Canadian Books in Print

[Bill] was absolutely thrilled because I knew Canadian authors. He said it was important to give Canadian books a high profile because he had a hunch that they educated people.

When The Stone Angel came out, Bill said that it was the most significant novel of the year. That was the only time he ever told us that if somebody asked us for something to read, we should tell them about this particular book, above all others.

—Jane Flick, who joined Duthie’s in 1964



Bill and Basil Stuart-Stubbs, then UBC’s chief librarian, worked together on a Centennial project to create the first full catalogue of Canadian books in print.

"Unfortunately, the records of our collaboration on Canadian Books in Print are incomplete, to say the least, because most of our planning and plotting was done in the El Beau Room of the Devonshire Hotel, usually over lunch on Saturdays." Basil Stuart-Stubbs


"It is likely that by now the selling of Canadian books provides at least thirty per cent of a bookseller’s volume, and perhaps more. Fifteen years ago the figure was closer to ten per cent.… Bill Duthie (1965)