Toronto Trailblazers:
Women in Canadian Publishing

By: Ruth Panofsky

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.

PUBLISHED:

2019

PUBLISHER:

University of Toronto Press

AWARDS:

Finalist, Heritage Toronto Book Award

Reviews

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, Simon Fraser University