Talonbooks: Publishing from the Margins - The Origin of Talonbooks

Talonbooks:
Publishing from the Margins

The Origin of Talonbooks

Talonbooks began its life in 1963 as a magazine named Talon, published by David Robinson and some friends from a Vancouver high school. When the founders graduated from high school and began studying at U.B.C., Talon magazine went with them. It became a quarterly and acquired a more polished appearance. The editors began to actively solicit material from established writers "to give the magazine more credibility, and to give their younger writers association with names like John Newlove, Al Purdy [and] bpNichol" (McKinnon 1986).

After two years of publishing from U.B.C., Talon magazine expanded its horizons. Printed on the inside cover of Volume 4 Number 3 of Talon magazine is a brief statement from the editors, announcing "TALONBOOKS - a new series of books published jointly by TALON and VERY STONE HOUSE," along with a list of the first titles, slated to appear in the spring of 1967.

Those first books published under the joint imprint of Talon and the small local press named Very Stone House were collections of poetry from Ken Belford, Pierre Coupey and Jim Brown, writers who had already been appearing regularly in Talon magazine. Production values were high, and the quality of those initial volumes helped convince the Canada Council to lend assistance in the form of a $600 project grant. A publishing house was born. The magazine itself survived until 1968, at which time the association with Very Stone House was discontinued and books began to appear under the Talonbooks imprint alone.

Jim Brown had joined Talon magazine at U.B.C., jointly editing it with David Robinson. In 1968 he was left in sole charge when David Robinson graduated from U.B.C. and left Vancouver. A year later Jim was joined by photographer Gordon Fidler, who sold his cameras to purchase Talonbooks' original press, an Addressograph-Multigraph 350. 1969 also saw David Robinson's return to Talon, and the arrival of Peter Hay upon the scene.