"A Press with Such Traditions": Oxford University Press of Canada‪.‬

On Tuesday, 10 August 1904, when Oxford University Press established a branch in Canada, (2) it joined a small but significant group of publishing houses already operating in Toronto. By the turn of the century, Toronto had become a centre for Canada's burgeoning publishing industry, home to the Copp Clark Company, W.J. Gage and Company, and the Methodist Book and Publishing House (later Ryerson Press), for example. When Oxford University Press set up shop on "Booksellers' Row" (3) at 25 Richmond Street West, the company sought to consolidate its presence in the small Canadian market with a view to establishing itself as an important branch. Eight years earlier, in September 1896, Oxford had opened its first branch operation in New York. The founding of a second branch in Toronto served, in fact, to widen Oxford's presence in North America. By 1929, the Toronto branch could announce with "great pride" that it represented "a Press with such traditions, and such a record of useful and important work, not only in the development of printing but in the History of England." (4) After twenty-five years in Canada, Oxford University Press had begun to realize its hopes for expansion. Oxford's British roots, always emphasized as a source of pride by the Canadian branch, still are celebrated today. Over the past one hundred years, and especially in the period following the Second World War when it was instrumental in developing Canadian letters and in shaping the culture of Canada, Oxford University Press Canada has retained the British tradition of publishing useful, important, and attractive books. As this essay will show, Oxford Canada developed as a largely autonomous branch of its parent company in England. Moreover, having weathered the vagaries of economic uncertainty that always have characterized the publishing industry in this country, Oxford remains committed to the production of Canadian books that reflect the "dignity of the business." (5)