 4 October 1876, 20 February 1877, and 6 April 1877 'Stewart v. Rose-Belford,' The Globe, 13 May 1879 John Ross Robertson's articles on copyright were printed in a pamphlet, Copyright in Canada (Toronto : Robertson 1879). Gordon Roper, 'Mark Twain and his Canadian Publishers : A Second Look'

65 55 Canada, House of Commons, Debates, 1886, 378. J .D. Edgar gave this information to the House on 29 March 1886. 56 Ibid. 378 57 Roper, 'Mark Twain and his Canadian Publishers: A Second Look' 57. See also 'The Canadian Incursion,' Publishers' Weekly xv (12 April 1879) 439. 58 Debates, 1886 378 59 Roper, 'Mark Twain .. . A Second Look' 79 60 ' International Petty Larceny,' Publishers' Weekly XXIX (9 January 1886) 47-8 61 Hector Charlesworth, Candid Chronicles (Toronto: Macmillan 1925) 109-10.

Such a situation was quite possible, but I have not been able to verify this against other evidence. 62 Archives of Ontario, Kirby Papers, Graeme Mercer Adam to William Kirby, 12July 1875 63 Ibid. Adam to Kirby, 11 July 1878 64 Ibid. John Wurtele Lovell to Kirby, 12 July 1876

Notes to pages 190-8 291 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72

73 74 75 76

77 78 79 80 81 82 83

84 85 86 87

88

89

Ibid. John Lovell to Kirby, 2 April 1878 Ibid. Robert Lovell to Kirby, 14 April 1877 Ibid. Department of Agriculture to Kirby, 10 March 1880 Ibid. Adam to Kirby, 17 March 1880 Ibid. John Lovell to Kirby, 2 April 1878 Ibid. John Wurtele Lovell to Kirby, 22 November 1884 Ibid. L.C. Page to Kirby, 2 May 1897 Queen's University, Douglas Library, Lorne Pierce Collection of Canadiana, Kirby Papers, 'Confidential. Literary Review of the Publications of William Kirby's "Le Chien d'Or" or "The Golden Dog" from Actual Data in the Hands of the Late Author's Estate' 5 Ibid. 5 Madeleine B. Stern, 'John W. Lovell,' in Publishers for Mass Entertainment in Nineteenth Century America' 201 Ibid. 203 Ibid. 208. See also Stern's 'The Advancement of Labor & Women's Rights. John W. Lovell. His Social Conscience,' in her Imprints on History: Book Publishers and American Frontiers (Bloomington: Indiana University Press 1956) 259-89 Canada, House of Commons, Debates, 1879, 1340-5 'The Book Trade,' The Globe, 27 February 1880 Ibid. 'Trade Review, 1879,' The Globe, 23 February 1880 'The Book Trade,' The Globe, 27 February 1880 'An Appeal for Justice,' The Evening Telegram (Toronto), 23 January 1889 Alexander H . Brodie, 'Subscription Publishing and the Booktrade in the Eighties: The Invasion of Ontario,' Studies in Canadian Literature 11 (Winter 1977) 96-7 My father told me that when he was a boy, in the first decade of this century, a book agent regularly visited their family farm at Georgetown, PEI. 'The Native Book Trade of 1872,' Canada Bookseller 11, n.s. (December 1872) 46 'Editorial,' Books and Notions VIII Oune 1892) 5 'Chicago's Book Trades: The Subscription-Book Trade,' Publishers' Weekly xxv1 (12 July 1884) 32-4. In 1874-5 The Agents' Companion was issued by the Companion Publishing Company of London, Ontario. Two issues are held in the Canadian History Section of the Metropolitan Toronto Library Board. P.R. Randall's advertisement in The Globe, 16 February 1868. In 1864 Randall issued a tiny (24mo ), 31-page pamphlet Hints to Book Agents, by an Old Canvasser (Toronto: P.R. Randall [1864]). Edward C.H. Phelps, 'Introduction,' Illustrated Historical Atlas of the County of Perth Ontario (Belleville, Ont. : Mika 1972)

292 Notes to pages 198-205 90 PAC, Grant Papers, Henry Belden to Grant, 8 December 1880, 1303-7 91 'Disappointed Subscriber' [pseud.], 'Picturesque Canada,' The Week (20 March 1884) 250. The mystery over the place of production of Picturesque Canada is still not cleared up . In the spring of 188 I Belden and Co bought two six-roller

92 93 94

95 96 97 98 99 100 IOI

102

patent stop cylinder presses, made by R. Hoe & Company, for the printing of Picturesque Canada. See 'Notes and News,' The Printer's Miscellany v (March I 881) 13 8. But Albert Moritz claims that the engravings were made in New York and Philadelphia, and that the engraved blocks were then shipped to Montreal, where they were electrotyped by George Desbarats' Burland Lithographic Company, which also printed the text. See Canada Illustrated (Toronto: Dreadnaught [1982]) 21. Editorial in Books and Notions, VI (November 1890) 7 Brodie, 'Subscription Publishing and the Booktrade in the Eighties' 99 This claim is made in a circular which is bound in with the RMC copy of Macoun's Manitoba and the Great North-West. Many subscription books that I have examined also contain circulars and prospectuses for other titles from the same house. The World Publishing Company's claim of $1 million exports (from Canada?) is hard to take seriously. (trade and navigation tables for 1879 exports: $27,853; for 1880: $39,836; and for 1881: $36,892) 'Canadian Books and Writers,' Bookseller and Stationer xm (September 1897) 3 Editorials in Books and Notions VI (November 1890) 7; and VII Oune 1891) 5 Canada, House of Commons, Debates, 1894, 221-2 Hodgins, Documentary History XXVI, 130 Ibid. 130-1 Ibid. 115 Ibid. 123 Ontario, Legislative Assembly, Papers and Correspondence with Respect to the Depository Branch of the Education Department (Toronto: Hunter, Rose

1877) 1-3 103 Canadian Booksellers' Association, Report of the Proceedings (Toronto: Hunter, Rose 1876) 11 104 Ibid. I 1-19 105 'Dominion Booksellers' Convention,' The Globe, 10 August 1876 106 Report of the Proceedings 22 107 Ibid. 6 108 Viola Parvin, Authorization of Textbooks for the Schools of Ontario 1846-1950 53-4 109 Ibid, 58 1 IO Ibid. 66-9

Notes to pages I I I

112 113 114 115

116 117 118 119 120 121 122 12 3 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132

205-11 293

a

'The New Ontario Readers,' Books and Notions I anuary 1885) 92 'Death of Mr James Campbell,' The Globe, 14 July 1890 'The Campbell Estate,' The Globe, 21 November 1884 Note in Books and Notions I (December 1884) 76 R.A.H. Morrow, 'Concerning School Books,' The Daily Sun (Saint John), 26 January 1880. See also 'The School-Book War,' The Printer's Miscellany 1v (February 1880) 113-14; and 'Vindex' [pseud.], 'The School-Book Question Justice Demanded -A Word to Our M.P.P.'s,' The Printer's Miscellany, v (March 1880) 133-4. 'Correspondence,' Books and Notions I anuary 1885) 97 Ibid. 96-7 'The New Ontario Readers,' Books and Notions I 0anuary 1885) 92 'Meeting of Booksellers,' Books and Notions I (February 188 5) 113 'The New Readers,' The Globe, 15 January 1885 'Another School Book Case,' Books and Notions I (February 1885) 111 Elizabeth Hulse, A Dictionary of Toronto Printers, Publishers, Booksellers and the Allied Trades 1798-1900 58 'Men of the Times. Mr w.w. Copp,' Books and Notions VII uly 1891) 6 'W.J . Gage Co. (Ltd),' Books and Notions IX (September 1893) 7 W.J. Gage & Co. Limited: A Story of Sixty-Five Successful Years 1844-1909 (Toronto [Gage 1909)) Lorne Pierce, The House of Ryerson 1829-1954 (Toronto : Ryerson 1954) 19 'Methodist Book and Publishing House,' in Toronto, the Queen City of Canada, Illustrated, 1893 90-1 Note in Books and Notions I (May 1885), 159 Bluenose [pseud. ], 'Correspondence. A Halifax Letter,' Books and Notions vm 0uly 1892) 16 'Trade Chat,' BooksandNotions1xQuly 1893) 18;andJ.M. Dent, The House of Dent 1888-1938 (London: Dent 1938) 59 Editorial in Books and Notions v 0une 1889) 3 Archives of the United Church of Canada, Board of Publication Papers, William Briggs' Agreements, Box 6, No. 43, Agreement with W.J . Gage and Copp, Clark, 2 May 1900

a

a

CHAPTER SIX: TOWARDS A COMPROMISE Background studies for this chapter include Canada, Sessional Papers (No. 8B), Appendix to the Report of the Minister of Agriculture, 1895, Conference on the Copyright Question (Ottawa: Queen's Printer 1896); Great Britain, Colonial Office, Canada, Correspondence on the Subject of the Law of Copyright in Canada

294

Notes to pages

212-13

(London : HMSO 1895); Great Britain, Parliament, Copyright Commission, Minutes of the Evidence Taken before the Royal Commission on Copyright Together with an Appendix (London : Eyre and Spottiswoode 1878); Alice Hackett, Fifty Years of Best Sellers (New York: Bowker 1945); George N . Morang, The Copyright Question: A Letter to the Toronto Board of Trade (Toronto: Morang 1902); George L. Parker, 'The Canadian Copyright Question in the 1890s,' journal of Canadian Studies xi (May 1976) 4 3- 55; Mary Vipond, 'Best Sellers in English Canada, 18991918,' journal of Canadian Fiction xx1v (1979) 96-119; Elizabeth Waterston, 'Books and Notions : The Canadian Popular Novel in the Nineteenth Century,' Canadian Review of Comparative Literature IX (September 1982) 437-48. 1 Elizabeth Wallace, Goldwin Smith, Victorian Liberal (Toronto: University of Toronto Press 1957) 83 2 Correspondence. Copy-Right Law in Canada (1869) 4 3 'Canadian Reprinting,' Canada Bookseller 1, n.s. Qune 1872) 62 4 In 1883-4 the British government reported that £106.6.2. had been collected on foreign reprints entering Canada. In 1884 a Canadian customs official pointed out how much the British publishers and authors were losing, in a letter entitled 'The Registration of Books at the Custom House,' Publishers' Circular XLVII (15 December 1884) 1443-4. On $378,309 worth of dutiable books imported from the United States, $56,741.87 worth of duties were collected. He estimated that half those books were actually foreign reprints, although the declared value of foreign reprints imported into Canada was $1,431, on which the 121/2 per cent duty came to $214.65. The customs official believed that a more accurate foreign reprints duty would be $23,644.25. Since $214.65 and £106.6.2 do not correspond to each other, the difference may be due to the fact that each country had different fiscal years, and that Canada always retained a portion of the duties as expenses for collecting and transferring them. In 188 8 Sara Jeannette Duncan wrote ironically of the Canadian collection of duties : 'By a less conscientious obedience of the law we need not send a dollar of this money to England, as we are compelled to remit only the amount in excess of the cost of collection, and the cost of collection is more than double the amount collected, the services of an official being required at some ports for this purpose alone. So that although the sum itself is not large, being last year only $1,236.52 all told, we do penance pretty severely for the sin of receiving stolen goods, and it is to be hoped that the recording angel who is spiritual secretary for the International Copyright League, and all that thereto appertains, will not forget to put it down to our credit.' ('Ottawa Letter,' The Week [29 March 1888) 279)

Notes to pages 214-19 295 Note in The Weekly Trade Circular, II (25 July 1872) 91. One example of retaliation against the British for Canadian offences is found in J . V. W., 'Correspondence. The Book Trade and the Reciprocity Treaty,' Publishers' Weekly v (27 June 1874) 591. 6 Minutes of the Evidence Taken before the Royal Commission on Copyright 90 7 William H. Appleton, 'Piracy,' The Times (London), 20 October 1871, 10 8 Minutes of the Evidence 273-4 9 'The Stanley Book,' Publishers' Weekly xiv (2 November 1878) 536; and 'The Stanley Copyright Suits,' Publishers' Weekly xv (26 April 1879) 490. See also 'Current Literature,' Rose-Be/ford's Canadian Monthly 1 (September 1878) 380. 10 'Canadian Wickedness,' The Montreal Gazette, 12 December 1878 11 George Haven Putnam, International Copyright, Considered in Some of Its Relations to Ethics and Political Economy (New York: Putnam 1879) 52-3 12 These recommendations are found in the Minutes of the Evidence as follows : no interference with the 1875 Canadian act, xxxiii; a proposed licensing system in the colonies, xxxiii; removal of the Foreign Reprints Act from Canada but not Newfoundland, xxxi; the prohibition of colonial reprints of English copyrights into the United Kingdom, xxxv; first publication in the colonies to secure copyright throughout the Empire, xiii-xiv. 13 Graeme Mercer Adam, 'New Aspects of the Copyright Question, ' Rose-Be/ford's Canadian Monthly and National Review I (September 1878) 370 14 Minutes of the Evidence 206 15 Ernest Lafleur, 'The Principle of Copyright,' Rose-Be/ford's Canadian Monthly and National Review v (October 1880) 373-81 16 'Literary Intelligence,' Publishers' Circular xuv (1 November 1881) 923 17 PAC, Macdonald Papers, Vol. 314, Sir Leonard Tilley, Report on Copyright Law (n.p., n.d.] 7 18 'International Copyright,' Publishers' Weekly xm (8 June 1878) 554 19 Arthur G. Sedgwick, 'The Copyright Negotiations,' Century Magazine xxm, n.s. (March 1882) 669 20 Ibid. 669 21 'International Copyright: The Author's Best Friend,' Publishers' Weekly XXII (23 September 1882) 431. Reprinted from the New York Evening Post, 1 September 1882 22 'City News. Canadian Publishers' Association,' The Globe, 4 February 1882 23 S.E. Dawson, Copyright in Books (Montreal : Dawson 1882) 24 J .E. Collins, 'International Copyright,' The Week (6 December 1883) 5-6 25 William Kirby, 'Canadian Literature and Copyright,' The Morning Chronicle (Quebec), 1, 2, 4 February 1884

296 Notes to pages 219-24 26 George Maclean Rose, 'The Copyright Laws,' Books and Notions I (November 1884) 64-5 27 'The Copyright Laws,' Books and Notions 1 (March 1885) 119. Reprinted in 'Copyright in Canada,' Publishers' Weekly XXXII (28 March 1885) 364 28 'A Canadian Copyright Association,' Publishers' Weekly xxxm ( 16 June 1888) 939. President: John Ross Robertson; Chief Vice-Presidents: George Maclean Rose and Samuel Edward Dawson. All the provinces and the North-West Territories had vice-presidential representation. 29 'Fighting for a Copyright,' The Evening Telegram (Toronto), 1 November 1888 30 P.B. Waite, 'Sir John Thompson and Copyright, 1889-1894: Struggling to Break Free of Imperial Law,' Bulletin of Canadian Studies v1-v11 (Autumn 1983) 36-49. This article came to my attention after this book was finished . 31 Gordon Roper, 'The Canadian Bibliographer and Library Record and Its Editor,' Papers of the Bibliographical Society of Canada VI (1967) 27-31. This article is accompanied by facsimiles of the first three issues, November 1889 to January 1890. Throughout the 1890s, Rose's The Canadian Bookseller was subtitled The Canadian Bookseller and Library Journal. 32 'The Canadian Copyright Question,' The Week, 1 February 1889, 132 33 'Canadian Copyright,' The Week, 22 March 1895, 387 34 'The Canadian Copyright Act,' The Week, 2 November 1894, 1156 35 'The Question of Copyright,' The Week, 4 December 1891, 3 36 [John Lesperance], 'Red and Blue Pencils,' by Talon [pseud.], The Dominion Illustrated I (3 November 1888) 279; and (10 November 1888) 295 37 John A. Cooper, 'Editorial Comment,' The Canadian Magazine XII (February 1899) 366-9 38 'Canadian Books and Authors,' Books and Notions IX (March 1893) 7 39 Goldwin Smith, 'What Is the Matter with Canadian Literature,' The Week, 31 August 1894, 950-1 40 R.R. B[owker], 'The Progress of International Copyright,' Publishers' Weekly XLVII (19 January 1895) 57, 58 41 Great Britain, Colonial Office, Correspondence on the Subject of the Law of Copyright in Canada (1895) 61-2 42 Ibid. 54 43 R.A. Shields, 'Imperial Policy and the Canadian Copyright Act of 1889,' Dalhousie Review LX (Winter 1981) 634-58. This article came to my attention after this book was finished; it clearly explains the conflicts within the Colonial Office about the Canadian copyright question. 44 Both Edgar and Thompson agreed that the proclamation was not a 'treaty.' See their exchange on 6 May 1892 in Canada, House of Commons, Debates, 1892, 2237.

Notes to pages 224-9 297 45 'Blaine's Protest against Canada's Action Regarding Copyright,' Publishers' Weekly XLI (27 February 1892) 367 46 Graeme Mercer Adam, 'Canadian Copyright,' The New-York Tribune, 9 August 1895 47 'The New York Publishers' Combination,' Books and Notions VI (April 1890) r r; and 'The New York Publishers' Syndicate,' Books and Notions VI (May r 890) II

48 'Fast Selling Novels,' Books and Notions rx Qune 1893) 5-6 49 'The Fifty-Cent Novel,' Books and Notions rx (October 1893) 5 50 Toronto News Company's advertisement for Nada the Lily in Books and Notions, VIII (May I 892) 9; and for The Wrecker uly 1892) 9 51 Brown gave the cost of Trilby in Canada, Conference on the Copyright Question (1896) 8. Theodore Gregory gave the sales figures for Trilby in a letter 'Copyright in Canada,' New-York Tribune, 10 September 1895. 52 'Books and Periodicals,' Bookseller and Stationer xv (August 1899) 4 53 'The Fifty Cent Novel,' Books and Notions rx Quly 1893) 6; 'The Discussion' (August 1893) 5-6; 'The Fifty-Cent Novel' (October 1893) 5 54 'French-Canadian Bookselling,' Bookseller and Stationer xxr (February 1905)

a

44 55 Ibid. 44 56 Ibid. 44 57 'Rights of French Authors in Canada,' Bookseller and Stationer xx (August 1904) 294; and Charles ab der Halden, Nouvelles etudes de litterature canadiennefran,aise (Paris: Rudeval 1907) i-vi 58 Madeleine B. Stern, 'John W. Lovell,' Publishers for Mass Entertainment in Nineteenth Century America 204 59 'An Appeal for Justice,' The Evening Telegram (Toronto) 23 January 1889 60 'Who Holds the Copyright,' Books and Notions v (August 1889) 6 61 Archives of the United Church of Canada, Board of Publication Papers, William Briggs Agreements, Box 9, No. 245, Agreement with T. Fisher Unwin, 2 April 1894 62 'Canadian Copyright,' The Globe, 3 1 July r 894 63 'The Copyright Question,' The Week, 16 November 1894, 28 64 'The Case of Trilby,' Canadian Bookseller and Library]oumalvII (March 1895) 183. See also note in Canadian Bookseller and Library journal VII (April 1895)

3; and Canada, Copyright Question, Conference on the Copyright Question 6.

