STORIES ABOUT STORYTELLERS: Publishing Alice Munro, Robertson Davies, alistair MacLeod, Pierre Trudeau, and Others

Douglas Gibson, MA 1966

In her Introduction to this book, Alice Munro writes:" Here is my prize read for those interested in writers, books, Canada, life, and all that kind of thing." Elsewhere, Alistair MacLeod, the author of the great Scottish-Canadian novel, No Great Mischief, says flatly that "No one has done more for Canadian Literature than this man, Douglas Gibson."

STORIES ABOUT STORYTELLERS tells the story of a young Scot who left St. Andrews with a degree in English in 1966, and (after a further degree from Yale) arrived in Canada in 1967, to enter the publishing world as a trainee editor a few months later. When he retired in 2009 he was a much-honoured figure in Canadian publishing, the veteran Publisher of McClelland & Stewart ("The Canadian Publishers"), the first person to have his personal editorial imprint, and the only publisher to be granted honorary membership in the Writers' Union of Canada.

The memoir consists of 21 chapters, each based around a major author that Douglas Gibson got to know well, in his role as editor. The anecdotal, informal spirit of the book is caught nicely by the publisher's description:-- "I'll kill him!" said Mavis Gallant. Pierre Trudeau almost did, leading him ("Run!") into a whizzing stream of traffic that almost crushed them both. Alistair MacLeod accused him of a "home invasion" to grab the manuscript of No Great Mischief.

And Prime Minister Paul Martin denounced him to a laughing Ottawa crowd, saying, "If Shakespeare had had Doug Gibson as an editor, there would be no Shakespeare!" On the other hand, Alice Munro credits him with keeping her writing short stories when the world demanded novels. Robertson Davies, with a nod to Dickens, gratefully called him "My Partner Frequent."

And W.O.Mitchell summoned up a loving joke about him, on his deathbed. Stories About Storytellers shares theses tales and many more, as readers follow Doug Gibson through forty years of editing and publishing some of Canada's sharpest minds and greatest storytellers. Gibson is a terrific storyteller himself, and through his recollections we get an inside view of Canadian writers, politics, and publishing that rarely gets told. From Jack Hodgins' Vancouver Island to Harold Horwood's Labrador, from Alice Munro's Ontario to James Houston's Arctic, Doug Gibson takes us on an unforgettable literary tour of Canada, going behind the scenes and between the covers, and opening up his own story vault for everyone to read and enjoy.

ISBN: 978-1-77041-068-8