In Other Words

de Anna Porter

"When Anna Porter arrived in Canada in 1968 with one battered suitcase, little money and a head full of dreams, she had no idea that this country would become her home for the rest of her life, or that she would play a major role in defining what it means to be a Canadian. And where better to become a Canadian than at McClelland & Stewart, an epicentre of cultural and artistic creation in post-Expo 67 Canada? In Other Words is a charming, lively, gossipy memoir of an intriguing life that spans a world war, a revolution, family secrets, ancient hatreds, and a dynamic cultural awakening in a new home. Porter's memoir takes you behind the scenes into the non-stop world of Jack McClelland, the swashbuckling head of M&S, whose celebrated authors--Leonard Cohen, Margaret Atwood, Pierre Berton, Peter C. Newman, Irving Layton, Margaret Laurence--dominated bestseller lists. She offers up intriguing portraits of struggling writers (often women), of prima donnas such as Roloff Beny and Harold Town whose excesses threatened to sink M&S, of exhausted editors dealing with intemperate authors, of crazy schemes to interest Canadians in buying books. She recalls the heady days when as the president of her own company, Key Porter Books, she dodged lawsuits, struggled with bank managers, and fought to sell Canadian authors around the world. And she brings to vivid life that time in our history when-- finally--the voices we wanted to listen to were our own. An entertaining and vivid portrait of a career spent in the publishing trenches, In Other Words is a love letter to our writers and creators who against almost impossible odds have built and sustained our culture. Porter's restless curiosity, her love of storytelling (both as a publisher and a writer herself), and her keen eye for pomposity are infectious. Moving effortlessly from the boardrooms of Canada's elite and the halls of power in Ottawa to the dingy offices of struggling young publishers hoping to make their mark and ultimately to her own painful past in Hungary, she offers readers an unforgettable portrait of what is lost and gained in a lifetime of telling stories."--