65 'A Copyright Deputation,' The Globe, 8 February 1895; 'The Ministers Interviewed,' Canadian Bookseller and Library Journal VII (February 1895) 170-2 66 Editorial in Books and Notions VI (October 1890) 5 67 Editorial in Books and Notions VII (March 1891) 5-6

298 Notes to pages 230-5 68 'Agencies of Foreign Firms,' Books and Notions VIII (February 1892) 8 69 'An Appeal for Justice,' The Evening Telegram (Toronto), 23 January 1889 70 'To Our Readers,' Books and Notions 1 (August 1884) 10-11; and 'Mechanics' Institutes and the Book-Selling Trade,' Books and Notions 1x (October 1893) 6 71 'Topics of the Week,' The Week (13 December 1883) 17 72 The wholesalers soon noticed the loss of business to libraries and institutions. See Toronto Board of Trade, Annual Report, 1895 (Toronto : Hunter, Rose [1896]) 28-9. 73 'Chat on the Book Trade,' Books and Notions IX (February 1893) 5 74 'Bookselling,' The Monetary Times XXVIII (31 May 1895) 1550 75 Toronto Board of Trade, Annual Report, 1895, 29 76 'August Book Trade,' Books and Notions VIII (September 1892) 8; and 'Among the Wholesalers,' Books and Notions VIII (September 1892) 16 77 'Christmas Lessons,' Books and Notions IX anuary 1893) 5 78 'Canadian Books and Authors,' Books and Notions IX (March 1893) 7 79 [W.W. Campbell], 'At the Mermaid Inn,' The Globe, 4 February 1893 80 Gordon Roper, 'New Forces: New Fiction,' Literary History of Canada (1976) 1,275 81 [George Stewart, jr], 'Canadian Literature,' Stewart's Quarterly III Oanuary 1870) 403 82 Katherine Hale, Isabella Valancy Crawford (Toronto: Ryerson [1923]) 113 83 James Douglas, jr, 'The Intellectual Progress of Canada during the Last Fifty

a

84 85 86 87

88

89 90

Years, and the Present State of Its Literature,' The Canadian Monthly and National Review vn Oune 1875) 468 Sara Jeannette Duncan, 'American Influence on Canadian Thought,' The Week, 7 July 1887, 518 Fred Cogswell, 'May Agnes (Fleming) Early,' DCB IX (1972) 268-9 Harper & Brothers, Archives, 1817-1914, Reel 1, Vol. 11, 92; Reel 1, Vol. 11, 166; both on Center for Research Libraries, Microfilm 4796 Harper & Brothers, Archives, 1817-1914, Reel 50, Correspondence (contracts), 1832-1914, Letter from Annie De Mille, 30 July 1887; on Center for Research Libraries, Microfilm 4796 Ibid. Reel 23, 'The Law of Copyright in the United States, in Force August 1, 1874.' Because copyright was only available to living American citizens or their estates, Harper's may have decided to suppress the identity of the author, who was a dead British subject. Crawford Kilian, 'The Cheerful Inferno of James De Mille,' journal of Canadian Fiction 1 (Summer 1972) 62 Letter from F. Blake Crofton to 'Mr Edwards,' 4 April 1891. This letter is enclosed in a pocket pasted on the inside back cover of Crofton's Hairbreadth Escapes of Major Mendax, University of Toronto Library copy.

Notes to pages 235-41 299 91 H. Pearson Gundy, ed., Letters of Bliss Carman (Kingston and Montreal : McGill-Queen's University Press 1981) 58n 92 Ibid. 58 93 Ibid. 61 94 'About New Books: Canadian Publishing,' The Canadian Magazine xxv (October 1905) 582-3 95 Lorne Pierce, The House of Ryerson 1829-1954 (Toronto: Ryerson 1954) See chap. 8; and W.S. Wallace, comp., The Ryerson Imprint (Toronto : Ryerson [1954]) 2-3. 96 Archives of the United Church of Canada, Board of Publication Papers, William Briggs Agreements, Box 9, No. 237, Contract between William Briggs and E.W. Thomson, 5 December 1895 97 Ibid. Box 9, No. 237, Contract between William Briggs and E.W. Thomson, 18 October 1897 98 McClelland & Stewart Records, John McClelland to Hiram Cody, 7 March 1925 99 Lorne Pierce, 'The Ryerson Press,' CLA Bulletin rx (March 195 3) 135 100 Wallace, The Ryerson Imprint 4 101 Daniel Wilson, 'Canadian Copyright,' Proceedings and Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada x (1892) Section u, 17 102 As referred to by E.K. Brown, On Canadian Literature (Toronto : Ryerson 1943) 1-2 103 Elsie Pomeroy, Sir Charles G.D. Roberts (Toronto: Ryerson 1943) 50 104 [Gold win Smith], 'Current Events and Opinions,' The Week, 26 June 1884, 466 105 Goldwin Smith, 'The Canadian Copyright Bill,' The Canadian Magazine , v (October 1895) 552 106 Canada, House of Commons, Debates, 1894, 1912 107 F.R. Daldy, 'Canadian Copyright,' the Times (London), 3 May 1894 108 R.B. Marston, 'The Proposed Canadian Copyright Robbery Act,' Publishers' Circular LXl (21 July 1894) 56 109 Correspondence on the Subject of the Law of Copyright in Canada 91 110 'Canadian Copyright,' The Globe, 31 July 1894 I I I 'Canadian Copyright,' The Montreal Gazette, 27 August 1894 1I 2 'Copyright Encore : A Serious Question for Canadians to Consider, ' Canadian Bookseller and Library journal vu (October I 894) 100 I I 3 Richard T. Lancefield, 'Canadian Copyright,' the Times (London), 1r October 1894, I 3 I 14 'The Canadian Copyright Question,' Publishers' Circular LXl (3 November 1894) 521 Ir 5 'The Canadian Copyright Question,' Publishers' Circular LXI ( 1 December 1894) 634

300 Notes to pages 241-5 116 E. Marston, 'Anglo-Canadian Copyright,' the Times (London), 5 December 1894, 7 117 J.D. Edgar, 'Canadian Copyright, the Times (London), 26 December 1894,

9 118 'Notes and Announcements;' Publishers' Circular LXII ( 16 February 189 5) 181-2 119 'A Copyright Deputation,' The Globe, 8 February 1895 120 'International Copyright in Peril,' New-York Tribune, 11 August 1895 121 When Harper's protested that Canadian reprints of Ben Hur (copyrighted in 1880 in the United States) were being imported illegally into the United States, Attorney General Olney ruled that books copyrighted prior to the 1891

122 123 124

125 126 127 128

copyright law could be imported, whether the foreign edition were authorized or pirated. See 'Copyright Matters : Customs Authorities Have No Power to Discriminate between Authorized and Unauthorized Reprints in the Case of the Two Copies Imported by Private Purchasers,' Publishers' Weekly XLVII (8 June 1895) 918-19 . 'The Laws of Copyright,' New-York Tribune, 14 August 1895 'No Interference: Sir Charles H . Tupper on the Copyright Question,' The Globe, 10 September 1895 Besant was quoted in 'The Canadian Copyright Question,' Publishers' Circular LXIII (5 October 1895) 385. Herbert Spencer answered Tupper in his letter 'Canadian Copyright,' the Times (London), 22 October 1895, 6. 'What People Say: The Copyright Question,' The Daily Mail and Empire (Toronto), 6 April 1895 A Canadian Author [pseud.], 'Canadian Writers and the Copyright Act,' the Times (London), 21 September 1895, 8 'Gilbert Parker and Copyright,' Canadian Bookseller and Library journal vm (October 1895) 45 Goldwin Smith, 'The Canadian Copyright Bill,' The Canadian Magazine

553 129 Dan. A. Rose, 'The Copyright Question,' The Canadian Magazine VI (November 1895) 81 130 Conference on the Copyright Question (Ottawa: Queen's Printer 1896) 14 131 PAC, Laurier Papers, Vol. 39, Daldy to Laurier, 12 March 1897, 12937-41

132 Goldwin Smith, Correspondence, ed. Arnold Haultain (Toronto: McClelland & Goodchild 1913) 287 133 W.D. Lighthall, 'The Copyright Act and Canadian Authors,' The Week, 6 December 1895, 39 134 Henry Kleinau, 'Canadian Copyright,' the Times (London), 30 December 1895, 6; and 'Canadian Copyright,' The Week, 7 February 1896, 249

Notes to pages 245-9

301

13 5 'The International Publishers' Conference at Paris, ' Canada Bookseller and Stationer XII (August 1896) 12 136 'Publishers Are Waiting,' Canada Bookseller and Stationer XII Oanuary 1896) 4; and 'Why No Copyright Bill?' Canadian Bookseller and Library journal IX (April 1896) 1-2 137 PAC, LaurierPapers, Vol. 33,J.D. Edgar to Laurier, 2January 1897, 10557 138 'Grievances of Canadian Booksellers,' Publishtrs' Circular LXVI (9 January 1897) 31-2 139 'Feeling in the States,' Canada Bookseller and Stationer xm (May 1897) 3 140 'The New Book Duties,' Canada Bookseller and Stationer XIII une I 897) I' I 6 141 'Copyright Matters: A Curiosity of Copyright Infringement,' Publishers' Weekly XLVII (22 June 1895) 976; 'Current Notes,' Bookseller and Stationer XIII (December 1897) 8 142 'Imported Reprints,' Bookseller and Stationer XIII (December 1897) 8 143 Archives of the United Church of Canada, Board of Publication Papers, William Briggs Agreements, Box 6, No. 41, Agreement between Methodist Book and Publishing House and Copp, Clark Company, 12 February 1896 144 Ibid. Box 6, No. 41, Agreement between Methodist Book and Publishing House and Copp, Clark Company, 2 March 1898 and 13 May 1898. Henry L. Smith of Charles Scribner's Sons appended a note to the latter agreement : 'With the distinct understanding that this agreement applies only to sales to Canadian houses.' 145 Ibid. Box 6, No. 42, Agreement between Methodist Book and Publishing House and Copp, Clark Company, 27 March 1899 146 'A Proposed Canadian Copyright Law,' Publishers' Weekly LII (31 July 1897) 178 147 'Toronto Christmas Trade,' Canada Bookseller and Stationer XII Oanuary 1896) 4; and 'The State of the Trade,' Canada Bookseller and Stationer xn (December 1896) 3 148 'Current Notes,' Bookseller and Stationer xv anuary 1899) I 149 'Current Notes,' Bookseller and Stationer xv (April 1899) 1; (May 1899) 1 150 Toronto Board of Trade, Annual Report, 1899 (Toronto: Hunter, Rose (1900)) 32 151 Charles Gordon, Postscript to Adventure: The Autobiography of Ralph Connor, introd. Clara Thomas (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart 1975) 148-9 152 Ibid. 149 153 George H . Doran, Chronicles of Barabbas 1884-1934 (Toronto: George J. McLeod 1935) 13 154 Ibid. 36 155 Archives of the United Church of Canada, Board of Publication Papers, William Briggs Agreements, Box 6, No. 39, Agreement between the Westminster Company and William Briggs, 18 October 1901

a

a

302 Notes to pages 250-5 156 'Books and Periodicals,' Bookseller and Stationer xvi (April 1900) 3-4 157 Our Wish for You as We Approach Our Fiftieth Anniversary (Toronto: George J. McLeod [1947]) 5 158 'Books and Periodicals,' Bookseller and Stationer xm (October 1897) 4; and 'Books and Periodicals: A Letter from Mr Hall Caine,' Bookseller and Stationer XVI (May 1898) 3-4 159 PAC, Laurier Papers, Vol. 74, Hall Caine to George Morang, 2 April 1898, 23023 160 'Current Notes: Illegal Imports,, Bookseller and Stationer XIV uly 1898) I; and 'A Fine Imposed,' Bookseller and Stationer xrv (September 1898) 19 161 William Drysdale, 'Colonial Editions,' Publishers' Circular LXX (28 January 1899) 104; Norman Murray, 'Colonial Editions,' Publishers' Circular LXX (1 April 1899) 347 162 Morang wrote three letters, each entitled 'Colonial Editions,' to Publishers' Circular LXIX (31 December 1898) 777; LXX (4 March 1899) 237-8; (27 May 1899) 584. Grant Richards' comment followed Morang's 27 May 1899 letter. 163 'Current Notes and Comments of Trade Interest: Copyright Is Ownership,' Bookseller and Stationer xv (November 1899) r; and 'Current Notes and Comments of Trade Interest: The Copyright Action,' Bookseller and Stationer xv (December 1899) 1 164 Kenneth N. Windsor, 'Historical Writing in Canada (to 1920),' Literary History of Canada (Toronto: University of Toronto Press 1976) r, 242 165 'Macmillan-Morang Merger,' Bookseller and Stationer and Office Equipment ]ournalxxvm Guly 1912) 25 166 Canada, House of Commons, Debates, 1898, 6627-3 r 167 PAC, Laurier Papers, Vol. 57, Daldy to Laurier, December 1897, 18471-2; Vol. 68, Daldy to Laurier, 9 March 1898, 21350-2 168 Smith, Correspondence 316 169 Ibid. 319 170 'For Copyright,' The Globe, 7 February 1899 171 Ibid. 172 'International Congress of Publishers,' the Times (London), 10 June 1899, ro 173 George Morang, 'The Development of Publishing in Canada and the Canadian Copyright Question,' Publishers' Circular LXX ( 10 June 1899) 654 174 Ibid. 654 175 University of Toronto, Fisher Library, Mavor Papers, Sydney Fisher to Morang, 2 April 1900 176 PAC, Laurier Papers, Vol. 1 p, Frechette to Laurier, 9 April 1900, 44562 177 Mavor Papers, Morang tb Frechette, 12 April 1900

a

Notes to pages 255-6 303 178 Laurier Papers, Vol. 168, G. Herbert Thring to Laurier, JI August 1900, 48692-3 179 Morang, The Copyright Question: A Letter to the Toronto Board of Trade 18

Appendix A The Growth of the Printing and Allied Trades 1867-1900

Although the statistics for the printing trades during the last third of the nineteenth century are far more reliable than those compiled before Confederation, they are not nearly as complete as information that has been gathered since the 1950s. The dominion census returns are used in tables I and 2 to survey the expanding printing trade from 1871 to 1901. For the 1901 census, industries were divided into fourteen groups of specified designation (the fifteenth was miscellaneous), whose total value of products was $481,053,175. The paper and printing industries stood sixth in the total value of product ($20,653,028), in the same range as metals and metal products (excluding steel) and vehicles for land transportation (Table 3):

TABLE 1

No. of printing establishments Employees Yearly wages Value of raw material Value of articles produced

1871

1881

1891

1901

308 3,497 $1,194,012 $1,165,229

395 5,311 $1 ,797,112 $1,541,060

589 7,705 $3,099,632 $2,910,642

419 7,708 $3,270,077 $2,734,949

$3,420,202

$4,742,804

$8,318;094

$10,319,241

306 Appendix A TABLE 2

No. of bookbinding establishments Employees No. of engraving and lithographing offices Employees Type foundries Employees Ink factories Employees Printing press manufacturers Employees Electrotype and stereotype, manufacturers Employees

1871

1881

1891

46 592

64 1,036

81 1,323

::-

17 127 4 74 1 1

29 474 4 56 2 2

47 646 6 102 3 19

84''' 2,484''" 2

1901 ~:-

5 295 1 40

4 50

'' In 1901 bookbinding, engraving, and lithographing totals are combined. TABLE 3 No 23 Group VI : Paper and Printing Establishments Boxes and bags, paper Cardboard Paper Printing and bookbinding'' Printing and publishing Stationery goods Stereotyping and electrotyping Wallpaper All other industries*'' TOTALS

Capital

Wage earners

Wages for labour

Cost of materials

Value of products

34 3 28

$563, 197 $235,540 $7,507,819

1,439 108 2,730

$301 ,515 $26,861 $955,480

$599,020 $73,907 $2, 170,770

$1,256,147 $147,000 $4,380,776

84

$2,830,814

2,484

$845,307

$934,363

$2,748,356

419 12

$13,726,039 $590,555

7,708 482

$3,270,077 $140, 155

$2,734,949 $316,491

$10,319,241 $638,520

4 4

$88,563 $1,059,500

50 328

$28,600 $105,247

$28,808 $384,303

$90,034 $874,049

4

$220,393

84

$16,002

$81,243

$198,905

592

$26,822,420

15,413

$5,689,244

$7,323,854

$20,653,028

*Includes engraving, lithographing, and embossing '' *Includes felt paper and pulp, flypaper, school supplies, and waxed paper

In the above-mentioned industries, the average annual earnings per worker was $369. 12, of which wages in the stereotyping and electrotyping category were the highest, $572, and those in printing and publishing the second highest, $424. 2 5.

