The writings remain, it is said, as well as the books. A certain number of them at least mark their time, pass the test of time. But the people who make them, the books, who put them in the hands of readers, those publishers, typesetters, translators, illustrators, printers, binders, distributors, booksellers or librarians, often fade into oblivion like ink with the time. In the Historical dictionary of book people in QuebecJosée Vincent, Marie-Pier Luneau and their team bring many of them back to memory.
“When we look at the typical trajectory, we see that book people in Quebec are doing a lot of things at the same time,” remarks Marie-Pier Luneau, director of the Group for Research and Studies on Books in Quebec. And this composite portrait of the one-man band who also makes books can be found both at the beginning of New France and in 2019, the year in which this Dictionarywhich does not list the living, ceases its collection.
“These people of the book, they are jacks of all trades, and they are in contact with many different worlds”, adds Mme Moon. To the point that, with her colleague Josée Vincent, also a researcher and professor at the University of Sherbrooke, they speak of a Quebec “book system”, rather than the eternal book chain. “It’s like a web, with arrows going off in all directions, linking different people together, all of whom ensure the life of the book. »
And this Historical dictionary, mention the two accomplices, was also done in the same sprawling way, with the essential help of a team of assistants, students, researchers and collaborators. A group necessary to produce this work-sum.
The book family
The image of the book chain that we use today “is very useful for describing the production of a book, when we start from the author, through the publisher and the bookseller, to end up with the reader. , says M.me vincent. But this image does not speak of the whole life of the book. The life of the book takes place in a much more circular movement. As if it took a whole village to raise a book, in a way, a whole community.
In a “form of vertical concentration,” we read, the intertwining of book trades results primarily from the need to survive in a restricted market, where practices remain little differentiated. At the dawn of the 19the century,” for example, “a John Neilson or an Augustin Côté used all the means within their reach: acting as publishers, printers and booksellers, these book pioneers used their newspapers to promote their works and use their workshop space to sell them. »
The boom of the 1960s
In Quebec, the book is moving from a colonial economy to a market dominated by imports, then protected by the implementation of regulations that will promote the growth of local publishing. A constant evolution, in a way, where the 1960s and the birth of book policies serve as detonators. “From there, the book-system is transformed” and the number of contributors explodes. The researchers therefore chose to keep a certain distance with the current environment, which is denser, as well as objectivity.
They are collective actors, very important in the world of books. And it is also there, in these communities, that we find women.
What are the figures in this Dictionary, which do Marie-Pier Luneau and Josée Vincent prefer, among the 391 notices they collected? The question is cruel, they underline it. Mme Vincent, who also signed The tribulations of the Quebec book in France (1959-1985), wishes to recall the role of religious communities in publishing and printing. “They are collective actors, very important in the world of books. And it is also there, in these communities, that we find women. »
Thus, the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, who are dedicated to education, create in 1932 the music school which will become Vincent-d’Indy. They have published several textbooks, 50% of which are in music education. Among the sisters, we find “several female composers who produce pieces”, often under pseudonyms (Pierre Chanval, Lû Nik, Claude Bernek), “which reduces the cost of purchasing foreign scores”, we can read. This musical production makes it possible to reduce dependence on French publishers and to develop local musical expertise.
Marie-Pierre Luneau has a weakness for what Heinz-Egon Heinemann (1912-1979) represents, a German Jewish bookseller, whom the rise of Nazism forced to close his store in Berlin, where he then sold books in secret. . He fled to Shanghai, where he co-founded the Western Art Gallery. In 1949, the sale of books became subversive for the Chinese authorities. Heinemann prepares to immigrate to Canada. The day of his departure, he is arrested; he will be imprisoned for 405 days.
Finally in Montreal, he revived in bookstores, opening the Mansfield Book Mart, an important hub for English literature in Montreal. “Heinemann’s career is completely out of the ordinary,” said Ms.me Luneau is worthy of a Tintin adventure, but it shows the passion that animates the people of the book and all the intelligence they put into their job. »
21st century books
What can we learn from all these stories for today’s Quebec book industry? Josée Vincent immediately names the issue of online book discoverability. How can French-language books from here, designed for a micro-market, be visible on the web? This is the question that seems urgent to him.
“We have to find a way to maintain what we had established as protection for the printed book, and move it online, to the digital world. And one day governments will have to understand that it is no longer necessary to support only the production of books, but also their promotion and their discoverability. Because we can always learn from history, she concludes.