Douglas Gibson
Douglas Gibson is a Canadian editor, publisher and writer who served as the president of McClelland & Stewart and now manages his own imprint Douglas Gibson Books. While growing up in Scotland, Gibson discovered a collection of Stephen Leacock books and began what was to become a serious involvement with Canadian literature. He moved to Canada in 1967 and worked for a while at McMaster University before moving to Doubleday Canada where one of his first jobs was editing a biography of Stephen Leacock. In 1974 his success with Barry Broadfoot’s bestseller Ten Lost Years, led Macmillan of Canada to hire him as Editorial Director.
Over the years, Gibson developed relationships with many prominent Canadian authors. This caught the attention of McClelland & Stewart and Gibson was recruited in the hopes that he would draw more high profile authors to the company. Some of the major authors under Gibson’s independent imprint include; Alice Munro, Hugh MacLennan, Morley Callaghan, Robertson Davies, W.O. Mitchell, Jack Hodgins and Mavis Gallant. His authors have won every major Canadian book prize, most recently; Terry Fallis’ novel The Best Laid Plans won the 2011 CBC Canada Reads Competition. In 1991 Gibson was granted the Canadian Booksellers Association President Award. In 2008 he retired and began a second career in writing and performing. His second book Across Canada by Story was released in 2015 and features tales of Gibson’s experiences with a massive range of Canadian authors including Alistair MacLeod, Alice Munro, Al Purdy, Marshall McLuhan, Margaret Laurence, Guy Vanderhaeghe, Margaret Atwood, Wayne Johntson, Linwood Barclay, Michael Ondaatje, and many others.
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