Appendix B Exports: Statistics Based on the Annual Trade and Navigation Returns 1867-1900

The statistics of annual book exports in the years between 1867 and 1900 indicate several important patterns. In the 186os, for example, total Canadian exports (for the Province of Canada) ranged from $2,340 in 1861 to $6,063 in 1866, and $12,944 in 1867. The 1868 exports (for the Dominion of Canada) were slightly more than the 1867 figure, and the 1869 exports were triple the 1866 figure. In the 1870s there were wide fluctuations, beginning with $51,793 in 1870, moving to a high of $67,937 in 1872, and dropping to $20,529 in 1876. Exports fluctuated just as much in the 188os, although in that decade, the totals were considerably higher, ranging from a low of $31,471 in 1882, to a high of $168,123 in 1885. The latter total was the highest annual export volume in the nineteenth century, not surpassed until 1900 ($173,391). Between 1891 and 1896, exports ranged between $81,000 and $89,000. In 1897 there was another leap forward in volume, and succeeding years well into the twentieth century showed a steady rise in exports. From 1867 until the end of the century, the United States was Canada's largest customer, with the exception of the years 1884, 1886, and 1887 (the United Kingdom), and 1885 (Australia). Up to 1876 Quebec was the major exporting province, its major customer being the United States. Then in 1877 both Ontario and Quebec had an almost equal volume of exports, $10,732 for the former and $9,687 for the latter. Thereafter, Ontario was the leading exporting province, until by 1900 its total of $107,091 was double that of Quebec. Canada's other major markets for exports were the United Kingdom, Newfoundland, the British West Indies, and Australia. Exports to France were practically non-existent until the mid-nineties. In 1882 exports of books, pamphlets, and maps were first classified as 'Canadian produce' or 'non-Canadian produce.' Until the end of the century, the ratio of Canadian to non-Canadian produce exported was usually three to

308 Appendix B

one. In a good year such as 1900, however, the ratio was almost four to one: of the total exports of $173,391, Canadian produce accounted for $138,110 and non-Canadian produce accounted for $35,281.

Appendix C Imports: Statistics Based on the Annual Trade and Navigation Returns 1867-1900

Imports for the book trade consisted chiefly of imported books, pamphlets, music, periodicals, newspapers, and engravings. Most of these works came from the United Kingdom, the United States, France, Germany, and Belgium. According to the annual Trade and Navigation Returns, throughout the sixties and up to 1875, the United Kingdom was our major supplier of books. In 1870 British imports into Canada amounted to $380,480; American imports were $241,890; and French imports totalled $50,416. But in 1875, the first year in which book imports went over $1 million, the American imports were $531,042, as compared with British imports of $455,292. Thereafter, the volume of American book imports was always above or close to British import totals. However, the British remained our major supplier of Bibles, testaments, prayer books, and devotional books; and in this category, 1898 was a peak year with a total of $231,754. On the other hand, the United States was the chief supplier of foreign reprints of British copyrights (for which the official figures are not reliable), of printed music, and of works in the free category established in 1882 to include 'newspapers, quarterly, monthly and semi-monthly, and weekly magazines, unbound.' By the late sixties, Ontario was the largest importer among the provinces, a situation not only due to its steadily growing population, but also due to the establishment of wholesale distributing houses for English-speaking Canada (including the Maritimes and the North-West) in Toronto, which became the major importing city in the Dominion (see Table 1). Toronto and Ontario never lost this lead established by the 1870s. Well behind Quebec were Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, the next largest importers in the seventies. But their annual import totals remained more constant than those of Ontario and Quebec, so that the three Maritime provinces actually imported a lower percentage of the Dominion totals

310 Appendix C TABLE 1 Books, Printed, Periodicals and Pamphlets

1869 1872

Ontario

Toronto

Quebec

Montreal

NS

Halifax

$330,715 $477,581

202,221 319,298

227,564 193,779

183,513 163,209

51,709 86,718

45,643 72,275

TABLE 2 Imports in 1900: Books, Printed, Periodicals and Pamphlets Ontario Quebec NS NB BC Manitoba PEI NWT Yukon

$404,747 138,397 29,643 27,104 24,258 22,581 1,098 3,181 550

TOTAL

$651,559

throughout the last quarter of the century. The 1880 figures, for instance, show sharp declines for Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and a similar decline for Prince Edward Island in 1881. On the other side of the country, British Columbia's imports began to grow with the expansion of Vancouver. In 1875 British Columbia's totals were about the same as Prince Edward Island's, approximately $8,000, but in the following years British Columbia overtook Prince Edward Island, although it was not until the end of the century that British Columbia's imports equalled those of either Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, or Manitoba. Manitoba itself caught up with Prince Edward Island in 1881, when each province imported $4,695 and $4,408 respectively. The first import returns for the North-West Territories appeared in 1880 ($25 worth of music) and in 1882 ($45 worth of books). With the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway, the settlement of the prairies, and the spread of newspaper offices and bookstores, Manitoba's imports rose substantially in the 1880s, as did those of the North-West Territories in the 1880s. By 1897 the North-West Territories' imports had overtaken those of Prince Edward Island. The Yukon's first imports appeared in 1899 -$25 worth of music and $362 worth of books.

Appendix C 3 11 Table 2 compares provincial imports in 1900. In none of these instances can we assume that the figures reflect accurately sales of imported works because the prairies and the Maritimes received imports from Toronto and Montreal firms.

Appendix D A Selected List of Copyright Acts

1709: (United Kingdom) An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by Securing the Copies of Printed Books in the Authors or Purchasers of such Copies, during the Times therein Mentioned (8 Anne, cap. 19) 1832: (Lower Canada) An Act for the Protection of Copy Rights (2 Will. 1v, cap. 53) 1839: (Nova Scotia) An Act for Securing Copy Rights (2 Viet., cap. 36) 1841: (Province of Canada) An Act for the Protection of Copy Rights in this Province (4 & 5 Viet., cap. 61) In force until 1868. 1842: (United Kingdom) The Literary Copyright Act (5 & 6 Viet., cap. 45). This was the basic imperial copyright law in force in Canada until 3 1 December 1923. 1847: (United Kingdom) An Act to Amend the Law Relating to the Protection in the Colonies, of Works Entitled to Protection in the United Kingdom (10 & 11 Viet., cap. 95). This Foreign Reprints Act was also passed by New Brunswick (1848), Prince Edward Island (1848), Nova Scotia (1849), Newfoundland (1850), and the Province of Canada (1850). 1868: (Dominion of Canada) An Act Respecting Copyrights (3 1 Viet., cap. 54). In force until 1875. 1868: (Canada) An Act to Impose a Duty on Foreign Reprints of British Copyright Works (3 1 Viet., cap. 56). In force until 1894, this Act replaced the provincial Foreign Reprints Acts passed between 1848 and 1850. 1875: (Canada) An act Respecting Copyrights (38 Viet., cap. 88). This Act replaced the 1868 Act, and remained in force until 31 December 1923. 1886: (United Kingdom) The International Copyright Act (49 & 50 Viet., cap. 33). This Act brought the British Empire into the Berne Convention (1885).

Appendix D 3 1 3 1891: (United States) The Chace Act becomes the new American Copyright

law. 1900: (Canada) An Act to Amend the Copyright Act (63-4 Viet., cap. 25).

This Act was the basis for the development of branch-plant and agency book publishing. 1911 : (United Kingdom) An Act to Amend and Consolidate the Law Relating to Copyright ( 1 & 2 George v, cap. 46). This Act replaced the 1842 Act, but it did not extend to Canada. 1921: (Canada) An Act to Amend and Consolidate the Law Relating to Copyright (II & 12 George v, cap. 24). This Act and a 1923 amendment, An Act to Amend the Copyright Act, 1921 (13 & 14 George v, cap. 10) came into force on I January 1924.

Index

Abbotsford Edition of the Waverley Novels 113 Abeille canadienne, L' (Quebec) 84 Aberdeen, Lady 148 Abraham, Robert 111 Acadia (colony): education 7; libraries 9 Acadian Magazine, The 60 Acadian Paper Mill 49 Acadian Recorder (Halifax) 49, p, 57, 58 Acadians : expulsion 27, 62; first newspaper for 158 Adam, Graeme Mercer 173, 190-1, 199, 201, 202-3, 225, 226; bookselling and publishing activities u6-7, 177-8; attacks Educational Depository 129; argues that reprints develop Canadian industry 175, 213; partner in Lovell, Adam, Wesson 175; on subscription publishing 197; praises imperial Royal Commission on Copyright 216; attacks reprinters in 1895 225; A Letter to Sir John Rose ... on the Canadian Copyright Question 174; Reform in the Education Office 202. See also Rollo & Adam and Adam, Stevenson & Company Adam, Jane (Gibson) 126 Adam, Stevenson & Company 127, 177-8, 250 Adams, Green 14 Adams, Levi :Jean Baptiste: A Poetic Olio 71 Adams printing press 157 Adult education 93 passim

Advance sheets 214 Agencies: for American and British publishers 79, 100-1, 102, 103, 112-13, 125, 128, 236; for foreign type-founders 150; Leonard Scott's, for British reviews 116 Agency system, in the 1890s 229-30, 241, 246-7, 256, 258-9 Agents' Companion, The 197 Agents, travelling, for subscription books 196-7 Alberta: first printing press 146 Albion (New York) 104 Albion printing press 47 Album de la Minerve, L' 87 Alden, Mrs G .R. 236 Alexander, John 43 Alger, Horatio 131 Alison, Archibald: History of Europe 103, 104 All the Year Round 138 Allen, Adam: The Gentle Shepherd 31 Allen, Eugene 147 Allen, Grant 76 Allen, Hugh 163 Allen, Thomas 238, 251 Alline, Henry 19, 29, 30-1; Hymns and Spiritual Songs 30; Life and Journals 31; The Anti-Traditionist 29 Almanach du peuple 182 Altick, Richard: The English Common Reader 18

316 Index Amaranth, The 66 American Baptist Society 237 American Museum 16 American Publishing Company, The 197 American Tract Society 101 Anglo-American Magazine, The 78, 83, 90, 133, 16 3; attacks Foreign Reprints Act 134 Anglo-American Reciprocal Copyright Agreement 193, 224-5, 226, 254 Annison (French printer) 47 Anti-Dictionnaire 1 5 Appleton, D. & Company 251 Appleton, William 214 Apprentices 44- 5 Argenteuil Paper Manufactory 49 Armour, A.M. 146 Armour& Ramsay 81, 102; branch in Kingston 75; branch in Hamilton 111; bookselling activities 111-12; publishing activities 112-13 Armour & Ramsay's Literary News-Letter, and General Record of British Literature 113 Armour, Andrew H . : activities in Montreal 41,100,106, 111-13; in Toronto 113, 125n, 126, 137, 162. See also Armour & Ramsay Armour, Robert 41, 98, 111 Arnold, Matthew 239; Mixed Essays 179 Arnold, Thomas: Lectures on Modern History 103 Art Publishing Company 200 Art Series of Ribbon Books 179 'At the Mermaid Inn' 232 Athenaeum, The 135, 187 Atlases, county 198-9 Aubert de Gaspe, Philippe: Les Anciens Canadiens 90; Memoires 90 Aubert de Gaspe, fils, Philippe: L'Influence d'un livre 54, 74 Aubin, Napoleon 85, 122 Auctions 15-16 Aurore, L' (Montreal) 71 Authors, American: obtain imperial copyright in Canada 187, 189-90; Mark Twain and Canadian pirates 189-90 Authors, British: Samuel Smiles and Canadi-

an pirates 187-8; Society of Authors 223, 241 Authors, Canadian : eighteenth-century 2933; nineteenth-century 53-6, 58, 67-9, 90-2; William Kirby and American publishers 190-2; Sir Leonard Tilley supports 212; gain new rights under Berne Convention 220; apathy of publishers towards 232-3; find Canadian publishers 179-82, 233-8; interest abroad in 235; John C. Ridout supports 243; place their rights ahead of those of printers 24 3; Canadian Society of Authors 2 53-4, 2 55. See also Copyright Avenir, L' (Montreal) 98 Aytoun, William Edmonstoune: Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers and Other Poems 172 Baby, Fran4rois 17 Bagnall, James 118 Bailey, Jacob 28, 29, 31-2; 'The Character of a Trimmer' 32; The Frontier Missionary 32 Bailey, Loring W. 120 Bain, James 76, 177, 204 Bain, jr, James 230 Baird & Dillon 197 Balestier, Wolcott 192-3 Ballou & Gleason 131 Ballou, Maturin Murray: Fanny Campbell; or the Female Pirate Captain 131 ; Red Rupert; or the American Buccaneer 131 Banner (Toronto) 208 Baptist Missionary Magazine of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick 149 Baptist Missionary Society 19 Bargeas, Joseph 9, 15 Barker, Dr Edward 75, 98 Barker, William 148 Barker's Canadian Monthly Magazine 75 Barr, Robert 247; The Adventures ofJennie Baxter 227 Barrie, Sir James M. 193, 232 Bartlett, Columbus 144 Bartlett, W.H.: Canadian Scenery and American Scenery 103, 152 Baskerville, John 48, 50

Index 317 Bates, Walter: The Mysterious Stranger 68 Battleford: first printing office in Saskatchewan 145 Baxter, George 152 Bay Palm Book 6 Baylis, Henry 150 Beadle and Adams 19 5 Beadle & Company 131 Beadle, Irwin P. 161 Beaty, S.G. 208 Beauchemin & Valois 182 Beauchemin, C.-O. 121, 182 Beauchemin, L.J .O. 182 Beauchesne, C.E. 227 Beaven, Mrs F.: Sketches and Tales Illustrative of Life in the Backwoods of New Brunswick 66 Beckwith, Julia : St Ursula's Convent; or, The Nun of Canada 71, 74-5 Bedard, Pierre 39 Beecher, Henry Ward: The Life ofJesus, the Christ 179 Begg, Alexander 143, 200 Belcher, Clement H. 153 Belden Brothers 155; publishes county atlases and Picturesque Canada 198-200, 292 n91 Belden, Henry 198-9 Belden, Howard 198-200 Belden, Reuben 198-200 Belford, Alexander 187-8 Belford Brothers 86, 176, 186, 194, 197; publishing activities 187-9 issues cheap 'libraries' 195 Belford, Charles 187-8 Belford, Rohen 187-8 Belfords, Clarke and Company 188, 197 Be/ford's Monthly Magazine 188 Bell, Alexander 145 Bell, Andrew (journalist) 86 Bell, Dr Andrew (educator) 23 Bellamy, Edward : Equality 251 Bengough, John 179-80; A Caricature History of Canadian Politics 180; The Canadian Pictorial & Illustrated War News 180; The Decline and Fall of Keewatin; or The Free-Trade Redskins 180; The Grip Cartoons 180; The Grip Sack 180

Benjamin, Park 102 Bennett, John 43 Bentley, Richard 106; publishes T.C. Haliburton 62-5; publishes Susanna Moodie 82-3 Bentley's Miscellany 112, 114 Berger, Charles 40 Berlin Waltz, The 51 Berne International Copyright Convention 107,211, 219-20, 238,245,255; Canada announces withdrawal from 240, 242; Quebec reprinters ignore 22 7. See also Copyright, international Besant, Walter 24 1 Best, T .H . 180 Best, T.H., & Company 180 Best-sellers 232 Bevir, Joseph: A Short Account of the Life and Dying Speech of]oseph Bevir, Who Was Executed at Kingston (Upper Canada) on Monday the 4th Day of of September, I 81 5, for the Murder of Mary Bevir, His Daughter. Written by Himself While in Prison 38 Bibaud, Michel 71-2; Epitres, satires, chansons, epigrammes 72; Histoire du Canada 71 Bible societies 19-20, 97 Bible, the: William Lyon Mackenzie's stereoplates for 151 Bibliotheque canadienne, La 71 Birkbeck, Dr George 97 Bishop, Charles Inglis 22 Blackie & Son 133, 228, 236, 246, 248 Blackwood, William 111-12 Blackwood's 186 Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine 62, 70, 94, 111-12 Blaine, James 224 Blake, Edward: Speeches 179 Blatch, George 101-2 Blennerhasset, Margaret: The Widow of the Rock 71 Blewett, Jean 237 Bohn, George Henry 116 Boileau 72 Boix, Louis-Edouard 86

318 Index Book reviews in newspapers and periodicals 57-8, 70- I, 72 Bookbinding 51 Books and Notions: bought by Mclean Brothers 180 ; on subscription publishing and bookselling 201; begun by J.J . Dyas 206; calls for new wholesale and distribution arrangements 229; takes moderate position on 1889 Act 222 ; on impact of United States Book Company in Canada 226 ; first seasonal list of new books 232 Bookseller and Stationer 180 Bookseller and Stationer and Office Equipment journal 180 Booksellers: William Minns 17; Methodist Book Room (Toronto) 20, 101, 123-4; E.R. Fabre 73, 99-100; Octave Cremazie 88, 182;James Dawson 96; Armour & Ramsay 111; De Mille & Fillmore 133 ; attack Educational Depository 124-5, 202-4; buying trips abroad 100, 177; protest 18 58 duties 136 Booksellers' and Stationers' Association of Ontario 220 Booksellers' Association of Canada (1857) 125, 137 Bookselling : New France 9; up to 1820 1318; 1820-67 99-104, 130-8 ; 1867-1900 130; buying trips abroad 100, 177; wholesale and jobbing trades 128 , 132-3; popularity of paperback fiction 226-n popularity of colonial editions 228, 144 ; Books and Notions calls for streamlining in wholesale distribution 229-30; competition from department stores and other outlets 131; decreasing profit margins 231; failures in the 1890s 241; prosperity in the 1890s 147. See also individual cities and regions Bookselling, wholesale 229-30, 231 Bookstores : size of stock 102, 132 ; specialized, appear in 1820s 101-2 ; Ontario, at mid-century 131 Borrow, George: The Bible in Spain 103 Borthwick, J.D . 127; Montreal, Its History 181

Bossange, Hector 15, 73, 99 Bossange, Julie (Fabre) 73

Boston Type and Stereotype Foundry 149 Boucher, Pierre : H istoire v eritable et nature/le des moeurs et productions du pays de la Nouvelle-France 8 Boucherville, C.-E. Boucher de 121 Bouchette, Joseph : General Report of an Official Tour through the New Settlements of the Province of Lower Canada 39; The British Dominions in North America 91 Bourget, Bishop Ignace 98, 111 Bourinot, John George 51; Canadian Studies in Comparative Politics 181; The Intellectual Development of the Canadian People 179; Parliamentary Practice 234 Bowell, Sir Mackenzie 146, 241 Bowker, Richard R. 223 Braden, J . 146 Bradley-Garretson Company, The 100-1 Brady, Elizabeth : 'A Bibliographic Essay on William Kirby's The Golden Dog 18771977' 191 Bragg, S. 30 Branch plants 259 Bray, I.M. 199 Brenan, Justin 80 Briand, Bishop 20 Brigden, F.H . 156 Briggs, William 209, 210, 118, 131 , 135, 249; acquires agencies 236; publishes Canadian authors 237-8; his firm as training ground for young publishers 138. See also Methodist Book and Publishing House British-American Magazine, The 127 British and Foreign Bible Society 20, 24 British Board of Trade 11, 11 5, 136; opposes Canadian licensing 171, 223 British Colonist (Toronto) 77, 12 5 British Colonist (Victoria) 144 British Columbia: first printing office 144 (British) Copyright Association 173 , 241 British North America Act (1867): local copyright allotted to federal government 168-9 Britnell's Book Store 210 Broke, Philip 17 Bromley, Walter 14; Second Address on the Deplorable State of the Indians 59

