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Ellen Seligman was an editor of Canadian fiction who served as McClelland & Stewart’s Editorial Director of Fiction from 1987 on, and eventually, Vice-President (2012). Seligman edited many of McClelland & Stewart’s most noteworthy books during her tenure, including works by Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje, Leonard Cohen, Rohinton Mistry, Anne Michaels, and others.

Seligman was born and raised in New York City (Manhattan). She attended the University of Wisconsin in Madison, where she received a Bachelor of Arts in English. She began her publishing career in New York City, continued it in London, England, and moved to Canada in 1976. By 1977, she was hired as a senior editor at McClelland and Stewart, where she was responsible for a range of books, including non-fiction, memoirs, poetry, and art.

Seligman became Editorial Director of Fiction in 1987. Following this appointment, she took on primary responsibility for acquiring and editing much of McClelland & Stewart’s fiction list. Books Seligman worked on won Canada’s top literary prizes, including the Governor General’s Award, the Trillium Prize, and the Giller Prize. Seligman’s books also won or were shortlisted for prestigious international prizes such as the Booker Prize, the Orange Prize, and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. Seligman worked with Sandra Birdsell, David Adams Richards, John Steffler, Shyam Selvadurai, Jane Urquhart, M.G. Vassanji, Guy Vanderhaeghe, and many others.

In 2000, McClelland & Stewart donated 75% of their shares to the University of Toronto; the remaining 25% were sold to Random House of Canada Ltd. In the same year, Seligman was promoted to the position of Publisher (Fiction). In 2011, Random House purchased the remaining 75% of the company to become the sole owner. By 2012, Seligman was named Vice-President of McClelland & Stewart, a position she held until her death in 2016.

In addition to her work in publishing, Seligman was an active member of PEN Canada, and from 2009-2011 she served as the organization’s president.

Seligman won many editorial and professional awards throughout her career, including the Order of Ontario (2008) and the Canadian Booksellers Association’s Editor of the Year award.

Seligman was married to James Polk.

Tools for Peace was formed to provide humanitarian aid to Nicaragua. It grew out a visit of a group of fishermen from British Columbia to Nicaragua in 1981. On their return to Canada they began to gather supplies to help a Nicaraguan fishing village. By 1983 Tools for Peace had been formally organized with a head office in Vancouver and branches across Canada. In the spring of 1984 members of the El Salvadorean Committee in Hamilton, Ont. decided to became active in collecting goods for Nicaragua and joined Tools for Peace. The Hamilton group concentrated on collecting school supplies as well as donating cash. They also sponsored speakers from Nicaragua. Although the Hamilton group was still active as late as 1995, the Vancouver head office had been closed sometime before that. A longer history of the organization, written by Jessie Kaye, is available in hard copy.

Donald Francis Galloway was born on 9 August 1915 in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, the son of Captain John S. Galloway and his wife, Frances. His siblings were John (Jack), Albert (Red), Bruce, Gordon and Leona. Don and Bruce, the second and third sons, joined up together in 1940 with the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. Within a few weeks Don had left the Army. He re-enlisted for a second time in July 1941 in Toronto. He did his basic training in Brantford, Ontario, and his advanced training with the Canadian Armoured Corps at Camp Borden. He went to the United Kingdom in March 1942 and in July was assigned to the 10th Armoured Regiment (Fort Garry Horse). He took part in D-Day as the co-driver of a tank in Squadron B. Four days later the tank was hit by a German shell; the driver, Michael Marchinsky, was killed; Don was badly wounded. He began his recuperation at Basingstoke Neurological and Plastic Surgery hospital in Hampshire, England. He returned to Canada in September 1944 on the hospital ship Lady Nelson. He got engaged to Catharine (Mickie) Carroll in October. On 25 June 1945 they married. The couple had two daughters, Sheila Turcon and Susan Turner. Don died on 16 May 1976. Mickie died on 8 June 2023.

Don’s four brothers also served in the military. Albert (“Red”), the first to enlist, joined the Royal Canadian Engineers. He served in England, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands. Bruce later served the Highland Light Infantry of Canada. He died in a road accident in Soest, the Netherlands, on 23 June. He was buried in Hilversum, a civilian cemetery, on 26 June 1945 with his brothers, Red and Gordon, in attendance. Gordon, the youngest brother, had enlisted in February 1943. He served with the Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment in England and Italy. He was later with the No. 16 Special Employment Company in Belgium. The last brother to join the forces in 1945 was Jack, the oldest, who was married with two children. He served with the Royal Canadian Engineers in Canada. Don’s cousin, Olney (Jack) Barker served with the American military in the Pacific.

