Aug 7, 2022
Why listen to James
Marsh? Because he knows about love and
encyclopedias.
He grew up in The Junction district of
Toronto surviving a difficult childhood, and began his career in
publishing at Holt Rinehart and Winston where he was editor of a
Centennial history of Canada entitled Unity and Diversity.
He later became executive editor of McClelland and Stewart's
Carleton Library Series, after which he was hired by Mel
Hurtig as editor-in-chief of The Canadian Encyclopedia -
the biggest printing/publishing endeavour in Canadian
history.
We talk about his memoir Know
it All: Finding the Impossible
Country and about what he found; about
encyclopedias striving for ideals; about historian Ramsey Cook and
limited identities; selection by community; post-Centennial
enthusiasm for Canada; economic nationalism; selling 250,000 sets
of The Canadian Encyclopedia and then putting it
on-line and making it "engaging;" the importance of conversation to
democracy; Alberta premier Peter Lougheed; the woman with the two
colour eyes; and the gift of friendship.