Index 319 Brooke, Frances 30; The History of Emily Montague 30 Brophy, Henry J . 181 Brother Jonathan (New York) 102, 109, 131, 148 Broughall, George: The Tearful and Tragical Tale of the Tricky Troubadour 144 Brougham, Henry 97 Brousseau Freres 89, 182 Brown and Gilmore 48 Brown Brothers 148 Brown, George 76; establishes Toronto Globe 77; hostility to Egerton Ryerson 126-9; union problems 160. See also Globe (Toronto) Brown, James 15, 41, 42, 49 Brown, W. Foster 181, 227, 229 Bruce, Charles Frederick 83 Bruce, George 149 Brumoy, Pierre :]onathas et David 40 Bryant, John 180 Bryant Press, The 180 Bryant, William Cullen: Picturesque America 198 Bryce, William 196, 226, 242, 244; imports Robert Elsmere 228 Bryce's Canadian Copyright Series 196 Bryce's Home Series 196 Bryce's Library 196 Buckingham, James 105 Buckingham, William 47, 142-3 Bulkeley, Richard 27 Bulletin (Edmonton) 146 Bullock web press 159 Bulmer, William 47 Bulwer-Lytton, Edward 55, 175; Pelham 58; Zanoni 114; King Arthur 176; Kenelm Chillingly 176, 184; The Coming Race; or the New Utopia 177 Buntin, Alexander 148-9, 163, 164 Burke, Bishop Edmund 29 Burland Lithographic Company, The 200 Burt, A.L. 209 Burton, Mr Justice 187 Burwell, Adam Hood: 'The Talbot Road' 70 Bushell, John 27 'Buying around': begins with Educational

Depository (Ontario) 129; colleges order directly from abroad 231 Byron, Lord 17, 45, 55; Poems on His Domestic Circumstances 18; Complete Poems 114 Bystander, The 178 Cadell, Thomas 80, 112 Cadieux & Derome 183 Caine, Hall 232, 244; The Christian 247 Caine's, Hall, copyright bill 243, 244-5, 253 Calgary: first printing office 146; bookselling 147 Calgary Herald; Mining and Range Advocate and General Advertiser 146 Cambridge, MA : first printing office in the United States 6; connection with first printing office in Canada 27 Cambridge University Press 236 Cameron, David: Rules and Practice of the Supreme Court of Civil justice: Vancouver's Island 14 5 Cameron, George Frederick 76 Cameron, John 43, 268 090 Cameron, Malcolm 153 Campbell, Alexander 174 Campbell, Archibald 84 Campbell, Duncan 127 Campbell, James 179,203, 204; textbook publishing 128-30 Campbell, James, & Son 130, 202, 204-5; failure of 205 Campbell printing press 159 Campbell, Thomas 4 5 Campbell, William 204, 205 Campbell, W.W. 232, 237, 250; Lake Lyrics 120 Campbell's British American Series 128 Campbell's Canadian Series of Readers 204 Campbell's Modern School Geography 128-9 Campbell's Summary of Canadian History 129

Canada and Its Provinces 201 Canada Bookseller & Miscellany, The 177 Canada Bookseller and Stationer (variant title in 1890s of Bookseller and Stationer) 180, 246 Canada Bookseller, The 127, 134

320 Canada Directory 163 Canada Drug and Book Company 146 Canada East. See Quebec (province) Canada Educational Monthly 178 Canada First Movement 166, 178 Canada Gazetteer 163 Canada Publishing Company, The 204, 205, 206

Canada West. See Ontario Canadian Almanac, The 77, 207 Canadian Annual Review, The 201 Canadian Authors' Association 254 Canadian Bibliographer and Library Record, The 222, 296 n 3 1 Canadian Bookseller, The 222, 296 n 3 1 Canadian Booksellers' Association: attacks Educational Depository 203-4; fights over cash discounts 206 Canadian Brigands: An Intensely Exciting Story of Crime in Quebec, Thirty Years Agoff, The 132, 183 Canadian Casket, The 77 Canadian Composing Company, The 150 Canadian Copyright Association (1888) 177, 208, 222, 253; lobbies for manufacturing clause 220- 1 Canadian Copyright Editions 176, 246, 247, 248, 2 51; issued before American edition 214 Canadian copyright question 243, 245; discussed in the Times 173; and constitutional autonomy 211 Canadian Courant (Montreal) 41 Canadian Entomologist, The 207 Canadian Grocer, The 180 Canadian Illustrated News, The 154 Canadian Independent Magazine, The 207 Canadian Institutes 78, 98-9 Canadianjournal, The 77-8 Canadian Literary Magazine, The 77 Canadian Literary News Letter; attacks Educational Depository 124-5 Canadian Magazine, The (1833) 77 Canadian Magazine, The (1893) 156, 180, 222, 243-4 Canadian Magazine, The, and Literary Repository (1823) 70-1 Canadian Manufacturers' Association 2 55

Index Canadian Methodist Magazine 208 Canadian Monthly and National Review, The 177, 178 Canadian National Series of Reading Books 130 Canadian Publishers' Association (1882) 218-19 Canadian Railway News Company, The 181 Canadian Review, The, and Literary and Historical journal 70 Canadian Society of Authors (1899) 253-4, 2 55 Canadian Spectator (Montreal) 42, 71 Canadian North-West, The 143 Canadien, Le (Quebec) 39-40 Cappon, James: Roberts and the Influences of His Time 237-8 Carey & Hart 119 Carey & Lea 62, 100-1 Carey, Mathew 16 Carey's Library of Choice Literature 104 Caribou Sun 147 Carleton, Governor Guy 41 Carleton, Governor Thomas 23, 34 Carleton, G.W. 215 Carlyle, Thomas 107; Reminiscences 179 Carman, Bliss 67, 233; Low Tide on Grand Pre 232, 235 Carr, Emily: The Book of Small 145 Carroll, John 124 Carry, William L. 131 Cartier, Hortense (Fabre) 73 Cartier, Sir George-Etienne 73, 87, 174, 184 Carvill & Company 97 Cary, Thomas 39, 40 Cary, jr, Thomas 39, 86, 90; opposes exclusion of pirated editions 110 Casgrain, )'Abbe Henri-Raymond 85, 88-9 Caslon Company 48 Caswell, E.S. 237 Caverhill, W.C. 207 Cawdell, J.M. 77 Censorship of the press 27-8 Chamberlain, Joseph 242, 244 Chamberlin, Brown 41 Chambers' Library of Useful and Entertaining Knowledge 88 Chambers' Edinburgh journal 97, 117

Index Chambers, Robert 209 Chambers, William 98 Champlain, Samuel de 7, 8; Oeuvres 153-4 Chap-Book, The 233 Chapeleau & Labelle 18 3 Chaperon & Garneau 182 Chaperon, Samuel 182 Chapman & Hall 248 Chapman, Henry 106 Charlesworth, Hector 190 Charlottetown: printing trade to 1820 34-5; publishing, mid- to late nineteenth century 118; firms engaged in the book trade, 1869 162 Charlottetown Bible Society Depository 19 Charter of the City of Saint John 33 Charvat, William 54 Chatauqua Library and Scientific Circle 236 Chatto, Andrew 190 Chauveau, P.-J .-0. 85, 87; Canada East Superintendent of Education 121-2; Charles Guerin, roman de moeurs canadiennes 87; 'L'Insurrection' 122 Cheap publications, American 131-2, 195, 225-6; revolution in, in the 1830s 1023; Report of Select Committee (Province of Canada) in 1843 109-11; Canadians publish 161; new 'Libraries' in the 1870s 192-3, 195 Cheap publications, British 97, 116, 228 Cheap publications, Canadian 195-6, 226-9, 2 47 Cheap reading 111, 114, 130-2, 135. See also Cheap publications, Importation of American and British editions, and Pirated editions Chemin de la croix 73 Cherrier, Georges-Hippolyte 87 Chesapeake 17 Chessman, J.B. 14 Chewett, W.C. & Company 207 Chewett, William 76, 102, 133, 138, 207 Chipman, Ward 33 Chisholm, David 70 Chouinard, J .-H.-B. 88 Christian Guardian (Toronto) 57, 123, 208 Christian Sentinel (Trois-Rivieres) 70 Christie, Dr A.J . 70

321

Christie, Robert: A History of the Late Province of Lower Canada 39, 86 Chromolithography 155, 156 Chronicle (Kingston) 75 Chronicle (Quebec) 189 Chronicle and Gazette (Kingston) 103 Chronicles of America, The 201 Chronicles of Canada 201 Chubb, Henry 23, 34, 44-5, 65-6 Chubb, John George 69 Civil War, American: slows down flood of bookstoCanada 138 Clark, Henry J. 138, 177, 206-7. See also Copp, Clark Clark, Thomas 159 Clarke, C.H. 199 Clarke, George 100 Clarke, James 188, 200 Clay, Bertha M. 195 Clemo, Ebenezer: Canadian Homes 91, 164 'Club' papers 62 Clymer, George 47 Cobbett, William 16, 21 Cochran, William 32-3 Cockburn, James: Quebec and Its Environs; Being a Picturesque Guide to the Stranger 39 Cockrel, Richard: Thoughts on the Education of Youth 42 Codner, James 14 Cody, H.A.: The Frontiersman 237 Colburn, Henry 65, So Coldwell, J.P. 102 Coldwell, William 47, 142-3 Colebrooke, Lieutenant-Governor 108-9 Colenso, Bishop: Algebra 174 Coles, George 11 8 Colgate, William 51 Collins, Joseph 218; The Life and Times of ... Sir John A . Macdonald 179 Collins, Wilkie 175, 195; Man and Wife 170; The Law and the Lady 176; The New Magdalen 176; The Two Destinies 176 Collins, William 148; 'Ode on the Popular Superstitions of the Highlands of Scotland' 32 Collins, Wm., & Sons 209

322

Colonial Advocate (Toronto) 49, 57 Colonial editions: defined 110n; imported by Armour & Ramsay 111-13; popularity after 188 5 228; confusion over market rights 228-9; unfair competition with Canadian editions 241, 252 Colonial Laws Validity Act (1865) 168 Colonial Office 172-3, 184, 223 Colonial Pearl, The 61 Colour printing 152, 155, 159 Colporteurs (book pedlars) 19 Columbian printing press 47 Communications: improvements after 1850 140 Composition: setting type 4 5 Conferences on copyright: Ottawa 244-5; Washington 217-18 Connor, James 149 Connor, Ralph. See Gordon, Charles Conrad, Arthur 183 Conrad, Joseph: Lord Jim 248 Cook Not Mad; The, or, Rational Cookery 75 Cooper, James Fenimore 71; The Spy 54; The Red Rover 100 Cooper, John A. 232, 243; Men of Canada 156 Cope, R.W. 47 Copeland, W.L. 131 Copp, Caroline (Thomas) 206 Copp, Clark Co. Ltd 138, 179, 201, 202, 205, 210, 227, 236, 246; textbook publishing 206-7; success with The Seats of the Mighty 247-8; agencies 248 Copp, William 133, 138, 206-7. See also Copp, Clark Copper-plate engraving 50-1 Copyright: defined 105-6; lack of protection for colonial authors 62-3, 68-9; Thomas D' Arey McGee urges negotiations with the British 164 Copyright acts, Canada: prior to 1867 106-7, 115-16; 1867-1900 106-7; 1868 Act 169; Foreign Reprints Act of 1868 169, 224, 229, 240; 1872 Act 173, 184; 1875 Act 185-7, 190-1; 1889 Act 220-5, 242-3; 1900 Act 254, 255-6; imperial Act of 1842, effects in Canada 108- 16, 168; imperial

Index Foreign Reprints Act of 1847 115-16, 130, 134-5, 169, 224, 229, 240; manufacturing clause in, 115, 211, 212-13 Copyright acts, United Kingdom 11, 104-6, 108, 115, 220, 2 55. See also Copyright acts, Canada Copyright acts, United States 18; 1891 law 224, 244 Copyright bill ( 1895) 244-5. See also Caine's, Hall, copyright bill Copyright Conference, Ottawa (1895) 2.44-5 Copyright Conference, Washington (1881) 2.17-18 Copyright, court cases: Miller v Taylor 105; Beckwith v Donaldson 105; Low v Routledge 186; Smiles v Belford 187-8; Morang v Publishers' Syndicate 2.50 Copyright, imperial: American authors secure, by residence in Canada 186, 189 Copyright, international 105, 107-8; in Europe 105, 2.16; Dickens visits North America 107; London publishers support 171; Canadian reprinters fight 212.-25; George Haven Putnam supports 214-15 . See also Berne International Copyright Convention Copyright Office in Ministry of Agriculture, 1868-1920 169, 189, 224 Copyrights, Select Committee on English 109-11;Report(1843) 110-11 Corbett, Griffith 142 Cordier, W.B. 90, 134 Cordner, John 176 Cornhill, The 138 Correspondence on the Subject of the Law of Copyright in Canada 243 Cosgrove's Boston Book Store 132 Cosmos, Amor de (William Smith) 144 Costs, production 61, 12.6, 152-3, 163, 200, 226-7 Cote, Augustin 85, 86-7, 182, 269 nio5 Council of Public Instruction (Ontario) 128, 130 Council of Public Instruction (Quebec) 122 Courier (Amherstburg) 75 Courrier de la Nouvelle-Caledonie, Le (Victoria) 144

Index 323 Courrier des Etats-Unis, Le (New York City) 122 Cowan, William 74 Cowdell, Thomas 14, 31; A Poetical Account of the American Campaigns of 1812 and 181J 3 1 ; A Poetical journal of a Tour from British North America in England, Wales and Ireland 31 Craig, Sir James 39 Cramoisie, Sebastien 87 Crawford, Isabella Valancy: Malcolm's Katie, and Other Poems 234; Old Spookses' Pass 234 Creighton, John 76, 102-3, 108 Cremazie, Jacques 88, 121, 182 Cremazie, Octave 76, 100, 182; bookstore 88-9; 'Chant du vieux soldat canadien' 88; 'Le drapeau de Carillon' 88; Oeuvres completes 88; lettres et fragments de lettres 182; Oeuvres 182 Crockett, S.R.: The Raiders 228 Crofton, F. Blake: Hairbreadth Escapes of Major Mendax 235 Croil, James: Dundas; or, A Sketch of Canadian History 91 Croke, Alexander 15; The Inquisition 32 Crooks, Adam 203, 204 Crooks, James 49, 50 Crosskill, John 67 Crowell, Thomas Y. 237 Cruickshank, William 1 56 Cugnet, Fran~ois-Joseph 9 Cummins, Maria: Haunted Hearts 187; The lamplighter 187 Cunnabell, J .S. 60 Cunnabell, William 47, 60, 157 Cunningham, H.H. 15, 18, 70; The Canadian Review and Magazine 18 Cushing, Eliza L. 82 Customs department 108-9; collection of duties assumed by colonial governments 116 Cylinder printing press 156-7, 160

Dabers, James 163 Daily Courant (London) 11 Daily News (Kingston) 75 Daily Telegraph (Toronto) 189

Daldy, Frederick R. 184, 185, 224, 254; attacks Canadian government 240- 1; Ottawa Conference on Copyright 244-5 Dalhousie, Lord 38 Dalhousie Review, The 120 Dalhousie University 23 Dalton, Thomas 77; A Poetical Address to the liege Men of Every British Colony and Province in the World 74 Darveau, Camille 182 David, L.-O. : Biographies et portraits 1 54 Davidson, Alexander 79 Davies, Louis H . 118 Davin, Nicholas Flood 146; Eos: An Epic of the Dawn 146; The Irishman in Canada 133, 146 Davis, Jefferson 84 Dawson, B., & Sons 132 Dawson Brothers 102, 174, 177; publishing activities 169-70, 181; supports 1875 Act 184; issues Endymion 186 Dawson, Charles F. 132, 181 Dawson, George 14 Dawson, James 96 Dawson, John William 96-7, 117, 127; Archaia; or Studies of the Cosmography and Natural History of the Hebrew Scriptures 181 Dawson, Samuel Edward 132, 168, 181, 185, 186, 204, 217, 244; Copyright in Books 181, 218; A Study of Alfred Tennyson's 'The Princess' 18 1 Dawson, W.V., and Company 181 Day, George 157 Day, John: An Essay on the Present State of the Province of Nova-Scotia 28 Day, Stephen 6, 27 Delaroche, Peter 19 Delorme, Joseph-Victor 71, 73 Demers, Modeste 144 De Mille and Fillmore's Colonial Bookstore 1 33 De Mille, James 76, 2 34- 5; bookstore 133 ; The American Baron 2 35; The Young Dodge Club series 2 35; Brethren of the White Cross series 2 35; The Elements of Rhetoric 2 35; The living link 2 35; A

324 Index Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder 235 Denison, George T. 252 Denison, George Taylor: History of the Fenian Raid on Fort Erie 127 Dent, J.M. 209 Dent, John Charles: The Canadian Portrait Gallery 155, 156; The Last Forty Years 234; The Story of the Upper Canadian Rebellion 2 34 Deom Freres 183 Depositories, denominational book 101 Derbishire & Desbarats 90, 162, 163 Desbarats, George Edouard: publishing activities 89-90; lithographing activities 1 53-5 Desbarats, George Pascal 89-90 Desbarats, Peter 15 5 Desbarats, Pierre Edouard 39, 90 Desbarats, William Amable 154 Dewart, E.H. 123;Selectionsfrom Canadian Poets 91 DeWitt & Davenport 81, 131 DeWitt, Robert 83 DeWolfe, Fiske 161, 193 DeWolfe, Perez Morton 161 Dickens, Charles 8, 55, 65, 98, 138; A Christmas Carol 58; Dombey and Son 58; Martin Chuzzlewit 107, 109; American Notes 107, 114 Diggon-Hibben 145 Dime novels 131-2, 161 Discounts 129, 197, 203, 204, 206, 230, 231 Disraeli, Benjamin: Lothair 173; Endymion 186 Dobell's Arithmetic 24 Doctrina Christiana en la lingua Mexicana e Castellana 6 Dominion Illustrated, The 154, 156, 222 Dominion Type Founding Company, The 150 Don Valley Mill 49 Donaldson's Book Store 144 Donnelley, Loyd 161, 195 Donnelley, Richard Robert 161 Doran, George 249-50 Dougall, John 18 1 Dougall, John, & Son 181

