Report from Gillian O’Reilly, Frances E. Russell Grant Recipient 2022
I am the grateful recipient of the 2022 Frances E. Russell Grant for my book project on the history of Canadian children’s bookstores. Working with oral histories and written records, this project documents the story of children’s bookstores in this country in the last half-century—both those that are ongoing concerns and those that had long runs but finally shuttered their doors. To date, the grant has been used, as intended, to fund administrative costs like Zoom fees and minor travel expenses and to allow me time amid my freelance work/projects.
Research in archives and through interviews with bookstores owners and staffers has been wonderful. I’ve had hours of delightful reading through archives in Toronto and Montreal, while trying to avoid many wonderful and distracting tangents of children’s book history. (Who would not be distracted by a 1978 story, discussing how costly picture books are to produce, in which May Cutler says West Coast Chinese Boy is the last picture book Tundra will publish?) I have a growing treasury of interviews with amazing and dedicated people and, as happens with such projects, a growing list of people to interview.
While work has been proceeding more slowly than I had hoped, the story is taking shape. The various strands include: those rare booksellers who went into business with carefully crafted plans; booksellers who leapt in with both feet and learned as they went; the important role that sales reps played in supporting the “leapers,” and the role reps continued to play for everyone; the considerable technological changes over the decades; the advantages and disadvantages of being booksellers in areas far from the publishing/distributing centres; and the factors that went into some booksellers’ decisions to close up shop.
As I write this in December 2024, I am looking forward to plunging back into interviewing, reading and writing in 2025, always with grateful appreciation to IBBY-Canada for its support.
Report from Gillian O’Reilly, Frances E. Russell Grant Recipient 2022
I am the grateful recipient of the 2022 Frances E. Russell Grant for my book project on the history of Canadian children’s bookstores. Working with oral histories and written records, this project documents the story of children’s bookstores in this country in the last half-century—both those that are ongoing concerns and those that had long runs but finally shuttered their doors. To date, the grant has been used, as intended, to fund administrative costs like Zoom fees and minor travel expenses and to allow me time amid my freelance work/projects.
Research in archives and through interviews with bookstores owners and staffers has been wonderful. I’ve had hours of delightful reading through archives in Toronto and Montreal, while trying to avoid many wonderful and distracting tangents of children’s book history. (Who would not be distracted by a 1978 story, discussing how costly picture books are to produce, in which May Cutler says West Coast Chinese Boy is the last picture book Tundra will publish?) I have a growing treasury of interviews with amazing and dedicated people and, as happens with such projects, a growing list of people to interview.
While work has been proceeding more slowly than I had hoped, the story is taking shape. The various strands include: those rare booksellers who went into business with carefully crafted plans; booksellers who leapt in with both feet and learned as they went; the important role that sales reps played in supporting the “leapers,” and the role reps continued to play for everyone; the considerable technological changes over the decades; the advantages and disadvantages of being booksellers in areas far from the publishing/distributing centres; and the factors that went into some booksellers’ decisions to close up shop.
As I write this in December 2024, I am looking forward to plunging back into interviewing, reading and writing in 2025, always with grateful appreciation to IBBY-Canada for its support.
Submitted by Gillian O’Reilly
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