jfriskney

The Ryerson Press, one of Canada’s most important book publishers during the twentieth century, was the general trade publishing arm of a much larger Toronto-based printing, bookselling, and publishing operation known in its entirety as the Methodist Book and Publishing House (MBPH). After the church union of 1925, which brought together the Methodist, Presbyterian, and Congregational Churches into the United Church of Canada, the overall operation was known as the United Church Publishing House. From 1919 to 1970, numerous educational, historical, and literary titles appeared under the Ryerson Press trade imprint, authored by such prominent Canadians as A.R.M. Lower, Earle Birney, A.M. Klein, and Alice Munro.

Penguins, kangaroos, bantams, and seals. A veritable menagerie danced along the spines of pocket books sold in Canada during the twentieth century, accompanied by one nimble-footed, Winnipeg-born Harlequin whose international travels stunned the Canadian publishing industry. While Montreal publishers successfully produced for the domestic French-language mass market, the Toronto trade made its mark by producing quality pocket books that enabled students and general readers to experience Canadiana in inexpensive reprint editions.