Dougall, John Redpath 181 Dougall, Lily 181; Mormon Lady 248 Douglas, jr, James 234 Doutre, Joseph: Les Fiances de 18u: Essai de litterature canadienne 73 Dow, William, & Company 163 Doyle, Arthur Conan 232; A Duet with Occasional Chorus 2 51, 2 52 Drake, John 152 Draper, Margaret 28 Drummond, William Henry 237 Drysdale, William 181-2, 197, 252 Drysdale, William, & Company 181-2 DuCalvet, Pierre 41 Duckworth 248 Duff, John 76 Dufort, Theophile 73 Dugas, Georges: Legendes du Nord-Ouest I 82-3, 227 DuMaurier, George : Trilby 227, 229 Dumping of books 164, 214 Duncan, James 152 Duncan, Sara Jeannette 233, 247, 294 n4; on New York as a literary centre 234; 'American Influence on Canadian Thought' 234; His Honour and a Lady 179; The Imperialist 212 Dundas, Henry 21 Dunlap, George T. 250 Dunlop, William (printer) 35, 36 Dunlop, William 'Tiger' 54, 77; Statistical Sketches of Upper Canada 106 Durant, Lewis 4 5 Durham, Lord 63, 79-80; Report 64, 84 Duties 103, 108, 109, 114; as protective tariffs 135-6, 164-5, 193-4; on paper 1489, 194; on type 150-1; on lithographs Ip; Province of Canada revises, 18 58 1357, 150-1;John Lovell's and printers' support for 1858 164-5; National Policy tariff of 1879 193-4; specific duties protested in 1879 193-4; on books 194; on printed music 194; on printing presses 194; on stereoplates 194; sp·ecific duty on books, 1894-7 140, 145-6; new ad valorem, 1897 246; preferential tariff for British works 246, 247 Duvernay Freres 72

Index 325 Duvernay, J oseph-Ludger 71-3 Dyas,J.J. 180,219 Dymond, Alfred 16m Eager, William 153 Early Publishing House 198 Eastwood & Skinner 49 Eaton, George 14 Eaton's 231 Ecole patriotique, L' 88 Eddy, E.B. 148 Edes, P. 30 Edgar, Lady Matilda: Ten Years of Upper Canada in Peace and War 237 Edgar, Pelham 252 Edgar, Sir James 189, 212, 253; supports publishers 219; supports Thompson on autonomy 241-2; advises Laurier on copyright 245 Edgeworth, Maria 71 Edinburgh Review, The, and Critical Journal 70, 94, I 12 Edmonton: first printing office 146 Education: up to 1820 22-4; monitorial schools 23-4; 'national schools' 24; Nova Scotia 22-3, 24, 117-18;NewBrunswick 23, 24, 119; Ontario 23, 24, 12330, 202-3; Prince Edward Island 24, 11819; Quebec (province) 22, 23, 120-3; common school systems contribute to expansion of bookselling 116-30; Ontario Educational Depository 122-3, 124-30, 202-4 Education acts 23, 116 passim Education Office (Ontario) 206 Educational Book Company, The 208 Educational Depository (Ontario) 122-3, 124-30, 202-4; Egerton Ryerson establishes 12 3; Ryerson retires from 20 3-4 Edwards, Jonathan: Freewill 16; Religious Affections 16 Elector's Mirror; Or, Truth Unveiled in a Reply to Creon, The 34 Electroplates 151 Eliot, George 178; Daniel Deronda 177, 186; The Works 252 Ellice, Edward 69 Ellis, John 79

Employing Printers' Association 242, 255 Engelmann, G. 152 English and Blackadar 60 Erondelle, Pierre 7 Esquisse du commerce de pelleteries des Anglois 41 Estes & Lauriat 19 3 Etendardpublique, L' 154 Eustace, C.J. 51 Evans, James 141-2 Evenement, L' (Quebec) 73 Evening Post (New York) 17, 218 Evening Telegram (Toronto) 189 Examiner (Charlottetown) 118 Exports 307-8; Canadian, to United States 213 Eyre and Spottiswoode 209 Fabre & Perrault 73, 99 Fabre, Edouard-Charles 73 Fabre, Edouard-Raymond 15, 85, 121; bookselling and publishing activities 72-3, 99- 100 Fabre, Hector 73, 91 Fairhaven printing press 159 Family Herald and Weekly Star, The 180 Fanning, Governor 34 Fantasque, Le 85 Faribault, Georges: Catalogue d'ouvrages sur l'histoire de l'Amerique 74 Farmer, Little 150 Farques, Peter 15 Farrer, Thomas (Lord) 172-3, 184,245; supports reprinters 216 Faucher de Saint-Maurice, Narcisse: A la veille: contes et re cits 18 2 Fauteux, Aegidius: The Introduction of Printing into Canada 10 Fenerty, Charles 149 Fenety, George E. 44; his Saint John News the first penny newspaper in Canada 269 n105 Fenno, John Ward 16 Few Reasons for a Crown Colony, A 142 Fiction, cheap paperback 226-9, 247 Fielding, Henry: Tom Jones 20 Finlay, Hugh 21 Fireside Library, The 194

326 Index Fisher, Henry 119 Fisher, John Charlton 38, 267 n78 Fisher, Peter 54; Sketches of New Brunswick, containing an Account of the First Settlement of the Province 66 Fisher, Sydney 253, 255 Fisher's Cheap Stores 102 Fitzgibbon, Mary Anne 226 F!eming, May Agnes 195 , 196, 234 Fleming, Sandford 99; The lntercolonial: A Historical Sketch 154, 181 Fletcher, Robert 13, 14 Foreign Reprints act ( 1847) 115-16, 130, 1345, 169, 224, 229, 240; passed by United Kingdom 11 5; passed by colonies 115- 16; Anglo-American Magazine protests 134; British trade protests 13 5; passed by Dominion of Canada 169; John Lovell demands repeal of 169 ; Publishers' Circular calls for repeal of 171; American copyright law (1891) ends piracy 224; suspended in Canada 240; British complain of duties collected under 294 n4 Forques & Wiseman 240 Forrester, Tom 45 Fort Garry. See Winnipeg Fort Macleod: first printing office 146 Foster, George 201 Fothergill, Charles 4 7, 76 Fournier, Telesphore 122 Fox, C.R. 62 Foyer canadien, Le 89 Franklin, Benjamin 40, 48 Franklin Square Library, The 195 Fraser, Simon 8 Fraser, W.A. : The Eye of a God 237 Fraser's Magazine 94 Frechette, J .-B. 158 Frechette, Louis 212, 255 Fredericton: number of firms engaged in the book trade, 1869 162 Free Press (Halifax) 59 Free Press (Hamilton) 77 French-language newspapers in the West 143, 144 Frontenac, Governor 9 Froude, James Anthony 214; Bunyan 179 Fuller and Benecke 155

Fuller's American Book Store 13 1 Gaelic-language, printing in the 158 Gage Fiction Series 248 Gage, Sir William 121 , 202, 206, 207-8 Gage, W.J. & Company 121, 202, 210; printing presses 159; textbook monopoly 205-6;evolutionof 207-08 ;copyrightowner wins right to import his tides 246 Gale, Samuel (' Nerva') 42 Galloway, David 7 Gally printing press 15 7 Galt, John: Life of Lord Byron 106 Galt, Sir Alexander Tilloch 136, 148, 212 Garneau, Fran~ois-Xavier 54, 84-6, 87, 89, 90; Abrege de l' histoire du Canada 85; Histoire du Canada, depuis sa decouverte jusqu'a nos jours 84-6 Garneau, Pierre 182 Garro, Count Paul de 144 Gaume Freres 99 Gay, John : Fables 16 Gazette (Fort Macleod) 146, 159 Gazette Company, The, (Montreal) 180 Gazette du commerce et litteraire, La (Montreal) 41 Ged, William 15 1 Geikie, John Cunningham 162 ; attacks Educational Depository 125-6; Ralph Waldo Emerson 12 5; Reply to a Special Report of the Superintendent of Education 126; Statement, Supplementary and Explanatory 126 Geikie's Literary News Letter 125, 127, 134 Gentleman 's Magazine, The 32 George, Henry 192 Gerin-Lajoie, Antoine:]ean Rivard le defricheur 89, 121 ;jean Rivard, economiste 89 German language, printing in the 50 Gibb, Benaiah 163 Gibson Brothers 83 Gibson, John 80, 83, 126; edits The Literary Garland 81 . See also Lovell & Gibson Gibson, Mrs John 83 Girard, Marc 143 Girouard, Emile 142 Gladstone, William Ewart 115

Index 327 Glasgow, Robert 201 Globe (Toronto) 143, 149, 162, 200; begun by George Brown 77; attacks Educational Depository 126-9; uses stereoplates 151; prints first photogravures 156; printing presses 157, 159; strikes 160; attacks National Policy 194; supports prohibition of American reprints 172; attacks British publishers 241 Globe Printing Company 202 Godey's Lady's Book 104 Godfrey, Arthur 114 Goldsmith, Oliver 51; The Rising Village 60, 119 Goldsmith, Oliver (the elder): The Vicar of Wakefield 16 Good Words 138 Goodchild, Fred 236 Goodrich, Chauncey 101 Gordon, Charles (Ralph Connor) 248-50; Black Rock 248-9; The Foreigner 249; The Major 249; The Man from Glengarry 249; The Sky Pilot in No Man's Land 2 49 Gordon printing press 157 Gould, Sabine Baring: Pennycomequicks 228 Gourlay, Robert: Address to the jury 43; Statistical Account of Upper Canada 9 5; To the Resident Land Owners of Upper Canada 43 Government aid to publication 76, 85, 86-7 Government grants: for libraries 95; for literary and scientific societies 9 5-6; for Mechanics' Institutes 98 Government patronage for printers 26 Graduel romain, Le 51 Grafton, F.E. 181, 183 Graham, Hugh 180 Granger, Alphonse 183 Granger, Flavien Joseph 183 Granger Freres 183, 227 Grant, George Monro 76, 200; Inaugural Address 180; Ocean to Ocean 154, 188,205,234; Picturesque Canada 155, 198-200, 292 n91 Grant, William Lawson 45 Granulated photography 154 Gravel, J .-A. 99

Gray, Edward 40 Gray, Thomas 16; 'Elegy in a Country Churchyard' 11 Gray, William 42 Green, Bartholomew 27, 48 Green, J .R.: The History of the English People 179 Green, Samuel 27 Greig, William 110 Grey, 3rd Earl 115 Grip (Toronto) 179-80 Grip Printing and Publishing Company 17980, 197 Griswold, Rufus 102 Grosset, Alexander 250 Grosset & Dunlap 209, 250 Grouard, Emile 146 Grove, Frederick Philip: A Search for America 196-7 Gundy, H . Pearson 18; The Spread of Printing: Canada 142 Gundy, S.B. 237, 238, 249 Gundy, W.P. 208 Gurnett, George 77 Gutenberg, Johannes 4

Haas, Wilhelm 47 Hachette 24 5 Haggard, Rider 226; Allan Quartermain 190; Nada the Lily 227 Haldimand, Governor 20 Half-tone process 159 Haliburton, James 64 Haliburton, Thomas Chandler 54, 67, 106, 234; published by Joseph Howe 61-4; published by Richard Bentley 62-5; writes for British market 93; The Attache 65, 114; The Bubbles of Canada 65; The Clockmaker, first series 62, 65, 74; The Clockmaker, second series 63, 65; The Clockmaker, third series 63; An Historical and Statistical Account of Nova-Scotia p, 61-2; The Letter-Bag of the Great Western 63-4, 65; The Old judge 43, 67, 91 Halifax: bookselling to 1820 13; printing trade to 1820 27-8, 265 n47; book publishing to 1820 29; 1820-67 58-6 5, 67, 117-18; location of firms 161-2

328 Index Halifax Gazette 27 Halifax]ournal 28-9 Halifax Monthly Magazine, The 60 Halifax Morning Post 67 Hall, W. Carleill 250 Hall, William 133 Hannay, J arnes 120 Hardy, George 103 Hardy, Thomas: Far from the Madding Crowd 177 Harper Brothers 101, 102, 103, 105, 132, 195,214,215, 22.9, 235 Harper, John Murdock 120 Harper, jr, J.W. 215 Harper's New Monthly Magazine 82., 91 Harper's Weekly 2.35 Hart, Adam 119 Hart & Rawlinson 179, 207 Hart & Riddell 179 Hart, Henry George 14 Hart, Samuel R. 179 Harte, W.B. 2.33 Harvard College 10 Hastings, Warren: Petition to Parliament 32. Haszard & Moore 118-19 Haszard, George H. 118 Haszard, George T. 118 Haszard, J arnes Douglas 118 Haszard's Gazette (Charlottetown) 157 Haultain, Arnold 254; History of Riel's Second Rebellion and How It Was Quelled 180 Hayman, Robert: Quodlibets, Lately Come over from New Britaniola, Old Newfound-land 8 Haywood & Crean 197 Heavysege, Charles 76; Saul 176; Sonnets 176;]epthah's Daughter 181; The Advocate 183 Hemans, Mrs 4 5 Henry, Anthony 27-8, 29, 50 Henty, W.H. 246 Herbert, Sarah 90 Heron, Samuel 106 Herschell's, Lord, copyright bill 2.54 Hibben, Thomas Napier 145 Hincks, Sir Francis 116, 174, 281 n58; Reminiscences of His Public Life 182

Hind, Henry Youle 78 Histoire sainte en montagnais 146 Historical and Scientific Society of Manitoba 1 44 HMS Shannon 1 7 Hochstetter, J . G. 5o Hodder & Stoughton 2.48 Hodder, M.H. 2.09 Hodgins, John George 129; Easy Lessons in Geography 12.7; The Geography of British North America 127 Hodgskin, Thomas 97 Hoe, Richard 156 Hoe Type-Revolving printing press 156 Hogg, J arnes 66-7; Poems Religious, Moral and Sentimental 66 Holland, Anthony Henry 49, 58-9 Holland, Philip 59 Holmes, Oliver Wendell 189 Horne Knowledge Association 200 Hooker, Richard : Ecclesiastical Polity 16 Hope, Anthony : Rupert of Hentzau 251 Hopkins, John Castell: Canada: An Encyclopaedia of the Country 2.01; Life and Work of Mr Gladstone 201; Life and Work of the Rt Hon. Sir John Thompson 2.01; Progress of Canada in the Nineteenth Century 201; Queen Victoria Her Life and Reign 201 Horden, John 142 Horgan, Stephen 155 Howe & Company, Henry 197 Howe, John 28-9, 33, 59, 158 Howe, Joseph 45, 48, 51, 56, 57, 67, 68, 98, 107, 139, 149; presses and office equipment 48; Novascotian promotes authorship 58; publishing activities 61-5; publishes Thomas Chandler Haliburton 61-4; opposes book duties 103; 'Melville Island; 60. See also N ovascotian (Halifax) Howe, jr,John 29,104,158 Howe, Mrs Joseph 44 Howells, W.D. 189; The Lady of Aroostook 195; Ragged Lady 2.48 Hubert, Auguste David 50 Hubert, BishopJ.-F. 2.1, 2.2 Hudson's Bay Company 141

Index 329 Hughes, Thomas: Tom Brown at Oxford 135 Hughyue, Douglas ('Eugene'): Argimou; A Legend of the Micmac 66, 67 Hugo, Victor 72 Humbert, Stephen 14; Union Harmony: or British America's Sacred Vocal Musick 31 Hund, Frederic 51 Hunter Duvar, John: De Roberval 120 Hunter, Robert 176 Hunter, Rose & Company 169-70, 178, 184, 194, 197, 203, 250; publishing activities 175-7, 179; pirates Mark Twain 189-90; issues cheap 'libraries' 195-6 Hunter, Rose's Primrose Series 226 Hurlbert, Thomas 142 Hurst & Blackett 65 Hurst & Company 193 Huston, James: Le Repertoire national 87, 88 Hutchinson, Margaret 13 Hutchison, Henry 79 Illustrated London News, The 152, 154 Illustrated War News 155 Illustrations I p-6; chromolithography 155, 156; colour printing 152, 155, 159; copper-plate engraving 50-1; granulated photography 154; half-tone process 159; Leggotyping 153-5; lithography 1526, 199; photo-engraving 153; photogravures 154, 156; photolithography 1545; steel engravings 90, 152; woodblock engraving 50, 152, 155, 198 Illustrations from the Bible 161 Importation of American and British editions 16-18, 91, 99; American flood in 1830s 102-3; and at mid-century 91, 1312; British editions too expensive 94, uo, 114; statistics 137, 309-11; British imports increase after 1885 228; Books and Notions calls for streamlining in wholesale distribution 229-30 Importation of French editions 99-100 Indian languages, printing in the 36, 40, 50, 73-4; James Evans' alphabets for the Ojibways and the Crees, and his Cree type 141 ; Lac la Biche press 146

Inglis, Charles: Stead[astness in Religion and Loyalty Recommended 29 Institut, L' (Quebec) 84, 90 lnstituts canadiens 98-9 Intelligencer (Belleville) 146 International Congress of Publishers, Third 254-5 International Printing and Publishing Company, The 172 International Publishers' Conference, First 2 45 International Union for the Protection of Literary and Scientific Works. See Berne International Copyright Convention lontri8Aiestsk8a Ionskaneks N'Aieienterihag Gaiatonsera Te Gari8toraragon 40 Irish National textbooks 113, 117-18, 121, 124, 163 Irving, Andrew S. 162, 196, 247 Irving, James: 'Lectures on the Living Poets' 59 Jack, David Russell 120 James, C. C. : A Bibliography of Canadian Poetry 237 James, G.P.R. 55; Morley Ernstein 108 James, U.P. 197 Jameson, Anna 101, 137 Jarvis, Thomas Stinson: Letters from East Longitudes 205 Jautard, Valentin 17, 41 Jeffreys, G.W. 156 Jennings, Clothilda 67, 76 Jesuit Estates 22 Jesuit Relations 8 Jesuits : schools 9, 22; library 10; petmon for a printing press in New France 10 'Jesus My All to Heaven is Gone' 141 John O'Groats Journal 176 Johnson,J.T. 150 Johnson, Lawrence 119 Johnson, Lawrence, Type Foundry 119, 150 Johnson, Pauline 232, 250, 252 Johnson, Samuel 16 Johnstone, Walter 19 Journal de /'instruction pub/ique 122 journal of Agriculture (Nova Scotia) 118 journal of Education (Nova Scotia) 118

