CRI 550

Understanding the creative landscape today requires an understanding of the forces that shaped it in the past. This course will survey the development of book publishing and retailing in Canada from early-twentieth-century importation from abroad to the advent of large-chain retail. Topics will include the development of a Canadian textbook market; the story of Harlequin; the impact of the Massey Commission; the creation of Canadian trade-only publishing, changes in "branch-plant" publishing, and the rise of small presses; and bookselling from the stationery store to the national-chain retail and the advent of Internet sales.