While browsing a used book store or fundraising book sale, you’ve probably noticed one of the many colourfully-designed covers adorning most volumes of the Coles Canadiana Collection series. Originally published as budget-priced paperbacks by the Coles bookstore chain, the series’ resurrection of long-out-of-print tomes in their original format, without any modern contextualization, was the 1970s [...]

Source: the Toronto Sun, November 4, 1980. “A short, brassy dropout.” “A crass money-maker.” “Schlockmeister.” By November 1980, Jack Cole had gotten used to hearing every imaginable criticism from the literary community regarding his merchandising techniques during his five decades in the book business. Sure, his Coles book stores may have employed too garish a [...]

Source: The Telegram, December 3, 1969. Among the items that tied themselves into Canada’s one hundredth birthday, one of the easiest to find today are volumes of the Canadian Centennial Library. Drop into any thrift store in the city with a well-stocked book section and the odds are good you’ll come across one of the [...]