Ralph Hancox at 82 (Canadian Nieman Fellow, '66) recently published his fourth book since retiring (so to speak) as Professional Fellow and Adjunct Professor at the Canadian Centre for Studies in Publishing at British Columbia's Simon Fraser University.

His first book, written on retirement in 2007, was Managing the Publishing Process (CCSP Press ― ISBN 978-0-9738727-1-2). The purpose of this material was to supply a text for Topics in Publishing Management, a course that Hancox had taught for ten years in the Master of Publishing degree program at the Centre.
This was followed on a much lighter note in 2009 by Dear Mr. Porter, Sir, (HV press Victoria, BC ― ISBN 978-0-9866334-0-9), a tribute to a distinguished Ontario wood sculptor to celebrate the sculptor's 90 th birthday. It contained photographs of a selection of Porter's work, taken by the author, interspersed with samples of witty correspondence between Porter and Hancox. This exchange began in July 1968 ― when Hancox was a newspaper editor. It continued until the sculptor, a professional librarian, died in 2010.

The next two books, fictional treatment of contemporary challenges facing new generations of humanity, arose from various conversations and discussions with fellow retirees, family members, and concerned professionals. Hancox concluded from these that among the worst contemporary scourges, apart from warfare, that ― exist in worldwide in social environments and had to be endured by a law-abiding populace were:
• the illicit, enormously widespread, and dangerously debilitating drug trade;
• the illegal trafficking in disadvantaged people from all over the world;
• the worldwide plight― that millions, even billions, of people in the aging populations have to suffer ― that arises from the lack of adequate medical attention, isolation, poverty, and physical, mental, and economic abuse.

This led Hancox into a resolve to research in depth, through the Internet, and to plan a trilogy on these subjects. He began with the drug trade The Latte Project ― an acronym for Look At The Evidence (also from the HV press Victoria, BC ― ISBN 978-0-9866334-2-3), that went unpublished until 2011. The tale was told through the experiences of a documentary film-maker whose staff became increasingly aghast at the discrepancies in law enforcement at the level of the drug cartels and the low-life dealers and distributors.
Next came Knock, Knock ― Who's there? (also published by HV Press in 2011 ― ISBN 978-0-9866334-3-0) that told the story, again through the experiences of the documentary film-maker, of distinctions in government policies for the treatment illicit refugees, smuggled 'immigrants' from various countries who paid 'skinheads' to transport them from the undeveloped world to prosperous democracies, and the traffic in women and children for sexual purposes.

The third book in the trilogy, dealing with aging populations, is still in the research stage. As with all his publications, Hancox who is conscious of the enormous, and egregiously wasteful use of paper in the publishing industry ― and the devastation this causes in the decimation of Canadian forests ― makes his books available through the 'print-on-demand' process.