A Precarious Enterprise: Making a Life in Canadian Publishing Book Launch

Please join for the book launch of Scott McIntyre's memoir, A Precarious Enterprise: Making a Life in Canadian Publishing at Ben McNally Books. Scott will be in conversation with Anna Porter to discuss the history of Canadian publishing; the highs and lows, the promise and peril. The Q&A will be followed by book sale and signing.

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Scott McIntyre has lived the story of Canadian book publishing. Beginning his career at McClelland & Stewart in 1967, he went on to cofound his own publishing house, Douglas & McIntyre, in 1970 and made his mark on the industry amid the country’s exhilarating literary coming-of-age.

Becoming one of Canada’s largest and most respected publishing houses and among the first to embrace Indigenous issues, Douglas & McIntyre and its associated children’s publisher, Groundwood Books, published some 900 authors and 2,000 books in less than 50 years. For McIntyre, the authors always came first, and he worked closely with many important figures, including Doris Shadbolt, Wayson Choy, Richard Wagamese, Anna Porter, Will Ferguson, Doug Coupland, Hugh Brody, Robert Bringhurst, Wade Davis, and Farley Mowat.

Telling stories featuring a colorful array of characters who rebuilt the publishing world following WWII and anecdotes about how book publishing works, McIntyre touches upon the guiding philosophy and historic traditions still animating the industry today. More than the story of one publisher and his company, this is a first-person account of the buoyant period when writers, their books, and the companies who published them changed the nation.

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Scott McIntyre has been influential in Canada’s fight for a better and more supportive publishing policy for over 40 years, serving on numerous cultural boards and helping shape a groundbreaking UNESCO treaty that enshrines the principle of cultural diversity within international law. A member of both the Order of Canada and British Columbia, he also holds an honorary degree from Simon Fraser University. He and his wife, Corky, live in Vancouver, BC.

Anna Porter is the award-winning author of twelve books. Her recent work includes the non-fiction In Other Words, How I Fell in Love with Canada One Book at a Time, and Buying a Better World: George Soros and Billionaire Philanthropy, and the mystery novels Gull Island and The Appraisal. She co-founded Key Porter Books, an influential publishing house she ran for more than twenty years. In addition, she writes book reviews, opinion pieces, and stuff about Central Europe. She is an Officer of the Order of Canada and has received the Order of Ontario.