Jack:a Life With Writers: The Story Of Jack McClelland

by James King

From one of Canada's most esteemed literary biographers, the extraordinary story of the gregarious, trail-blazing man who propelled the country into a cultural coming of age, and whose life has been every bit as 'page-turning' as many of the books and writers he published.

Jack McClelland, the man who set out in the fifties to transform McClelland & Stewart into the country's most exciting publishing house, is renowned as a risk-taker and an entrepreneur, indefatigable, irascible, funny and humane, who did some things well and some things badly - both in extreme measures. He is credited with bringing Margaret Atwood, Mordecai Richler, Irving Layton, Leonard Cohen, Margaret Laurence, Farley Mowat, Pierre Berton, Roloff Beny and many others to centre stage in Canada and around the world. He is famous as the hard-drinking, chain-smoking publicity hound whose flamboyant stunts, calculated to bring attention to his books, made front-page news. But he was also an astute reader who denied his skill as an editor, an inveterate, spicy letter writer, an ardent nationalist, loyal friend, devoted family man, and a man whose passion for the family business delayed his leave-taking until the company's financial difficulties nearly killed him.

James King interviewed Jack McClelland himself, his family, as well as numerous friends, authors and publishers, and was given unprecedented access to Jack McClelland's papers and the archives of McClelland & Stewart. This is the candid, captivating biography of a legendary man - and a vivid window onto the lives and habits of this country's writers, as well as the story behind Canada's rise to prominence as a literary powerhouse.

"You were the real Prime Minister of Canada. You still are. And even though it's all gone down the tubes, the country that you govern will never fall apart."


Leonard Cohen to Jack McClelland, 1996

Genres: Biography

464 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

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Reviews

[Czarny Pies · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am disappointed how many lukewarm and hostile reviews that "Jack: A Life with Writers". Jack McClelland played a major role in the development of Canadian Literature (or CanLit as it is commonly referred to.) After his discharge from the Royal Canadian at the end of WWII, McClelland would enter his father's publishing firm (McClelland & Stewart, M&S) becoming president in the 1961. Over the next thirty years, the number of books published by M&S with Canadian authors would grow from less than 15 to over 100.
The lukewarm comments appearing in manyof the GR readers leads me to believe that readers little respect or admiration for publishers. Art lovers recognize the importance of patrons like Lorenzo Medici or Peggy Guggenheim. Balletomanes are grateful to Sergei Diaghilev. Operagoers have sympathy for King Ludwig of Bavaria. Readers however do not appreciate publishers who are the impressarios of literature. If they did James King book would get more four- and five-star ratings than it has.
While King's style is wooden at best his book however is still chock-full with anecdotes about the writers in the McClelland & Stewart stable including: Farley Mowat, Margaret Atwood, Margaret Laurence, Peter C. Newman, Peter C. Newman. King's sin in the eyes of many GR reviewers is his constant focus on the business of publishing.
King describes how royalty fees are negotiated, the handling of returns from resellers, the difficulties in determining the length of press runs, disputes with authors over the art on the cover pages, the promotional strategies employed for various kinds of books and many other management issues in the publishing trade. King is particularly good at describing the various tactics used by McClelland to obtain funding and to stay out of bankruptcy.
I personally loved "Jack: A Life with Writers" and am surprised by the lack of enthusiasm on the part of so many GR readers.

[Jay Millar · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting book filled with amusing tales of bravado CanLit publisher Jack McClelland and his publishing empire during the height of colonial literature in Canada. For me it became a good book about how NOT to run a publishing business in Canada. I wanted to rewrite the final paragraph of the book so that is said that Jack changed the face of Canadian culture because of his love of debt, and we will all be forever in his books. I do think it is funny that the final word of the book as it was written by King is "debt."

[T · Rating 3 out of 5]

More of a professional/business biography than a biography outright, which is acknowledged at the outset. A shame as the glimpses of McClelland's personal life are some of the most interesting parts of the book.

Breezy writing and meticulously researched book, but gets bogged down in the dollar-by-dollar accounting of M+S / office politics a little too much. Jack's correspondence takes up way too much of the book as well.

[Nigel Beale]

Listen to my Biblio File podcast interview with James King about Jack: A Life with writers, here: http://thebibliofile.ca/james-king-on...

[Theryn Fleming · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jack is a biography of Jack McClelland, who ran McClelland & Stewart (Canadian publisher that his father founded) for many years (1950s – 80s). McClelland championed Canadian literature and started the New Canadian Library series. As biographies go, this is a pretty entertaining one. You learn (if you didn't already know!) how close to bankruptcy publishing firms have always operated as well as all sorts of gossip about famous Canadian writers. Be prepared for the usual sexism of the era.

[Karin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The best part of this book is getting an inside look at some great Canadian authors. The rest of it was often frustrating - either because of the company's bad luck when a deal didn't work out, or because of Jack's approach to the business. Not to say he didn't care or take it seriously, but that sometimes his decisions seem bizarre or ill-advised in light of today's market.

[To the point · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book made me long to write a novel. I found McClelland's life interesting and motivating.