ISBN Toronto Trailblazers: Women in Canadian Publishing book English 304 pages

Toronto Trailblazers explores the influence of seven key women who, despite pervasive gender bias, helped advance a modern literary culture for Canada.Publisher Irene Clarke, scholarly editors Eleanor Harman and Francess Halpenny, trade editors Sybil Hutchinson, Claire Pratt, and Anna Porter, and literary agent Bella Pomer made the most of their vocational prospects, first by securing their respective positions and then by refining their professional methods. Individually, each woman asserted her agency by adapting orthodox ways of working within Canadian publishing. Collectively, their overarching approach emerged as a feminist practice. Through their vision and method these trailblazing women disrupted the dominant masculine paradigm and helped transform publishing practice in Canada.

Ruth Panofsky is a professor in the Department of English at Ryerson University.

“Drawing on extensive archival research and interviews as well as a wide range of published sources, Ruth Panofsky adds the often-overlooked dimension of gender to the history of Canadian cultural production and provides important new insights into the complex workings of English-Canadian publishing houses.”Carole Gerson, Professor of English, Simon Fraser University“Taking a largely biographical approach, and featuring seven case studies that follow the careers of leading female figures in Canadian publishing, Toronto Trailblazers addresses an important, under-researched, and interesting topic.”Claire Squires, Professor of Publishing Studies, University of Stirling