Toronto Trailblazers: Women in Canadian Publishing by Ruth Panofsky (review)

Biography offers windows into other lives, other times, other places. When a well-documented collection of brief biographies is undertaken thematically, as in the case of Toronto Trailblazers: Women in Canadian Publishing, readers can easily compare experiences, forming their own conclusions or accepting those presented by the biographer. Yes, biography is also argument. And despite the subject, Ruth Panofsky, professor of English at Ryerson University, presents this work not primarily as a 'feminist' book. Instead, she presents it as an exploratory text, a tip-of-the-iceberg investigation that demonstrates just how much more research needs to be done on the lives of women in publishing in Canada. As Panofsky notes in the substantial introduction, women began playing important roles in Canadian publishing soon after the country's first printing press arrived in Halifax in 1751. But where is the scholarship on their contributions? This work begins to redress the lacuna. And because the work focuses on women and women's lives in a male-dominated profession in the twentieth century, themes that course through the book include coping with sexism, balancing career and family (especially children), and forging professional paths largely in the absence of role models.

But other themes surface throughout Panofsky's well-presented portrayal of seven female 'trailblazers' in Canadian publishing, including themes more specific to the profession of publishing. Panofsky's seven chapters, averaging twenty-three pages, profile the first female publisher of English-language books in Canada (Irene Clark, 1903–86, of Clark, Irwin); Canada's first female editor in chief (Sybil Hutchinson, 1902–92, of McClelland and Stewart); a pioneering literary agent and senior editor at McClelland and Stewart (Claire Pratt, 1921–95); a publishing executive and leading advocate of Canadian literature (Anna Porter, b. 1943, of Key Porter Books); another highly influential literary agent (Bella Pomer, b. 1926); and two long-time employees of the University of Toronto Press: Eleanor Harman (1909–88) and Francess Halpenny (1919–2017). Each profile includes a monochrome photograph of its subject and focuses on her professional experiences in publishing, with Panofsky filling in additional background. And each profile ends with something of an encomium to its subject and her contributions to Canadian publishing. To craft these profiles, Panofsky read voluminously; consulted archival collections across Canada; interviewed Halpenny, Pomer, and Porter; and accessed restricted materials, including email correspondence, in Pomer's closed archive. Hence the chapter on Pomer is the longest and includes detailed discussions of Pomer's work with Canadian authors Matt Cohen (1942–99), Jack Hodgins (b. 1938), and Carol Shields (1935–2003). Connoisseurs of Canadian literature will be especially rewarded by the cameos played by these and other authors.

Panofsky's contextualizing introduction illuminates the challenges of working with archival materials, particularly archived digital materials. (Panofksy was not granted access to all of the archives that could have offered additional dimension to her profiles; even with such access, though, no biography can be 'complete' or 'perfect.') In each chapter, Panofsky allows the stories and experiences of her seven trailblazers to propel the narrative forward. Her voice surfaces only in the introduction and conclusion, where she first sets up and then reflects on the 'narrative of vision, determination, and resilience on the part of seven women who, by helping to shape the publishing industry over the course of the twentieth century, were instrumental in advancing a modern literary culture for Canada' (29). The respect with which Panofsky approaches her subjects radiates throughout the work.

The profiles of scholarly publishers Harman and Halpenny—both 'of the generation of women who limned the parameters of scholarly editing in Canada' (45)—occur early in the book, since Panofsky follows the chronology of when each woman entered publishing. Harman's publishing career...