Antonio D'Alfonso was born in Montreal in 1953. He attended English and French schools and studied at Loyola College where he earned a B.A. in Communication Arts in 1975. He completed an M.Sc. in Communications Studies from Université de Montréal. D’Alfonso completed a Ph.D. in 2012. He received an Honorary Doctorate from Athabasca University in 2016.

In1978 he founded Guernica Editions, where he edited 450 books by authors from around the world. The company is dedicated to the bridging of cultures in Canada and publishes both original works and translations in three languages: English, French, and Italian. In 1982 in collaboration with three writers he founded the trilingual magazine Vice Versa and in 1986 they founded the Association of Italian-Canadian writers. As an author himself, he has published over 20 books in French and English. He has won the Trillium Award for his novel, Un vendredi du mois d'août in 2005. He is also an independent filmmaker and scriptwriter. In 2010 his film Bruco won the Best Foreign Film and Best International Director of a Feature Film at the New York International Film and Video Festival (Los Angeles). He has lived in Mexico City, Rome and Toronto. He has taught at University of Toronto and University of California, San Diego and presently teaches film in the French Department at McGill University.

James A. “Jim” Lord was born in Dublin in 1914, the fifth of seven children. His father, also James, was an accountant and his mother was a dressmaker. The family immigrated to Canada in 1921, first to Flamborough, then to Hamilton (Herkimer St.). In Hamilton, James Sr. died in 1924 when Jim was ten. At the age of sixteen, Jim left school to help the family, working at Wright’s Hardware on James North, then at Stelco.

With rumblings of war growing louder, Jim took night classes on the theory of electrical equipment. He met Elsie Grace Manewell at All Saints Anglican church, and they were married on 10 April 1942, just before Jim enlisted with the RCAF. His night class preparations made him a prime candidate for the role of radar technician. He completed training in the US and Canada before being sent overseas. He spent the majority of the war in Wick, Scotland at one of the radar stations there. These sites monitored for incoming bombing runs.

After returning home in November 1945, he returned to his job at Stelco. He and Elsie had three children: Jack, Bill, and Bob. Despite leaving school early, his passion for learning continued throughout his life. He finished his high school degree through correspondence, which he’d begun while overseas, and became an accountant in 1950. He worked for General Smelting, later moving into purchasing and personnel, until his retirement in 1979. He earned a scholar of theology diploma by correspondence from England, and in 1960, he was ordained as an Anglican deacon. He volunteered with St. Mark’s in downtown Hamilton and St. Margaret’s. After he retired, he attended McMaster University, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1983 and an M.A. at the age of 70 (see his M.A. thesis here). In addition to academic writing, he wrote and published an epic poem in honour of Terry Fox, “The Song of Alopeix.”

Lord had a great love of the outdoors and would often go on long walks and hiking trips with his dog. He died of heart disease at the age of 86.

Martyn Burke (1942-) is a novelist, journalist, film director, documentarian, and screenwriter. He graduated from McMaster with a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Sciences (Economics) in 1964. After graduation, he travelled to Vietnam as an independent freelance journalist covering the war. His dispatches were printed in the Toronto Telegram “Martyn Burke’s Vietnam War Diary,” and later became the basis of his first work of fiction. He is the author of several fiction books: The Laughing War (1980), Ivory Joe (1991), Tiara (1995), The Commissar’s Report (1984), The Shelling of Beverly Hills (2000), The Truth about the Night (2006), and Music for Love or War (2015). Following the Vietnam War, Burke returned to Canada to work as a producer at CBC television.

Burke is best known as a documentarian and his work has been broadcast by the CBC, BBC in the United Kingdom, TF-1 in France and CBS's 60 Minutes. In 1977, he co-produced Connections: An Investigation into Organized Crime in Canada, a two-part documentary series on the Mafia with CBC/Norfolk Communications Ltd. In 1988, Burke directed Witnesses, a documentary film which provided a behind-the-scenes view of the Soviet war in Afghanistan. His documentary film, Under Fire: Journalists in Combat, featured interviews with journalists and photographers who had experienced war first-hand and won a Peabody Award in 2011.

His film and cable television credits include: co-writer of the cult comedy Top Secret; writer, HBO’s satirical The Second Civil War (1997); and writer/director of the Emmy-nominated television film, Pirates of Silicon Valley (1999).

Burke divides his time between Toronto and Santa Monica, California.

