Shortlisted for the Lela Common Award for Canadian History
The legendary Canadian book editor presents this “remarkable, four-decade romp through the back rooms of publishing” (Toronto Sun) and is a “gossip of the first order, the kind who tells all, or at least enough” (The Walrus)
Scottish-born Douglas Gibson was drawn to Canada by the writing of Stephen Leacock — and eventually made his way across the Atlantic to find a job in book publishing, where he edited a biography of none other than Leacock. But over the decades, his stellar career would lead him to work with many more of the country’s leading literary lights. This memoir shares stories of working — and playing — alongside writers such as Robertson Davies, Mavis Gallant, Brian Mulroney, Val Ross, and W. O. Mitchell. Gibson reveals the projects he brainstormed for Barry Broadfoot, how he convinced future Nobel Prize winner Alice Munro to keep writing short stories, his early-morning phone call from a former prime minister, and his recollection of yanking a manuscript right out of Alistair MacLeod’s reluctant hands — which ultimately garnered the author one of the world’s most prestigious prizes for fiction.
Insightful and entertaining, this collection of tales goes behind the scenes and between the covers to divulge a treasure trove of literary adventures.