330 Index journal of the Board of Arts and Manufactures for Upper Canada, The 78, 122, 207

Judson, Edward: Buffalo Bill, King of the Border Men 131 Kalm, Peter 8, 10 Kane, Paul: Catalogue of Sketches of Indians, and Indian-Chiefs, Landscapes, Dances, Costumes 77; The Death of Big Snake 155 Katzmann, Mary Jane 67, 68, 69 Keith, Marion 249 Kellogg, Edward 192 Kenney's Catholic Book Store 101 Kent, John 77 Kesterson, W.H. 147 Kidd, Adam : The Huron Chief and Other Poems 71 Kidston, Richard 14, 16 King, E. Hammond 145 King's College (Windsor) 22 Kingsley, Charles 5 5; Alton Locke 58 Kingston: bookselling to 1820 14; printing trade to 1820 43; book publishing, 1820-60 74-6

Kingston Gazette 43 Kingston Whig, The 75 Kinleith Paper Company 208 Kipling, Rudyard 192, 193, 232 ; The Works 252 Kirby, William 78-9, 90; publication of The Golden Dog 190-2 ; supports publishers 219; Counter Manifesto to the Annexationists of Montreal 79; The U.E.; A Tale of Upper Canada 78 Kleinau, Henry 24 5 Klondike Nugget (Dawson City) 147 Knight, Charles 97, 152 Knight, Joseph 191 Knowles, Robert 249 Knutsford, Lord 224 Konig's Times' power press 156 Krieghoff, Cornelius: Scenes in Canada 1 53

Laberge, Georges 121 La Brosse, Jean : Nehiro-Iriniui 50 Lackington, James 14

Lacombe, Albert: Dictionnaire de la langue des Cries 182 Lady Aberdeen Society 148 Lafleur, Ernest 217 La Force, Pierre 15 La Galissonniere, Governor 10 Lahontan, Baron de 8, 9 Lake Champlain Press, The 190, 192 Lakeside Library, The 161, 195 Lamartine, Alphonse de 72 Lambert, John 20, 30 Lamont, P. 146 Lamoureux, Pierre 8 5 Lampman, Archibald 233, 250, 252 Lancaster, Joseph 2 3 Lancefield, Richard 222, 141 Lang, Lisgar 144 Langelier, Fran~ois 140 Langton & Hall 250 Langton, Thomas 150 Langton, jr, Thomas 250 Lanigan, George T. 180 Lanston, Tolbert 150 Larochelle 1 58 Larue, F.-A. Hubert 89 Laskey, John K. : Alethes, or the Roman Exile 66 Laurie, Patrick Gammie 143, 145 Laurie, William : The Battle River Valley 145 Laurier, Sir Wilfrid 1 56, 240, 14 5, 2 55 Laut, Agnes: Lords of the North 137 Laverdiere, C.-H. 15 3 Laws of Assiniboia 143 Laxton, W.F. 143 Laying Out the Grit Campaign 15 5 Lay's, Robert, Periodical Agency 114 Lea & Blanchard 64 Leader (Toronto) 187 Lee and Shepard 135 LeFaivre, Albert-Alexis : Conference sur la litttirature canadienne 13 3 Le Fran~ois, Charles 39 Lefroy, John Henry 99 Leggo, William Augustus 153-4 Leggotyping 1 53- 5 Lemay, Leon-Pamphile 191; Essais poetiques 90; Picounoc le maudit 182 Leonard, George 13, 33

33 r Index LePage, John: The Island Minstrel II8 Leprohon, Rosanna 84, 13 3; Antoinette de Mirecourt 90; Le Manoir de Villerai 182 Lescarbot, Marc: Adieu a la France sur l'embarquement du sieur de Poutrincourt et son equipage faisent voile en la terre de Canadas 7; Histoire de la NouvelleFrance 7; La Defaite des sauvages armouchiquois 7; Les Muses de la Nouvelle-France 7 Lesperance, Jean Gohn) 154, 157, 199 LeSueur, William Dawson 252 Letourneau, Louis-Octave 87 Letourneau, Michel 51 Letter to Sir john Rose ... on the Canadian Copyright Question by Two Members of the Native Book Trade 174 Lettre adressee aux habitans de la province de Quebec, ci-devant le Canada 40 Leviathans 102 Lewis, Mrs Ann 69 Lewis, William 33, 48 Librairie Aubert 99 Librairie Baset 99 Librairie Beauchemin & Fils 182, 183, 227 Librairie Garmer 99 Librairie Garneau 182 Libraries: in Acadia and New France 9-10; public subscription, up to 1820 20-1; and in the 1820s 95; Quebec Assembly Library 74, 87; law 95; medical 95; parliamentary 74, 95; reading societies 96; development of Ontario's public library system 124 'Libraries,' cheap: British 93-4; published by Canadians in the United States 161; American, 1870-1900 195; Canadian, 1870-1900 195-6, 224, 226 Libraries, public free: retailers attack fiction in 230-1 Libraries, subscription circulating: up to 1820 14; Thomas Cary's Catalogue (1830) 14; mid-nineteenth-century 93 Licensing clause in Canadian copyright acts: John Lovell lobbies for 169, 173; British Board of Trade protests 171 ; Thomas Longman 1v attacks 171-3; Act of 1872

refused Royal Assent 173-4; Dawson Brothers oppose 184; Toronto Board of Trade petitions for 219 Licensing laws ( 1662) lapse 11 Liebig: Animal and Agricultural Chemistry 103 Lighthall, William 24 5; Songs of the Great Dominion 182; The Young Seigneur 182 Lima, Peru: first printing office in South America 6 Linscott Publishing Company, The 200-1 Linscott, Thomas S. 200-1 Linton, James C. 147 Literacy: illiteracy among Quebec farmers 21; up to 1820 18-22; illiteracy in Nova Scotia 18-19; illiteracy in Montreal 20 Literary and Historical Society of Quebec 21, 74, 95 Literary Garland, The 75, 80-1, 90-1, 109, 113, 152; lays a cornerstone to Canadian literature 80 Lithography 15 2-6, 199 Littlehales, M2jor 33 Lizars, K. & R.: In the Days of the Canada Company 237 Local histories 61, 66, 91 Logan, Sir William 163 London Chamber of Commerce 241 London Magazine 94 London Missionary Society 19-20 London, Ontario : booksellers 131; centre for subscription publishing 197 Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth : Evangeline 62 Longman rv, Thomas: opposition to Canadian reprinters 171-4 Longman v, Thomas 186 Longman, C.J. 254 Longmore, George: The Charivari 71 Lorilleaux printing press 144 Lovell, Adam, Wesson & Company 175, 178, 190-1, 192 Lovell & Gibson 83, 162-3; Specimen of Printing Types and Ornaments 149 Lovell, Coryell & Company 193 Lovell, John 76, 86, 87, 88, 130, 178, 191, 197, 200, 228; early publishing activi-

332 Index ties 81-4, 85; attacks Foreign Reprints Act 107; begins textbook series 127-9; printing plant 157, 158; trade publishing 162-5; branches in Montreal, Quebec, and Toronto 163; refused permission to reprint Sullivan's textbook 164; supports 18 58 tariffs 16 5; asks government to support reprinters 167-75; pirates Foul Play 169-70; opens plant at Rouse's Point, NY 172; pirates Lord Macaulay 172; A Letter to Sir john Rose .. . on the Canadian Copyright Question 174. See also Lovell & Gibson Lovell, John, & Son 174 Lovell, John W., Company 192 Lovell, John Wurtele 161, 188, 228, 250; publishing activities 190-3; and William Kirby's The Golden Dog 190-3 Lovell Library 192 Lovell Printing and Publishing Company, The 121, 174-5 Lovell, Robert 83 Lovell, Sarah (Kurczyn): Reminiscences of Seventy Years 84 Lovell's American Author Series 192 Lovell's Canadian Copyright Fiction series 175, 225 Lovell's Canadian Dominion Directory 163, 200 Lovell's Foreign Literature series 192 Lovell's Political and Scientific series 192 Lovell's Series of School Books 127-9 Lowe, John 224 Lower Canada. See Quebec (province) 'Low's Copyright Cheap Editions of American Books' 170 Loyalist (Fredericton) 157 Loyalists 28-9 Lyght,Joseph 131 Lyon, James Walter 200 Mabane, Adam 20 Macaulay, John 14, 43, 70 Macaulay, Lord: Lays of Ancient Rome, with lvry and the Armada 172 McCaul, John 78; Britanno-Roman Inscriptions 79 McClelland, Goodchild & Stewart 250

McClelland, John 236, 237, 238, 250 McClung, Nellie 180; Sowing Seeds in Danny 237 McClure, S.S. 254 MacColl, Evan : Poetical Works 182 McCoy, John 132 McCulloch, Thomas 22, 25, 29; The Nature and Uses of a Liberal Education 59; Colonial Gleanings: William and Melville 60; The Letters of Mephibosheth Stepsure 60; 'Stepsure Letters' 96 McCutcheon, George Barr: Graustark 251 Macdonald, Donald 8 1 Macdonald, George 175 Macdonald, John Sandfield 176 McDougall, William 143 McEvoy, Bernard 252, 253 Macfarlane, James 75, 1p McGee, Thomas D'Arcy 76, 84, 133, 153; attacks immoral fiction 138, 164; 'The Mental Outlook of the New Dominion' 167-8; Popular History of Ireland 127 MacGregor, Mary Esther (Miller). See Keith, Marion Machar, Agnes Maule 76, 199; Heroes of Canada 207 Machray, Robert 143 Mcilwraith, Jean: Sir Frederick Haldimand 252 McKay, Robert 114, 132 McKay's New Periodical and Newspaper Agency 114 Mackenzie's Weekly Message (Toronto) 142 Mackenzie, Alexander (explorer) 8 Mackenzie, Sir Alexander (prime minister) 184; Political Points and Pencillings 180 Mackenzie, William Lyon 48-9, 76, 100, 123, 142, 149; presses 48, 270 n112; destruction of his office 56; on colonial magazines 70; publishing activities 77; on colonial publishing 91; on Mechanics' Institutes 97; purchases for his bookstore 102; opposes book duties 103; imports stereoplates of the Bible 151; attacks Post Office 158; Catechism of Education 77; ColonialAdvocate (Toronto) 77; The Legislative Black List of Upper

Index 333 Canada 77; 'On Printers and Booksellers' 77 Mackinlay, A . & W . 119,124,235; publishing activities 117- 18 Mackinlay, A . K. 118 Mackinlay, Andrew 117-18 Mackinlay 11, Andrew 118 Mackinlay, Charles 11 8 Mackinlay, William 1 17 MacKinnon, William Charles: Frances; or, Pirate Cove 132; St. Castine 132; St. George; or, The Canadian League 132 Mclachlan, Alexander 91; Poems and Songs 179; The Emigrant and Other Poems 127 Mclean Brothers (Maclean) 150, 180 Maclean's 180 Maclear, Thomas 83, 113, 114, 126, 135, 137, 162, 197, 206; publishing activities 133, 206-7 Mclellan, Margaret Hislop 147 McLeod and Allen 2 5 1 McLeod, George 209, 250-1 Macleod, Norman 138 McMillan 1, Alexander 119 McMillan 11, Alexander 120 Macmillan and Company 187, 214, 228 Macmillan Company of Canada Ltd, The 252 McMillan, David 119 McMillan, J. & A.: publishing activities 11920 McMillan 1, John 119 McMillan 11, John 119 McMillan, sr, James 119 MacMurchy, Archibald: Handbook of Canadian Literature 2 38 McMurtrie, Douglas 145, 146 McNally, Andrew 188 McNally, Walter 188 McNamara, John 17 Macoun, John: Manitoba and the Great North-West: The Field for Investment; The Home of the Emigrant, Being a Full and Complete History of the Country 200 MacPhail, Sir Andrew 2 52 McPherson, John: In Praise of Water 67

Macpherson, J.P.: The Life of Sir John A. Macdonald 198 Magasin du Bas-Canada 55, 71, 72 Magazines and periodicals: eighteenthcentury Canada 32-3; early nineteenthcentury Canada 60-1, 66-7, 69-71, 75, 778, 90- 1; The Literary Garland 75, 80, 82; Ontario, 1830s to 1850s 75, 77, 78; Les Soirees canadiennes 89; British reviews and quarterlies 94, 138; American reprints of British 102-3; Armour & Ramsay's importations of 111-13; periodical depots established in the 1840s 113-14; late nineteenth-century Canada 143; photogravure illustrations in 156 Magurn, John 21 5 Mail (Toronto) 187 Maillet, Antonine: Rabelais et Les traditions populaires en Acadie 7 Mair, Charles 143, 199; Dreamland and Other Poems 153, 181 Maison canadienne, La 73 Major, Charles: When Knighthood Was in Flower 247, 251 Major, J.C. : The Red River Expedition , 44 Makers of Canada series 201, 2 52 Mallet, Sir Louis 216 Manitoba: first printing press 141-2 Manitoba Free Press 143 Manufacturing clause in copyright acts , 15, 211, 212-13 Maple Leaf; The, or, Canadian Annual 78 Marcus Ward 209 Marechal, Joseph Marshall de Brett 1, 9 Maritime Monthly, The 119 Marmette, Joseph 90; Franrois de Bienville 182; Le Tomahawk et l'epee 182 Marston, Edward: supports Canadian claims to ownership of market 241 Marston, Richard 240 Martin, Robert 146 Mason, William 142 Mass market 195-6 Massey, Hart 208 Master Printers and Bookbinders' Association 238 Maugher, Victor E. 150 Mavor, James 252, 253-5

334 Index Mavor's Spelling Book 24, 106, 1 p Mechanics and Literary Institute (Grenfell, Sask.) 147 Mechanics' Institutes 97-8, 147, 196, 230 Meilleur, Jean-Baptiste: Canada East Superintendent of Education 120-1; Cours abrege de lefons de chymie 120 Menestrel, Le (Montreal) 122 Mercier & Cie 227 Merritt, William Hamilton 80 Mesplet, Fleury 15, 17, 39, 40-1, 44, 48 Methodist Book and Publishing House 1978, 202, 206, 246, 251; origins 123-4; publishing activities 208-10; major publisher by 1900 237-8 Methodist Book Room (Toronto) 20, 101, 123-4, 162, 208

Methuen 248 Metis 141, 143 Metis, Le (Winnipeg) 143 Mexico (city): first printing office in the Americas 6 Michell, Roger 8 Middleton, Robert 39 Miehle two-revolution press 159, 208 Miles, Stephen 43 Mill, John Stuart: Three Essays on Religion 177

Miller, Adam 120, 207-8 Miller & Orton 76 Miller & Richard 150, 159 Miller, Joaquin 196 Miller, R. & A. 121, 207, 208 Miller, Robert 121, 130 Millot, Jean 7 Milton, John: Paradise Lost 16 Minerr;e, La (Montreal) 72 Minns, William 17, 28, 59 Mission presses in the North-West 141-2, 144, 146

Moliere: Tartuffe 9 Monetary Times, The 230, 243 Monkswell's, Lord, copyright bill 255 Monopoly: exclusive right to print books 105-6

Montgolfier, Vicar General 17, 20 Montgomery, General 40 Montigny, Louvigny de 227

Montreal: bookselling to 1820 14-15; at midcentury 121; book publishing to 1820 40-2; 1820-40 71-4; 1840-67 79-84; 18671900 167-8, 170, 174-5, 180-3, 189-90; printing trade to 1820 40-2; first News Room and Library 15, 17; Fabre's importations 99-100; periodical depots 11314; large printing offices at midcentury 157; locations of firms 162; as centre of the book trade in Canada 162 Montreal Circulating Library 132 Montreal Gazette 15,109,111, 180; founded by Fleury Mesplet 40; on lack of colo-

nial literature 55; supports Dickens on copyright 107; owned by Armour family 111; installs power presses 157; supports reprinters and the licensing clause 172, 215

Montreal Literary Club 167-8 Montreal Natural History Society 96 Montreal News Company, The 181 Montreal Star 180 Montreal Transcript 81 Montreal Type Foundry 150 Moodie, John W.D. 82, 90 Moodie, Susanna 54, 68, 77, 84, 90, 91, 106, 140; on lack of literature in Upper Canada 74; publishes in The Literary Garland 82; published by Richard Bentley 82-3; writes for British market 93; on benefits of Foreign Reprints Act 130-1; first Canadian edition of Roughing It in the Bush 83, 133; on Toronto bookstores 137; Geoffrey Moncton 82; Life in the Clearings 82; Roughing It in the Bush 82, 83 Moody, Edward 59 Moore, Stewart 118 Moorsom, Captain William 101 Morang Educational Company 252 Morang, George N. 201, 209, 212, 236, 247, 250; publishing activities 251-3; speech on Canadian copyright 254-5 Morang, George N. & Company 251-3 Morang's Annual Register of Canadian Affairs 252 Morgan, Henry J. : Bibliotheca Canadensis 90

