Jim Douglas who died in 2016 was one of
Canada's best known publishers. He formed several publishing
companies in Canada and served as Founding President of the
Association of Book Publishers of British Columbia and as President
of the Association of Canadian Publishers. His publishing
career also took in advising both publishers and government as a
publishing consultant, participation in trade missions, drafting
and teaching publishing courses at SFU's Canadian Centre for
Studies in Publishing and substantial roles in many other
publishing-related activities.
But while Jim's contribution to publishing was forged in Canada,
he started life in Scotland. He was born in Edinburgh in 1924 and
after attending schools there, got a job at the head office of John
Menzies in 1939. A year later with the second world war on he
joined the RAF as an apprentice and by 1943 he was on flying
missions in the far east. After the war he was recalled to the RAF
after a couple of years working in a bookshop in Edinburgh.
Then in 1954 at the age of 30 he emigrated to Canada. Within a
few years he had established himself as a top book sales
representative and in 1964 started his own sales agency. After
selling that in 1966, he set up JJ Douglas Publishers - the first
of several publishing companies he was involved with. One of them
was Canongate in Edinburgh. In 1965 he became a director and
shareholder and its Canadian representative, moving to reciprocal
representation in 1973 when he had his own publishing company.
During his lifetime Jim was honoured for his war service and his
contribution to publishing (including being appointed a Member of
the Order of Canada). A year after his death, the
Simon Fraser University in Vancouver hosted the
first annual Jim Douglas Lecture to recognize Jim's great
contributions to the British Columbia publishing industry. The
inaugural lecture was given on 20 September 2017 by Marion
Sinclair, Chief Executive of Publishing Scotland. Marion's
talk was about "Scottish Publishing Today and its Place in the
World," a subject with very clear parallels in Canadian independent
publishing.
For more about Jim Douglas, see the appreciation 'Remembering
Jim Douglas' by Mark Stanton on the BC BookLook website and Overview of the Jim Douglas Publisher of the Year
Award on the BC Book Awards website.
For information on the Jim Douglas Lecture, see the Simon Fraser University website.