Archibald Foulds was born in Quebec City in 1883 to Archibald and Mary (nee Cream) Foulds. The family moved to Toronto in 1900, and Foulds graduated from the University of Toronto in 1904. He joined the law firm of Macdonald, Shepley, Middleton & Donald. During this time, he joined the Queen’s Own Rifles. He married Kate Huldah Steele in 1912, and they would go on to have three children (Kenneth, Philip, and Derek).

Foulds entered the First World War as a Captain with the 123rd Infantry Battalion and was mentioned in General Haig’s dispatches for his and the rest of his unit’s role at Ypres during the Battle of Passchendaele. In May 1918, he joined the 8th Battalion Engineers, who were part of the Battle of Mons at the close of the War.

After the war, Foulds returned to practice. The Mason, Foulds law firm would become the largest counsel practice in Toronto. He lived in Toronto until his death in 1983.

Philip Steele Foulds was born 12 December 1918 in Toronto to Archibald and Kate, the second of three sons. He attended Upper Canada College and Trinity College at the University of Toronto. While at University, he met Lousie Matthews and they were engaged before he was deployed in 1940.

Foulds served with distinction as a pilot in the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm and the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve, the majority with the 856 Squadron, with over 760 hours in Swordfish, Albacores, Avengers and other planes. Numerous missions involved flying on and off air craft carriers and in other highly dangerous situations. Over the course of his service, he circumnavigated the globe.

Foulds retired from active service at the end of the war. He and Louise had been married during his 1941 leave, and they settled at the Matthew family farm in Kingsville, Ont. They had a daughter, Barbara, and Foulds worked for Hiram-Walker from 1948-1983. They moved to Toronto in the 90s; Foulds passed away after a brief illness on 18 April 2017.

Kim Echlin is a writer, translator, and journalist.

Echlin was born in Burlington, Ontario in 1955. She received a B.A. (Hons.) in English at McGill University (1977) and an M.A. in English (York, 1978). Subsequently, she completed a French language course at the Sorbonne (1979) and a Ph.D. in English (York, 1982). Echlin’s Ph.D. research focused on translations of Ojibway narratives about Nanabush; her work brought her into contact with Dr. Basil Johnston, a prominent Ojibway author, ethnologist, and teacher of Anishinaabemowin.

Echlin is the author of several novels, non-fiction pieces, and translations. Significant works include Elephant Winter (1997), Dagmar’s Daughter (2001), Inanna: From the Myths of Ancient Sumer (2003), Elizabeth Smart: A Fugue Essay on Women and Creativity (2004), The Disappeared (2009), and Under the Visible Life (2015). In 2009, The Disappeared was shortlisted for the Giller prize.

In addition, Echlin has taught English and creative writing; worked in television production, significantly as arts producer for the CBC program The Journal (1986-1992); and contributed journalism to a number of publications, including the Hamilton Spectator. Noteworthy teaching engagements include stints at the Dalian Institute of Technology in northeast China (1984-1985) and the Creative Writing program at the University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Studies. Echlin has also served as Mabel Pugh Taylor Writer-in-Residence at McMaster University (2015-2016).

Richard Allen is an educator, author and politician. He was born in Vancouver, B.C. on 10 February 1929 and educated at the University of British Columbia, the University of Toronto, the University of Saskatchewan and Duke University. He joined McMaster University in 1974 and held the rank of Professor in the History Department from 1976 to 1987.

He was first elected as a New Democratic Party (NDP) member of the Ontario Legislature for Hamilton West in 1982. Successful re-elections followed in 1985, 1987, and 1990. He assumed responsibility for many portfolios when the NDP was in opposition: 1982-1987, critic for Colleges and Universities; 1983-1985, critic for Cultural Affairs; 1983-1987, critic for Education; 1985-1987, critic for Skills Development; 1987-1990, critic for Community and Social Services and the Office of Disabled Persons as well as Francophone Affairs. When the NDP formed the government in 1990 he became the Minister of Colleges and Universities, Minister of Skills Development, and Minister Responsible for International Trade, and, then in 1994, he became Minister of Housing, a post he held until the government was defeated in 1995.

Allen was chairperson of the Board of Wesley Urban Ministries in Hamilton (1996-2001), the vice-chair of the Council of Ministers of Education of Canada (1991-1992), and a member of the Community Editorial Advisory Board of the Hamilton Spectator (1996-1998).

He died on March 5th, 2019, in Dundas, Ontario.

