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In 1969 Queen’s University became a partner by joining the established McGill University Press, and in 1994 it became an equal partner. At the beginning of the joint corporation, the Press was publishing some fifteen titles per year. Twenty-five years into the partnership the yearly output increased to seventy-three titles. And in 2020, when the fiftieth anniversary of the Press and my thirty-fifth year as executive director end, we are on track to publish some 160 titles. This growth represents a greater-than-tenfold increase in our front-list catalogue and is the culmination of five decades of publishing ground-breaking research and award-winning books that are read the world over.
In 1969 another significant event occurred: the Press opened an overseas branch at 70 Great Russel Street in the heart of Bloomsbury, London, as an extension of our marketing partnership with Columbia and Yale University Presses. An established sales force was hired in the UK to promote and market the three presses’ publications in the United Kingdom, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Australia, India, and elsewhere in Asia. The London partnership ended in 1980 during economic uncertainties in Quebec, but four decades later the Press is refocusing its efforts on the international reach of McGill-Queen’s University Press’s brand.
From the start of the MQUP joint venture, the aims have been to invest in a transnational network of readers, to publish widely in the humanities and social sciences, to promote public debate, and to contribute to culture. Our almost 4,000 peer-reviewed, rigorously edited, beautifully produced, intelligent publications have defended, refuted, and advanced knowledge throughout the world. MQUP’s publishing upholds the highest standards of editorial excellence, award-winning design, and flexible, creative, and determined marketing. Two landmark publications have been Bruce Trigger’s The Children of Aataentsic: A History of the Huron People to 1660 (1976), which revolutionized the study of Indigenous issues, and Donald Harman Akenson’s Surpassing Wonder: The Invention of the Bible and the Talmuds (2001), a radical reinterpretation of the role great religious texts play in the history of Western civilization. More recently, we were honoured to have been chosen to publish, in both English and French, the seven final reports that compose the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, detailing the fraught history of Canada’s residential schools.
In the last fifty years, for both content and design, the Press has won numerous prestigious national and international awards. Since the creation of the Canada Prizes by the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences in 1990, we have been fortunate to win twenty-three of their awards (from 1990 to 2010, two prizes were given out annually), which celebrate the best book published in the humanities or social sciences by a Canadian press. MQUP has also won nonfiction Governor General’s book awards from the Canada Council for the Arts, as well as the Donner Canadian Foundation prize for best book on public policy. In the case of the Canada and Donner prizes, the Press has garnered more awards than any other Canadian press, and in the last decade the Press has won an unprecedented ninety major book prizes overall. Credit for this exceptional recognition is due to our authors and was made possible through contributions to our publishing program from both McGill and Queen’s universities.
MQUP also stands out for its commitment to keeping books available to readers over the long term. We treat our authors’ works as what they are: enduring documents. For the past ten years the majority of our front-list titles have been widely issued in simultaneous print and electronic editions, and the entire backlist is available in either print or digital format. Increasingly, our title output includes audiobooks, and we’re committed to investing in born-accessible production.
We are able to celebrate these accomplishments because of the dedication of our Press’s Board of Directors, Publications Review Committee, and Audit and Finance Committee, whose members donate their time and ideas voluntarily and enthusiastically. That support paired with the hard work and expertise of our staff, past and present, enables MQUP to further its mission. A warm and heartfelt thanks to the many people who have contributed to the Press’s longstanding prominence in scholarly publishing.
Finally, during this milestone academic year, we are excited to return to the aims of our 1969 mission by opening our own stand-alone office in the United Kingdom, joining the distinguished company of three other North American university presses (Yale, Princeton, and Harvard) with independent operations on the other side of the Atlantic. We are the only Canadian press to have a branch in the UK – from which our staff acquires manuscripts and handles marketing for sales into the UK, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. In the years to come, we will continue to use our international reputation to provide a platform for our authors and aim to promote – among engaged and inquisitive readers everywhere – insight into and appreciation of literature, art, and the history of the Indigenous, immigrant, and settler peoples that make up our world.
Ad multos annos,
Philip Cercone
Executive Director
McGill-Queen’s University Press : Montreal, Kingston, London (UK), Chicago
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