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IN MEMORIAM
Jack McClelland: 1922-2004
"It was with great sadness that I heard the news of Jack McClelland's
passing. I have just taken over the reins at McClelland and Stewart and
accepted such a lofty position in large part because of this company's
great tradition, a tradition carved out by Jack and his larger-than-life
personality. He was not just a great Canadian publisher, he was a great
publisher, period. In the tradition of Alfred A. Knopf, Bennett Cerf,
and the recently departed Roger Strauss, Jack had that rare quality of
being able to combine a true love of literature and authors, with the
ability to promote the hell out of books. The list of Canadian authors
he discovered and published, many of them household names, is almost too
large to list. Indeed, this country - and the world at large - owe him a
great debt for the company he made famous and, most important, the
authors and their books that he brought into our lives. If nothing else,
McClelland and Stewart, coming upon its 100th anniversary in 2006, will
honour him by publishing books for the next 100 years with the same
gusto and success that was his trademark. And we will all miss him
dearly."
-Doug Pepper, President and Publisher, McClelland and Stewart
"What can one say that isn't already well known? Jack McClelland was
daring, innovative, unconventional, smart and savvy, and a publisher
extraordinaire. He put Canadian authors and Canadian publishing on the
map. In a way, he set the stage for so much of what Canadian publishing
is today. He cared deeply, sometimes took things personally because he
invested himself so hugely in the sometimes crazy venture of publishing,
which, besides his family, he loved above all.
He encouraged writers, he encouraged others, some just starting out. He
hired me in the late 1970s, and I had the benefit - and fun - to work
with him for almost a decade. What I learned from him can't be measured.
It's held me in good stead, all of these years. Whenever anyone ever
asked Jack casually, "Hi, Jack. How are you?" his response was always a
shrug, and he'd say, "Oh, I'm surviving." He was not complacent about
life. He lived it to the fullest and left behind for all of us a rich
legacy."
- Ellen Seligman, Publisher (Fiction) and Vice President, McClelland &
Stewart Ltd.
"Jack McClelland made a remarkable contribution to Canadian Literature
and his country. We will never see his like again."
- Avie Bennett, Chairman of the Board, McClelland & Stewart Ltd.
"Jack McClelland was such a daunting figure that a whole generation of
publishers grew up in his shadow, and in his debt. In those days before
formal publishing training courses existed, many of the people who now
run Canadian publishing companies - people like Scott McIntyre of
Douglas & McIntyre, Allan McDougall of Raincoast, Anna Porter of Key
Porter, and many others - all got their training at the Jack McClelland
Graduate School of Publishing.
What he created at M&S was something new - a Canadian publishing company
built around not the comparatively safe business of distributing books
published in Britain or the U.S., but around the principle that a
Canadian publisher should publish books by Canadian authors, developing
them from scratch, with all the attendant costs. He helped to make
people like Pierre Berton, Farley Mowat and Peter C. Newman into
household names and in fiction he supported the careers of Margaret
Laurence, Leonard Cohen, Mordecai Richler and a youngster named Margaret
Atwood. He supported them in every way, as his remarkable letters show,
and was repaid by their fierce loyalty."
- Douglas M. Gibson, Publisher Douglas Gibson Books, McClelland &
Stewart Ltd.
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