Born in Winnipeg on 10 March, 1942, Marvyne Jenoff graduated from the University of Manitoba in 1964. She also studied at the Bezalel Academy of Art in Jerusalem and the Sheridan College School of Design. She taught English as a second language from 1960 to 1996.

Her books include No Lingering Peace (1972), Hollandsong (1975), New Poet's Handbook (1984), The Orphan and the Stranger (1985), The Emperor's Body (1995), Embracing Minutiae (2014), The Leg and I (2018), So Far: A Writing Life (2019), Climbing the Rain (2022), and The Truth and the Earring (2023). She was the Fiction Editor of Waves from 1980 to 1985 and was a regular contributor to Montage, a MENSA newsletter from 1995 to 1998. Her poems and fiction have appeared in a variety of Canadian magazines.

Jack Winter was born on 19 April 1936 in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. He was educated at McGill University in Montréal and the University of Toronto. He taught at both the University of Toronto and York University. While in Canada, he wrote plays for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation as well as for the stage; he published two books of poetry in 1957 and 1973 and one play in 1972. In 1976 he moved to England where he continued to write radio, television and stage plays. He has held the C. Day Lewis Fellowship of the Greater London Arts Association and the Arts Council of Great Britain Creative Writing Fellowship. He then lived in Bath and was a tutor of Creative Writing at the University of Bristol. In 1995 he published his first collection of poetry in Britain, Misplaced Persons.

English semiotician and founder of Basic English, C. K. Ogden can most accurately be described as a polymath. As a Cambridge undergraduate he was drawn to the study of language, and his passion was to be multifaceted, all consuming and lifelong. In 1909 he helped establish the Heretics, a society dedicated to the open discussion of religious matters; in 1910 he began to write for The Cambridge Magazine. The journal won notoriety under Ogden's editorship during the First World War when it avoided the jingoism which consumed most other publications of the time. Also by 1910 Ogden had begun the linguistic research which was to result in his best-known book, The Meaning of Meaning (1923), co-authored with I. A. Richards.

Basic English, the supposed solution to the problem of international misunderstanding to which Ogden was to dedicate the rest of his life, was first revealed in the pages of Ogden's new journal, Psyche in 1929. The effort to win acceptance for Basic English led to the foundation of the Orthological Institute and, as Churchill saw its potential during the Second World War, the establishment of the Basic English Foundation and endless wranglings with bureaucrats. Ogden was also the editor of the prestigious Library of Psychology, Philosophy and Scientific Method and maintained a voluminous correspondence with some of the most influential thinkers of his day. Additional biographical information is available in W. Terrence Gordon, C. K. Ogden: A Biobibliographic Essay, (Metuchen, New Jersey: 1990).

Dame Ethel Smyth, composer, author, and feminist, was born on 23 April 1858 in Sidcup, England. She was educated at the Leipzig Conservatorium. As well as several operas and other musical pieces, she composed suffragette music, including The March of the Women.

She was the first woman to receive an honorary degree from Oxford University. She wrote several autobiographical works, beginning with Impressions That Remained (1919) and ending with What Happened Next (1940). She died in Woking, Surrey on 9 May 1944.

Charles Jeffrey (219016) served as a Lieutenant in the 44th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force. He was killed in action in October 1917.

Jeffrey was born in Buffalo, New York, 4 December 1896 to Charles William and Laura Jeffrey. He also had a sister, Grace. The family relocated to Ottawa. Jeffrey was enrolled as a student at Queen’s University when he enlisted. He sailed to Europe in 1916. He was quickly promoted: first to Sergeant and then Lieutenant. He was shot by a sniper on the afternoon of 27 October 1917, while doing reconnaissance for an attack as part of the Battle of Passchendaele; he was 20 years old.

Robert Fulford, journalist, editor, and author, was born in Ottawa on 13 February 1932 and educated at Malvern Collegiate. His first job was as a sports reporter with the Globe and Mail. He soon turned to literature and the arts which have remained his forte. Fulford edited various magazines for Maclean-Hunter in 1953-1955, returned to the Globe in 1956-1957, and was editor of Maclean's Magazine from 1962 to 1964. From 1958 to 1962 and again from 1964 to 1968 he was a literary columnist for the Toronto Daily Star. He became editor of Saturday Night magazine in 1968 and stayed there until his resignation in 1987. While there he reviewed movies under the pseudonym of “Marshall Delaney”. He then became columnist and contributing editor to the Financial Times until 1992 when he joined the Globe and Mail as weekly arts columnist.