Morin, Augustin-Norbert 72

Index 33 5 Morning Chronicle (London) 56 Morrow, R.A.H. 198, 205 Morse's Geography 24 Moss, Thomas 187-8, 189 Mott, Ann 44 Mott, Frank Luther 154 Mott, Jacob 34, 44-5 Mowat, Sir Oliver 203 Mower, Naham 41, 43 Munro, George 161, 195 Munro Library 192 Murdoch, Beamish: Epitome of the L,:,ws of Nova-Scotia 62, 149 Murray III, John 109 Murray, Norman 183, 252 Murray's Home and Colonial Library 109, II0, II2, II6 Music bookselling 101-2 Music publishing 31, 36, 38, p, 61, 90 Musson Book Company, The 250 Musson, Charles J. 2 50 National Atlas, The 113 National Education in Ireland, Commissioners of 117- 18 National Policy 193, 212 'National schools' 24 National Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church 24 Naturalist's Library, The II3 Neatby, Hilda 21 Neilson & Cowan 100-1 Neilson, John 14, 49, 98, 122 Neilson, Samuel 74 Nelson, jr, Thomas 128-9, 209 Nelson, Thomas, and Sons 214, 228; textbooks in Canada 118, 128, 202, 205, 236 Neuschottlaendische Calender, Der 50 New Brunswick: education 23, 24, 119; anger over loss of pirated editions 108-9; Thomas Nelson's textbook monopoly 205 New-Brunswick Courier(SaintJohn) 23, 34, 65-6 New-Brunswick Reporter (Fredericton) 67 New Dominion Monthly, The 181 New England Type Foundry 149

New Era (Montreal) 164 New France: libraries 9-10; education 9; intellectual life 9- 1 o New Nation (Winnipeg) 143 New Printing Office 39 New Testament 75, 142 New Westminster Times 145 New World, The (New York) 102-3, 104, 108, 109, III-12, 131, 148 New York Daily Graphic, The 1 54 New York Type Foundry 149 New York Weekly Dispatch 131 New-York Gazetteer 16 New-York Tribune 159; threatens British government 242-3 Newark. See Niagara-on-the-Lake Newark Library 21 Newcombe, Edward 244, 255 Newfoundland: literary activity, seventeenth century 7-8; printing offices 34-5; passes Foreign Reprints act 115 Newspapers, Canada: prior to 1867 24-5, 26, 52, 56-7, 140, 142-5; after 1867 145-7, 159; circulation figures 57; serialized fiction and books in, 57-8; book reviews in 57-8; French-language, in the West 143, 144; The Canadian Illustrated News, first illustrated weekly 15 4; Globe (Toronto), first photogravure illustrations 156; cylinder power presses revolutionize newspaper industry 1 56, 158; distribution improved by changes in postal rates and by railway construction 158; increase in, between 1814 and 1877 158 Newspapers, France: eighteenth century 10 Newspapers, United Kingdom: eighteenth century Io- II ; early nineteenth century 56 Newspapers, United States: seventeenth and eighteenth centuries 6, 10-11, 56; circulate in British North America 16-17, 42; pirate British copyright works 102-3 Niagara Mail 78 Niagara-on-the-Lake: printing trade to 1820 42 Nicholl, Mrs: Lays from the West 144 Nickless, Joseph 70

336 Index Nickless, Joseph & McDonnell 15, 17 Ninety-Two Resolutions 36 Nisbet 248 'Noctes Ambrosianae' 62 Nodier, Charles 89 Nordheimer, Abraham and Samuel 102, 162, 207 North-West Company 69 North-West Territories, The 143 Norway House : first printing press in Manitoba 141 Nor' Wester (Winnipeg) 47, 142-3 Notman, William: Portraits of British Americans 153 Nouvelle Revue encyclopedique: reviews Garneau's Histoire du Canada 85 Nouvellistes 10 Nova Francia 7 Nova Scotia: education 22-3, 24, 117-18 Nova Scotia Calendar for 1822 52 Nova Scotia Gazette (Halifax) 29 Nova Scotia Intelligencer (Saint John) 33 Nova Scotia Library series 64 Nova-Scotia Magazine, The 21, 29, 32-3 Nova-Scotia Royal Gazette (Halifax) 29 Nova Scotia Series of Readers 118 Novascotian (Halifax) 47, 59, 61 Nugent, Richard 65 Nutt, David 235 O'Brien, Lucius 198 O'Brien, Mary (Gapper) 96 O'Callaghan, Edmund 8 5 Odell, Jonathan 29, 31, 32; 'The Agonizing Dilemma' 32; An Essay on the Elements, Accents and Prosody of the English Language 32 O'Hagen, Thomas 237 Old fashioned printing press 45-6 Old Flag, The, the Old Policy, the Old Leader 155 Oliphant (publisher) 236 Oliphant, William 60 Olive Branch Book Store, The 101 Olive Branch, The 90 Oliver, Frank 146 Ontario: education 23, 24, 123-30

Ontario Booksellers' Association : insists on better textbook discounts 206 Ontario Publishing Company, The 180 Ontario Readers, The 204-5, 210 Ontario Society of Artists 155 Opinion publique, L' 154 Order of Good Cheer 7 Ordinances of the North-West Territories Passed in the Years 1878 and 1879 145 Osgood, Mcilvaine 229 Osgoode, Thaddeus 19 Ottmar Morganthaler 150 Ouimet, Gideon 122 Oxford University Press (Toronto Branch) 2 49 Pablos, Juan 6 Page, L.C. 190-2 'Palemon' 24 Palladium (Charlottetown) 118 Palladium (Toronto) 47 Palsgrave, C.T. 150, 163, 164 Pansy Books 231, 236 Paper 4 5; handmade 49-50; laid paper 4950; wove paper 50; Fourdrinier papermaking machine 149; wood pulp for paper making 149 Paper mills in Canada 49, 148-9, 157 Papineau, Denis-Benjamin 73 Papineau, Louis-Joseph 72, 86, 98, 122 Parent, Etienne 8 5 Paris-Canada (Paris) 73 Parish, C.R. 197 Parker, Gilbert 90, 212, 233, 243, 248; Pierre and His People 2 31 ; The Seats of the Mighty 247 Parts, publication by 87-8; Daniel Deronda 186; Picturesque Canada 198-9 Pasteur, Charles Bernard 42 Patrie, La 227 Patterson: History of the Church 100 Patterson, John 17 Peale, R.S., and Company 197 Pedlars 131, 282 n85 Peel, Bruce 142 Penny Magazine 97 People's Edition of the Waverley Novels 112

Index 337 Perley, Moses 98, 104; Report on the Sea and River Fisheries of New Brunswick 66 Perrault, Louis 56, 72-3, 100 Perrin, John: The Elements of French Conversation 18 Perry, Charles 158 Phelps, Edward C.H. 198 Philadelphia Book Trade Association 174 Photo-engraving 153 Photogravure 154, 156 Photolithography 154-5 Pichon, Thomas 9 Pictorial History of the United States 161 Pictou Academy 22 Pictou Literature and Scientific Society 96 Pictou Observer 161 Pierce, Lorne 192, 238 Pike, Samuel: Great Book Subscription Establishment 13 1 Pilot (Montreal) 86 Pinkerton, Allan 19 5, 226 Piracy, Canada 169-70, 172-3, 194-5;John Lovell's activities 169-70, 172-3; British reactions to 171-4; Belford Brothers' activities 187-8; John Ross Robertson's activities 189; Mark Twain and Canadian pirates 189-90; American reaction to 219, 242-3; New York publishers on 'the Canadian invasion' 21 5; in Quebec 227; Goldwin Smith on 244 Piracy, United States 18; John Richardson blames, for loss of income 8 1; Charles Dickens attempts to negotiate with Americans 107-8; Thomas Carlyle attacks 107; American copyright law (1891) ends 224 Pirated editions 61-2, 81, 83; American, popular in British North America 94, 102-3, 104, 109-16 Pitman 248 Plamondon, Marc-Aurele 122 Plea for the Book Agent, A 198 Pochard, Alexandre 40 Pope, Alexander: Imperial Epistle 16; The Rape of the Lock 32 Porter, Jane: Thaddeus of Warsaw 1 7 Post Office: government printers serve as Deputy Post Masters 26, 29, 33, 158; high

postal rates impede newspaper circulation 57; high rates encourage American publications 104; bans pirated editions 108-9; New Brunswick complaints of high rates 111; Armour & Ramsay criticizes management of colonial 112; colonial governments assume management of 116; changes in postal rates improve distribution of newspapers 158; refuses to collect 1879 tariff on postal packages 194; retailers complain about high rates 230 Powers, J. W.: The History of Regina 146 Prairie Printing and Publishing Company 146 Presbyterian Printing and Publishing Company, The 248 Presbyterian, The 248 Presse, La 227 Prevost, Sir George 42 Price cutting 2 3 1, 246 Price fixing 246

Prieres, cantiques et catechisme en langue montagnaise ou chipewayan 73-4

Prince Edward Island: education 24, 118-19

Prince Edward Island Register II8

Prince Edward Island School Books series 119 Printers: unions 160; strikes at The Globe 160; emigrate to the United States 161 Printing presses: Jesuits petition for 10; hand presses in colonial offices 45-8, 269 n105; in William Lyon Mackenzie's office 48; Albion press 47; Columbian press 47; Lorilleaux press 144; Old fashioned press 45-6; Ramage press 47, 48; Smith press 48; Stanhope press 47; Washington press 47-8; 157; Wells press 48 Printing presses, power 156-60; Konig's Times' machine 156; steam power first used in British North America 157; local manufacture of 157; in The Globe office 157, 159; in John Lovell's office 157; in J. Starke's office 157; in W .J. Gage's plant 159; Adams press connected to steam power 157; Bullock web press 159; Campbell press 159; cylinder press 156-7, 160; Fairhaven press 159; Gally press

338 Index q7; Gordon press 157; Hoe presses 157, 159, 292 n91; Hoe Type-Revolving machine 156; Miehle two-revolution press 159; rotary press 156, 159; Taylor press 157; Wharfed ale press 159 Printing trade: up to 1820 24-7, 43-4. See also individual cities and regions Protection: reprinters support 139, 213; John Lovell's support for, as a means of developing the publishing industry 164-5; National Policy tariff of 1879 193, 212 Provincial; The, or Halifax Monthly Magazine 67, 90 Psalmody Reformer 61 Publishers, Canada : interest in Canadian authors 179-82, 23 5; American opinions of 218; seek reciprocal copyright in United States 21 8; attack Berne Convention 220; Edward Marston supports 241 ; gain right to import a work as the copyright owner in Canada 246 Publishers' Circular, The: questions collection of Foreign Reprints duties 13 5; protests 1858 tariffs 136; calls for repeal of Foreign Reprints Act 171; supports Canadian publishers' negotiations with British authors 175; pleased with Smiles v Belford decision 187; anger at Canada 241 Publishers, France : protest 1895 copyright bill 245 Publishers' Syndicate, The 250 Publishers, United Kingdom : ban pirated reprints from colonies 108; establish branches in the United States 128, 214; refuse local editions of British copyrights in the colonies 170, 173, 174, 228, 229; expensive editions aimed at carriage trade 193; Graeme Mercer Adam on monopoly of, in Canadian market 216; send travellers to Canada 209 ; attack 1889 act 223-4; refuse to send plates to Canada 228-9 Publishers, United States: want control of Canadian market 214-15 ; support international copyright 214; charge Canadians with piracy 215, 242-3; attack 1889 act 22 3; attack 1897 duties 246

Publishers' Weekly, The : predicts Smiles v Belford decision will drive Canadians to United States 187; attacks Canadian protection 213-14; supports international copyright 218; attacks Canadian manufacturing clause 223; sees Canadian publishers as agents 24 7 Publishing trade, Canada: protective duties to develop 164-5; reprint editions to develop 175 Publishing trade, United Kingdom 93-4, 97 Publishing trade, United States 102-3, 131-2 Putnam, G.P., & Son 83 Putnam, G.P. Sons 236 Putnam, George Haven 214, 217; International Copyright 215 Putnam's Magazine 83 Quarterly Review 94, 110, 112 Quebec (city): bookselling to 1820 14; book publishing to 1820 37-9; 1820-40 74; 1840-67 84-90; late nineteenth century 182 ; printing trade to 1820 36-40; Cremazie's bookstore 88 ; Neilson & Cowan's importations 100-1 Quebec (province) : education 22, 23, 120-3; bookselling in small towns 227 Quebec Chronicle 39, 189 Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph 39 Quebec Library 20-1 Quebec Magazine, The 21 , 32-3 Quebec Mercury 39 Ramage, Adam 47 Ramage printing press 47, 48 Ramsay, Agnes (Armour) 111, 113 Ramsay & Armour 76 Ramsay, Hew 124; publishing activities 111-13; refused permission to reprint Sullivan's textbook 163. See also Armour & Ramsay Rand, McNally 188 Rand, Theodore Harding 119 Randal, Stephen 77 Randal's Magazine 77 Randall, P.R. 198 Rattray, William : The Scot in British North America 133

Index 339 Rawlinson, Thomas W. 179 Reade, A.F. 111 Reade, Charles (agent) 17 Reade, Charles (author) 175 Reade, Charles and Dion Boucicault: Foul Play 170 Reading tastes: New France 9; Kidston's advertisement ( 1789) 16; Joseph Howe's reading 4 5; fiction in the nineteenth century 17, 2.0, 45, 54, SS, 60, 68, 74, 168, 2.32; demand for practical and scientific works 93; Saskatchewan 147; Montreal, 1867 and 1875 168 Rebellion of 1837 36, 56, 72., 79, 1SI Reciprocal Trade Movement 178 Red River Pioneer (Winnipeg) 143 Red River Printing and Bookselling Establishment 143 Regina: first printing office 145-6; bookselling 146 Regina Leader 146

Reglement de la confrerie, De /'adoration perpetuelle du s. sacrement et de la bonne mort 40

'Relation' (early newspaper) 6 Relations des j esuits 86 Religious publishing 2.6, 2.9, 30, 3 1, 36, 40, 60, 79. See also Bible societies Religious Tract Society, The 2.0, 82., 2.36 Renouf, E.N. 181 Renouf, E.N. & Company 180 Reprint editions : in British North America before 1867 18, 40, 106, 132.; American, of British reviews and quarterlies 104; Armour & Ramsay's 112-13; Hew Ramsay and John Lovell refused permission to reprint textbooks 163-4;John Lovell wants government permission to republish English works 16770, 172.-5; Dawson Brothers' authorized 169-70; Hunter, Rose's authorized 169-70; as a means of developing publishing industry 175; F.R. Daldy proposes these be treated as original publications 18 5; Belford Brothers' pirated 187-8 ; John Ross Robenson's pirated 189; Americans and British fear exports of Canadian 2.1 3, 2.1 5; Thomas Farrer supports Canadian producers of 2.16; French-language 2.2.7

Reprint publishers : Sir John Rose suppons 171; Thomas Farrer on 172-3, 216; fight international copyright 212-25; lose public support 2.25; Walter Besant attacks 241 Restaut, Pierre : Abrege des regles de la versification fram;aise 40 Revell, Fleming H . 249

Review of Historical Publications Relating to Canada 252

Reviews and quarterlies, British 94, 104, 110; American reprints of, circulate in British North America 134 Revue encyclopedique de Paris, La 72 Ricardo, printer 6 Richards, Grant 2S2 Richardson, John : correspondent for the Times 79-80; writes for British market 80, 93; blames American piracy for loss of income 81 ; The Canadian Brothers; or, The Prophecy Fulfilled 80-1; £carte; or The Salons of Paris So; Matilda Montgomery 81; Personal Memoirs 80 ;

Wacousta; or, The Prophecy: A Tale of the Canadas 54, 80; War of 1812 81 Richardson, Samuel : Sir Charles Grandison

16 Richardson, W.J . and J . 31 Riddell, Matthew 179 Ridout, John C. 243 Riel, Louis 143 Riel Rebellion : first 14 3; second 155, 180, 2.02 Riordon, John 149 Riots 56, 74 Rivard, Laurent-Edouard 101 Rivington, James 13, 16 Roberts, Charles G.D. 67, 90, 199, 233, 235, 239, 247; In Divers Tones 81; Songs of the Common Day 2. 32. ; The Forge in the Forest 237 Robertson, Alexander 34 Robertson, James 26, 33, 34-5 Robenson, J.C. 97 Robertson, John Ross 194, 228, 244, 253; publishing activities 189; organizes support for 1889 Act 220-1 Robertson, T.J . 127

340 Index Robertson's Popular Library 195 Robinson, C. Blackett 248 Robinson, J. Theo. 183 Robinson, John Beverley 14 Roby, Ernest 227 Roe, E.P. 190, 195, 196 Roi, Charles-Fran-.ois 39 Rolland & Fils, J.B. 89 Rolland, J .R. 85, 121, 149 Rollo & Adam 76, 102, 126-7, 135 Rollo, James 126, 177 Roosevelt, James R. 240 Roper, Gordon 233; 'Mark Twain and His Canadian Publishers: A Second Look' 190 Rose-Belford Publishing Company 176, 188, 189 Rose Be/ford's Canadian Monthly and National Review 199 Rose-Belford's Library 195 Rose, Dan A. 176-7, 224, 244; begins The Canadian Bookseller 222; debates Goldwin Smith 243-4 Rose, Daniel 176 Rose, George Maclean 169, 175-6; and Mark Twain 189-90; attacks 1875 Act 219; A Cyclopaedia of Canadian Biography 179 Rose, G.M., and Sons 176 Rose, Henry 176 Rose Library, The 19 5 Rose Red Line Edition of Standard Poets, The 196 Rose, Samuel 123, 208 Rose, Sir John 167-71, 216; 'Copy-Right Law in Canada' 171 Roseharp, The 77 Rose's Premier Library 226 Rossetti, Dante Gabriel 196 Ross, George W. 204-6, 253-4 Ross, John 68, 90 Ross's Weekly (Charlottetown) 68, 90 Rostand, Edmond: Cyrano de Bergerac 227 Rotary printing press 156, 159 Routledge, George 116, 214 Rowe, Lizzie: An Old Woman's Story 146 Rowsell & Hutchison 250 Rowsell, Henry 75, 78-9, 110, 12.5n, 126, 162.

Rowsell, William 78 Roy, Jean-Louis 73 Roy, Louis 39, 42. Royal Acadian School 2.4, 59 Royal Canadian Readers, The 178, 2.05 Royal Commission on Copyright, imperial 2.14-15, 216 Royal Gazette and New Brunswick Advertiser (Saint John) 33 Royal, Joseph 143 Royal Readers, The (Nelson's) 128, 2.05 Royal Society of Canada: Proceedings and Transactions 18 1 Royal St john's Gazette, The (Saint John) 33 Ruche d'Aquitaine, La 71 Rumilly, Robert 73 Ruskin, John: Ruskin on Painting 179 Russell Lang 144 Russell, Lord John 64, 136 Russell, W.D. 144 Rust, Samuel 47 Ruthven, H. V. 150 Rutter, A.F. 224 Ryan, John 16, 2.6, 33, 34, 35 Ryan, Michael 33 Ryan, Thomas 174 Ryerson, Egerton 2.0, 75, 77, 100, 2.08; The Claims of the Churchmen and Dissenters of Upper Canada 75; printing and bookselling activities 12.3; Canada West Superintendent of Education 124-30; retires 2.02.-3; Inaugural Address on the Nature and Advantages of an English and Liberal Education 12. 3; Special Report on the Separate School Provisions 126; Letters in Reply to the Brown-Campbell Crusade 129. See also Educational Depository (Ontario) Ryerson Press, The 12.3, 2.38 Ryland, Richard: The Coiners of Pompeii 78 Sadlier, D. &J. 132-3 Sadlier, Mary Anne 133 St George, Quetton 14 Saint John: bookselling 14, 101, 102.; printing trade to 182.0 33-4; book publishing, 182.0-67 65-7, 68; 1867-1900 119-2.0; location of firms 162.

Index 341 Saint John Music Store 102 StJ ohn's: printing trade to 1820 34-5; Henry Winton attacked 56 Saintsbury, George: Primer of French Literature 179 Saint-Vallier, Bishop de 9 Sampson Low 170 Sanderson, George R. 12 3 Sangster, Charles 75-6, 84; The St Lawrence and the Saguenay 75-6; Hesperus and Other Poems 76 Sangster,J.H. 127 Sarault (Saro), Fran~ois 15, 37, 38 Sargeant, Winthrop J2. Saskatchewan: first printing office 14 5 Saskatchewan Herald (Battleford) 145 Saturday Reader, The 90, 134 Saunders, E.T. 146 Scadding, Henry 77; Toronto, Past and Present 179 Schell, Frank 199 Scherk, Michael Gonder: Pen Pictures of Early Pioneer Life in Upper Canada 130-1 Schultz, John Christian 143 Scobie, Hugh 76, 77-8, 109, 124, 206; opposes exclusion of pirated editions 10910 Scobie, Mrs Hugh 133 Scott, Duncan Campbell 252; The Magic House and Other Poems 232 Scott, Frederick George 84, 237, 250 Scott, Jonathan: A Brief View... 29 Scott, Leonard: American reprinter of English reviews and quarterlies 104n, 116, 134, 161 Scott, Sir Walter 17, 55, 71; Guy Mannering 96; Life of Napoleon 100- 1; Waverley 54 Scottish Missionary Society 19 Scribbler, The 69-70 Scribner, Charles, & Sons 214, 246 Sears, Robert 161 Seaside Library, The 161, 195 Sedgwick, Arthur 21 8 Select Committee to Study the Copyright Laws (1886) 219 Selkirk, Lord: Sketch of the Fur Trade in North America 41

Sellar, Robert 158 Senefelder, Aloysius 152, 153 Serialized books in newspapers and periodicals 57-8, 62, 80, 82, 87, 89, 170, 235, 248 Service, Robert: Songs of a Sourdough 237 Seto (dit Sanschagrin), Jean 9 Seton, Ernest Thompson: Two Little Savages 237 Shakespeare, William 45 Sheets, books imported in 226-7, 246, 247, 256 Shelburne: bookselling in the eighteenth century 14; printers in the 1780s 35 Sheldon & Company 172 Sherbrooke, Governor 23 Shewan, M. 13 1 Shiels, Andrew 67; The Witch of the Westcott 54 Shives, Robert 66 Shortt, Adam: Lord Sydenham 252 Sienkiwicz, Henry: Quo Vadis 251-2 Simcoe, John Graves 21, 23, 25, 42 Simcoe, Mrs Elizabeth 42 Simons, Titus Geer 42 Simpkin, Marshall 2.29 Simpson, John: Essay on Modern Reformers 43 Simpson, Maria: Brother G.M. Rose 177 Simpson's 231, 252 Sinclair, Peter 76, 133 Sinclair's Journal of British North America 133 Sinclair's Monthly Circular 133-4 Small, C.W. 209 Smiles, Samuel: Thrift 187 Smith, Chief Justice William 22. Smith, Elder 228 Smith, Francis: Bertha, the Sewing Machine Girl 131 Smith, George F. 198 Smith, Goldwin 177, 212, 2.26, 245, 253; advocates annexation 178; founds periodicals 178; supports international copyright 217; opposes reprinters 222.; denies existence of Canadian literature 239; debates Dan A. Rose 243-4; on Canadian piracy 244; Canada and the Canadian Question 179

342 Index Smith, Henry More 68 Smith, Peter 47 Smith printing press 48 Smith, Sidney 55 Smith, W.H.: Canada 133 Smith, William: Alazon, and Other Poems 77 Smollett, Tobias: Humphrey Clinker 16; Roderick Random 20 Snodgrass, William 113 Snowdrop, The 163 Societe canadienne d 'etudes litteraires et scientifiques, La 122 Societe pour le progres de la litterature, de la science, des arts et des recherches historiques au Canada 95 Societe Saint-Jean-Baptiste, La 73 Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge 19, 20

Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge 97 Society for the Propagation of the Faith 144 Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts 19, 22 Society of Authors (British) 254; attacks 1889 act 223, 241 Soirees canadiennes: Recueil de litterature nationale, Les 89, 91 Southam Group I So Southey, Robert: Life of lord Nelson 106 Sower, Christoper 33, 48, 51 Sparhawk, E.V. 81 Spectateur, le (Montreal) 42, 71 Spectator (London) 11 Spedon, Andrew : Rambles among the BlueNoses 68, 90 Spencer, Herbert: The DtJta of Ethics 179 Spooner, A. 30 Spragg, Stewart 1 5 Stamp Act (1765) 27-8 Stamper, Henry 100 Standard (Cincinnati) 119 Stanhope printing press 47 Stanley, Henry: Through the Dark Continent 215 Stark, William 33 Starr, Richard 149 Stationers' Company 5, 105 Stationers' Hall: registration at 170, 187

Statistics: book prices compared in Halifax, London, and New York 114; persons employed in the book trade in 1851 and 1861 (Province of Canada) 160 Stayner, F.R. 104, 112 Stead, Robert 237 Steel engravings 90, 1 52 Steinberg, S.H. : Five Hundred Years of Printing 5 Stephens, Ann : Malaeska: The Indian Wife of the White Hunter 1 3 1 Stereotype plates 75, 157; invented by William Ged 151; first used in British North America 151 Stern, Madeleine B. 193 Stevenson, John Horace u6, 177 Stevenson, Robert Louis : The Wrecker 227 Stewart, George 2 36, 2 38 Stewart, jr, George 69, 166, 233; complains of dime novels 164; favours reprint publishing 175; fights with Belford Brothers 188-9; Canada under the Administration of the Earl of Dufferin 179, 188-9; Evenings in the Library 198; The Story of the Great Fire in Stjohn, NB June 20th 1877 198 Stewart's Literary Quarterly Magazine 69 Stimer, Henry 28 Stockton, Frank 226 Stovel, H.C. 144 Stowe, Harriet Beecher 189; Uncle Tom's Cabin 58, 108; Oldtown Folks 170 Strachan, Bishop John 75; 1 2 3; A Concise Introduction to Practical Arithmetic 24 Street & Smith 131 Street, Samuel Denny 'Creon' 34; A Statement of the Facts Relative to the Proceedings of the House of Assembly on Wednesday the Third, and Thursday the Fourth of March 1802, at the Close of the last Session 34 Strickland, Agnes : The Queens of England 82; letters of Mary Queen of Scots 103 Stringer, Arthur: The Silver Poppy 237 Subscription publishing 13-14, 37-8; late nineteenth century 133, 196-201 ; book agents 196-7, 231; retail booksellers attack 197, 201, 230; American firms in

Index 343 Canada 197-8; Canadian firms 197-8; Belden Brothers and Picturesque Canada 198200; The Bradley-Garretson Company 200-1 Sullivan, Robert: The Spelling-Book Superseded 163-4 Suite, Benjamin 9 Sunday School Union 101 Swan, Annie 236 Swift, Jonathan 11, 16 Swinburne, Algernon 196 Swinehart, G.B. 147 Swords, Thomas and James 14 Symonds, John Addington: Studies of the Greek Poets 179 Tache, Alexandre 144 Tache, Joseph-Charles 89, 122, 184 Tanghe, Raymond 87 Tardivel, Jules-Paul: Pour la patrie: roman du XXe siecle 183 Tariffs. See Duties Tat/er (London) 11 Taylor, Alex 144 Taylor, E.A. 131 Taylor printing press 157 Taylor, William 137-8 Taylor, William Darling 205 Tazewell, Samuel 152 Tebbe!, John 14, 102 Tebbetts, J .H. 114 Tebbetts' New Reading Room and Select Circulating Library 114 Temperance publishing 60, 67, 90, 119, 177, 180-1, 182 Ten of Diamonds and Other Tales, The 132, 183 Tennyson, Alfred Lord 55; Queen Mary: A Drama 179 Textbook publishing: at mid-century 11721 ; late nineteenth century 202- 10; publishers fight the Ontario Educational Depository 127-30; The Ontario Readers 204-5, 210 Textbooks 117, 163-4; circulation of American 24; Irish National series 11 3, 11718, 121, 124, 163; first native series begun by John Lovell 127, 163; The Ontario Readers 204-5, 21 o

Thackeray, William Makepeace 55, 138; The Four Georges 135 Theatre de Neptune 7 Thomas, Arnold 207 Thomas, George Elliot 206 Thomas, Isaiah 27-8, 41; History of Printing in America 27 Thompson, Henry 207 Thompson, John Sparrow 60, 61, 98 Thompson, Samuel 45, 47, 78, 126; Reminiscences of a Canadian Pioneer 176 Thompson, Sir John 212, 240; supports protectionist publishers 220-1; defends Canadian autonomy in copyright matters 224; death in England 242 Thomson, E.W.: Between Earth and Sky, and Other Strange Stories of Deliverance 237; Old Man Savarin, and Other Stories 237; Walter Gibbs, the Young Boss; and Other Stories 2 37 Thomson, Hugh 43, 71, 74-5 Ticknor, Charles 170 Ticknor, R.H. 189 Tid-Bits 192 Tiffany, Gideon 33, 42 Tilley, Sir Leonard 98, 193, 212; on copyright protection 217 Tillotson, John : Works 16 Times (London) 56, 79, So, 173, 240-2 Tims, J.W. 142 Tomkins, Thomas 14 Torbett, Charles 51 Toronto: bookselling to 1820 14; in the 1860s 136-7; in the 1890s 230, 231, 242, 247; book publishing, 1820-40 76-9; late nineteenth century 175-80, 187-9, 194-6, 198-200; printing trade to 1820 423; booksellers fight the Educational Depository 124-9; printers' strikes at The Globe 160; locations of firms 162; textbook publishers, late nineteenth century 202-10; as publishing centre of Canada 210; destruction of John Cameron's press in 181 3 268 n90 Toronto Art Students League 155 Toronto Board of Trade 219, 222; annual reports on book trade since 1860 137 Toronto Lithographing Company 155

344 Index Toronto News Company, The 196 Toronto Trades and Labour Council 222, 242 Toronto Type Foundry 150 Toronto Typographical Union 242 Towne, James W . 144 Trade organizations: printers' unions 160; Canadian unions affiliate with the National Typographical Union 160; Booksellers' and Stationers' Association of Ontario 220; Booksellers and Stationers' Section, Toronto Board of Trade (1860) 137, 222; Booksellers' Association of Canada (1857) 125, 137; Canadian Booksellers' Association (1876) 203-4; Canadian Copyright Association (1888) 177, 220-1, 222, 253; Canadian Publishers' Association (1882) 218-19; Canadian Society of Authors (1899) 253-4, 255; Employing Printers' Association 242, 2 55; Master Printers and Bookbinders' Association 238; Ontario Booksellers' Association (1885) 206 Trade publications: Armour & Ramsay's Literary News-Letter 1 1 3; Books and Notions 206; Bookseller and Stationer 180;

Bookseller and Stationer and Office Equipment journal 180; The Canada Bookseller 127; The Canada Bookseller & Miscellany 177; Canada Bookseller and Stationer (variant title in 1890s of Bookseller and Stationer) 180; The Canadian Bibliographer and Library Record 222, 296 n 3 1; The Canadian Bookseller 222, 296 n 31; Canadian Literary News Letter and Booksellers' Advertiser 124, 133; Geikie's Literary News Letter 125, 127, 134; The Printer's Miscellany (Saint John) 292 n91; The Saturday Reader 134; Sinclair's journal of British North America 133; Sinclair's Monthly Circular 13 3 Traill, Catharine Parr 20, 91; The Backwoods of Canada 54, 82; The Female Emigrant's Guide 13 3; Canadian Wild Flowers 237; Pearls and Pebbles; or, the Notes of an Old Naturalist 237 Tremaine, Marie 48; A Bibliography of Canadian Imprints 1751-1800 43-4

Trevelyan, Sir Charles 173, 213 Trubner, Nicholas 76 Trumbull, S. 30 Tulloch, Catherine 147 Tupper, Sir Charles Hibbert 242, 243 Turner, Thomas 41 Twain, Mark 178, 195; and Canadian pirates 189-90; The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 190; The Adventures of Tom Sawyer 189; An Idle Excursion 189; The Innocents Abroad 189; The Prince and the Pauper 189; Roughing It 189; Sketches 189; A Tramp Abroad 189 Type: composing 45; in colonial offices 48; British, imported into Canada 48, 150, 151; James Evans' Cree type font 141; American, imported into Canada 149, 151; decorated typefaces 149; machine made 149; wooden 150; duties on 150-1; Louis Roy's order ( 1792) 270-1 Typecasting: Gutenberg's process 4 Type-founders: agencies 150; local firms 150 Typesetting machines: Linotype 150; Monotype 150; Monoline 150 Tyrrell's Book Store 210 Union Art Company 154 United Church Publishing House 238 United Churchman, The 248 United Publishing Company, The 200 United States Book Company 178, 192, 226, 250 Universities 130 University Company, The 252 University of New Brunswick 23, 119 University of Toronto Library 230-1 Unwin, T. Fisher 228, 254 Upper Canada. See Ontario

Upper Canada Common Pleas Report, The 207 Upper Canada Gazette or American Oracle (Newark) 42 Upper Canada Herald (Kingston) 43, 57, 74 Upper Canada Law Directory 207 Upper Canada Law journal Monthly 207

Vachon, Andre 121

Index 345 Valois, J.M. 182 Vancouver: first newspaper office 145 Vancouver Times 145 Verrier, Guillaume 9 Very's Colporteur Bookstore 101 Victoria: printing trade 144; bookselling 145 Victoria Gazette 144 Victoria Magazine, The 90 Victoria, Queen: Leaves from the Journal of Our Life in the Highlands 173 Viets, Roger: Annapolis Royal 29 Viger Album 15 2 Viger, Denis-Benjamin 84; Considerations sur /es effets qu'ont produit en Canada, la conservation des etablissemens du pays, les moeurs, /'education, etc. 42; Observations ... contre la proposition f aite dans le Conseil legislatif 72 Vindicator and Canadian Advocate (Montreal) 73 Virtue, George 114 Voltaire 15 Vondenvelden, William 39 Voyager, The 77

Wells printing press 48 Wesley, John 19; A Short History of the People Called Methodists 29 Wesson, Sarah (Lovell) 175 Wesson, Frank L. 175, 191 W estacott, bookseller 132 Westcott, Edward: David Harum 247 Western Publishing House, The 197 Westminster Company, The 248-50 Westminster Review, The 94, 112 Westminster, The 248 Wetherell, James: Later Canadian Poems 207 Whalen, Edward 118; The Union of the British Provinces , 18 Wharfedale printing press 159 Whatman ,, James 50 Wheatley, Phillis: Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral 13, 14 Whilton, Abel 144 White, Thomas and Richard 41 Whitney, George W. 119 Whole Booke of Psalmes, The 6 (Wholesale) Booksellers and Stationers' Section, Toronto Board of Trade 137, 222,

Waddington, Alfred: The Fraser Mines Vindicated, or the History of Four Months

Wilcocke, Samuel Hull 69-70 Wilde, Oscar 15 5 ; Poems 179 Willard Tract Depository 249 Willcocks, Joseph 48 Willing & Williamson 177, 179, 250 Willing, Robert 250 Willis, John: Scraps and Sketches 18 Williston, H .C. 144 Wilmot, Lemuel 11 5 Wilson, Sir Daniel 212, 223,231; supportfor authors 2 38-9 Wilson, Thomas 108 Wiman, Erastus 128, 137-8, 178 Winnipeg: printing trade 142-4; bookselling

144

Walker (publisher) 209 Walker, James N. 158 Walker, John 87, 131 Wallace, W.S. 238 Ward, Edmund 59, 114 Ward, Locke 228 Ward, Marcus 236 Ward, Mrs Humphry: Robert Elsmere 192, 228 Warne & Hall 135 Warwick, William 177, 203, 205-6 Washington printing press 47-8, 157 Waters, William 42-3 Watts, Isaac 16 Webster's History 24 Webster's Spelling Book 24 Week, The 178, 199, 234, 238, 248; supports authors' rights 222; supports 1889 Act 222

Weekly Chronicle (Halifax) 28

238

143-4

Winnipeg Free Press 143 Winship, George 143 Winslow, Edward 33; A Statement of Facts Relevant to the Standfasts and Runaways, or Sammy Creon's Pamphlet Turn'd Right Side Outwards, 'Published for Fun' 34 Winton, Henry 56

346 Index Withrow, William Henry 124, 190, 208 Witness (Montreal) 181 Wolfe, General James 11 Wolff, Sir Drummond 216 Wollstonecraft, Mary: 'Abrege de la defense des droits des femmes' 33 Women in journalism and publishing 44, 66, 67, 69, 82-3, 90, 234 Wood, C.E.D. 146 Woodblock engraving 50, 15 2, 15 5 Woodcock, H. 181

World Publishing Company, The 200 Worthington, Richard 132, 160, 170, 183, 191, 193 York. See Toronto Young, George Renny 59, 61, 68; begins The Novascotian 60; promotes cheap reading 114; On Colonial Literature, Science and Education 67; The Prince and the Protege 67 Yukon: first printing offices 147