He has been a contributing editor of both Toronto Life and Canadian Art. Fulford began writing a column for the National Post in 2000. He has published several books. In addition to his writing, he has been active as a radio personality and has hosted an interview program, "Realities" on TV Ontario. He served as chair of the Maclean-Hunter program in communications ethics, Ryerson University, 1989-1993. He also sits on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association. He has won numerous awards and been awarded several honorary degrees. Fulford published his memoir Best Seat in the House in 1988.

He passed away at the age of 92 on October 15th, 2024.

Ruth has long been fascinated with the lives of women of the mythology of Ancient Greece and goddesses of the Greek Pantheon as they are presented in Greek mythology and she has written extensively about them in poetry. There are three epics and one stand-alone volume. All her books are published by Colombo & Company.

A native of Hamilton, Percy McDonald graduated from McGill in 1913 in Civil Engineering but never practiced this profession. He became a war photographer with W.J. Johnson during the First World War. In 1923, McDonald earned a degree in dentistry from the University of Toronto and practiced dentistry until the outbreak of World War II, when he again took up military photography.

Sources: https://archivalcollections.library.mcgill.ca/index.php/percy-ellicott-mcdonald-fonds

Eugene McNamara was born on March 18th, 1930 in Oak Park, Illinois. He received a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Arts from DePaul University in 1953 and 1955, respectively. He completed a Ph.D. in English Literature at Northwestern University in 1964. He began teaching in the Department of English at the University of Windsor in 1959. He was one of the first two instructors in the Creative Writing Program in the Department of English.

He has published in the genres of poetry, short stories and novels. Four of his short stories were selected for inclusion in the annual Best Canadian Stories. One of these stories appeared in Best American Short Stories in 1975. He founded the University of Windsor Review, now known as The Windsor Review in 1965 and was editor until 1987. His publications include Passages and Other Poems (1972), Screens (1977), The Moving Light (1986), Keeping In Touch: New & Selected Poems (1998), Waterfalls (2000), Grace Notes: Poems New & Selected (2004) and a novel, The Orphans Waltz (2008).

Eugene McNamara was Professor Emeritus in the Department of English at the University of Windsor and was active in the arts community. He passed away on September 17th, 2016.

Sarah Elizabeth Russell was a granddaughter of Bertrand Russell, philosopher and peace activist. Her father, John Conrad Russell, was Bertrand Russell’s first son from his marriage to Dora Black. Her mother, Susan Lindsay, was the daughter of American poet Vachel Lindsay.

Sarah was the first daughter born to John and Susan (birthdate 16 January 1947), and the second child in their family (the first child, Anne Russell, was born to Susan Lindsay and adopted by John Russell prior to Sarah’s birth).

Sarah’s family initially lived in a small flat in Cambrian Road, Richmond, but by 1950, they had moved to the main floor of 41 Queen’s Road in Richmond with Bertrand Russell (Monk 316-317). In December 1952, Bertrand Russell married his fourth wife, Edith Finch, and soon after she moved into the Queen’s Road home, Sarah’s parents moved out of it (Monk 355). Sarah’s parents separated in 1954 and divorced by 1955 (Monk 359-360).

Thereafter, Sarah and her sisters became the subjects of a protracted family custody dispute, the result of which was that Bertrand and Edith Russell won full custody of the children in 1961, with their father, John Russell, retaining visitation rights (Monk 400).

Sarah attended Kingsmuir School, a boarding school in Sussex, while the family resided at 41 Queen’s Road (Griffin 503). In 1956, Bertrand and Edith Russell moved the family to Plas Penrhyn, their home in Wales. Following this move, Sarah and her sisters attended Moreton Hall, a private girls’ boarding school in Shropshire (Monk 370; Griffin 503). Near Russell’s home in Wales lived the Cooper-Willis family: mother Susan Williams-Ellis, a renowned potter; father Euan Cooper-Willis, and daughters Siân and Anwyl, who were close friends of Sarah and her sisters.

Sarah left Moreton Hall, possibly as early as 1961, to complete her studies at Dartington Hall, a progressive co-educational boarding school in Devon. In 1966, she commenced a program in English Language and Literature at the University of Reading. She appears to have taken a break in 1970, when she was diagnosed with schizophrenia (Monk 500). Sarah returned to her program in 1977, and in 1979, she was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree in the second division of the second class.

In 1975, Sarah’s younger sister Lucy died by self-immolation (Monk 501-502). This event had a significant impact on Sarah and is addressed in her diaries (see Series 2).

Little is known of the later period of Sarah’s life, though Ray Monk, biographer of Bertrand Russell, writes that Sarah spent much of her life in psychiatric care (500).