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Essay Type: publishing
Essay Date: 2009
The Founding of a “Little Mag” – The Origins of Prism International
Once upon a time, I was an idealistic, literary-minded, impoverished, naïve, radical young man. I was imprisoned in the various blood-sucking arms of the Great Depression. I had managed to secure a Grade I Clerkship in the Civil Service. I had borrowed some money from my parents to make the trip from Vancouver to Ottawa to take up this ‘position’. My salary was $60.00 per month. I sent home $19 of that to pay off my debt. It took six months to get out of the red. I lived with my sister in an apartment on the second floor of a house on Cambridge Street. We both wrote poetry. Where to send it and win recognition for our great talent: Fiddlehead or The Canadian Forum? We tried Canadian Forum. Earle Birney was the editor. I still have a copy of this magazine dated May, 1940, in which my first published poem appeared on the last page.
I was appalled at the paucity of outlets for the literary talents of our country. This was the beginning of my dream – to establish on a firm footing a literary magazine in Western Canada. That is one of the sources from which Prism International sprang. The other is to be found in the proceedings of The Canadian Writers’ Conference held at Queen’s University in July, 1955.
(Vide Writing in Canada, ed. George Whalley, Toronto, The Macmillan Company of Canada, 1956) As a result of this conference, Roy Daniells, head of the English Department at UBC, returned with an enthusiastic hope that a similar conference could be mounted at UBC for British Columbia writers. I was at that time beginning my career as a junior member of the English Department and saw in Roy’s suggestion a way to bring my dream into the realm of reality. I volunteered to organize such a conference, and with the help of a colleague named Michael Booth, and under the Chairmanship of Roy Daniells we set about this task. The Conference was held in the Faculty Club at UBC, 27th to 29th of January, 1956. (Vide Appendix A in Writing in Canada) At this conference, George Woodcock presented his idea of creating a critical journal to deal with the growing body of Canadian literature; Flora McLaren (business manager for 10 years of Contemporary Verse) and Bill McConnell (Klanak Press) spoke about practical difficulties with respect to launching literary journals. A number of resolutions were passed at the conclusion, one of which empowered the Executive (which had been established by an earlier resolution) to “set up a committee to investigate the possibility of establishing a literary periodical for critical and creative writing of high standard.” (p.142, Writing in Canada) George Woodcock and I were both members of the Continuing Executive.
Predictably, the Continuing Executive never met, but neither George nor myself were going to let the matter drop. The catalyst was the appointment of Jacob Zilber, a writer, to the faculty in the English Department. We became friends, and in the fullness of time I told him of my dream and the BC Conference. He was enthusiastic and together we began the process of getting on with it. Meanwhile, George also became a member of the English Department, and carried on a lobby for his particular interest in a critical journal. The Department formed a committee to deal with that. I was on that committee and our deliberations are recorded in the department’s files. Canadian Literature was duly established and began its journey towards recognition as an integral and indispensable part of Canadian culture.
Jake and I were agreed that we wanted to avoid becoming a sort of academic satellite of UBC. We wanted the magazine to be entirely independent, standing on its own two feet, and accountable to no one. Clearly this made the job more difficult. The principal requirement, as always in such cases, was money. Had we had any, we would have been happy to underwrite our venture, but we were both just starting out, and salaries were abysmally low. However, we gathered together a group called the Board of Directors. Most were members of the English Department: Warren Tallman, Don Stephens, Elliot Gose, Jake and myself. Others were former students who were interested and relevant, like Heather Spears Goldenberg, a talented poet. We also consulted people with experience and know-how in this area like Earle Birney and Bill McConnell. Eventually, we had reached the point of needing an editor to begin the process of gathering publishable material of the quality we were looking for. We held an election one night, and I became the first editor. We discussed the issue of what to call our magazine; for a time we favoured Teredo. Then one night Jake phoned to say that his wife, Alice, had suggested Prism. We ordered letterhead and sent out requests for submissions which included our pay scale, which was not likely to make anyone rich, but which was a matter of principle with us. I sent what I believed were publishable materials along to my associate editors for comment, and soon we had enough for our first issue. We made arrangements with a printing firm in Victoria to print our magazine. It was the same company which George had chosen to print Canadian Literature, Charles Morriss Company. We began to sell subscriptions on campus, and among friends and family members. We managed to sell 200 at $3.50, the amount of money we would need to pay for the first issue. A student artist had done a cover design we liked and I did the layout and off it went to the printer. The result was not as aesthetically pleasing as I had imagined it to be, but at any rate, we were on the map. Now came the hard part – staying there. Having spent the money we had taken, we still had to provide three more issues to our subscribers. You can imagine we had an anxious time. One thing we never did was to publish a number without having enough money to pay for it. When we began our second volume, we had managed to obtain the services of the artist, William Mayrs, who from then on created pleasing cover designs for us and I managed to learn enough about the printing process to produce a layout that improved vastly on my first effort.
Wayson Choy, who has since achieved well-deserved distinction as the author of the novel, The Jade Peony, sold advertising for us. He was at the time a student of Creative Writing at UBC. We also received help and support from Buddy and Cherie Smith. The Koerner Foundation and the Canada Council gave us grants. Somehow we struggled on although it took us four years to produce three volumes of four numbers each. The magazine was supposed to be a quarterly. At one time we were broke and at a meeting of the Board, some of us donated $20 to the pot and in exchange were given lifetime subscriptions. I received my copies faithfully until 2002 when I had to move from a large house to a relatively small suite where there was no room for my library. I gave my books to Simon Fraser University along with my run of Prism/Prism International and asked the University to continue my lifetime subscription by sending future copies to Simon Fraser University.
I went on sabbatical leave to England in the summer of 1964. The winter issue of 1963 was my last as editor. The Board had decided that the magazine should become the responsibility of the Creative Writing Department. We had consulted with Earle Birney, who was the Head, and with the Dean of Arts, and were assured that Prism would be welcomed and provided for in the budget. As Prism International it is still going strong. I am proud to have been associated with its birth and infancy.
-- Jan de Bruyn March 4, 2009
(PS I regret that I do not have a copy of the first issue, but I think that I wrote an editorial for it in which I indicated how I intended to perform my function. I would recommend anyone interested enough, to read that and also the editorial I wrote for my last issue, 3:4, Winter, 1963.)
Once upon a time, I was an idealistic, literary-minded, impoverished, naïve, radical young man. I was imprisoned in the various blood-sucking arms of the Great Depression. I had managed to secure a Grade I Clerkship in the Civil Service. I had borrowed some money from my parents to make the trip from Vancouver to Ottawa to take up this ‘position’. My salary was $60.00 per month. I sent home $19 of that to pay off my debt. It took six months to get out of the red. I lived with my sister in an apartment on the second floor of a house on Cambridge Street. We both wrote poetry. Where to send it and win recognition for our great talent: Fiddlehead or The Canadian Forum? We tried Canadian Forum. Earle Birney was the editor. I still have a copy of this magazine dated May, 1940, in which my first published poem appeared on the last page.
I was appalled at the paucity of outlets for the literary talents of our country. This was the beginning of my dream – to establish on a firm footing a literary magazine in Western Canada. That is one of the sources from which Prism International sprang. The other is to be found in the proceedings of The Canadian Writers’ Conference held at Queen’s University in July, 1955.
(Vide Writing in Canada, ed. George Whalley, Toronto, The Macmillan Company of Canada, 1956) As a result of this conference, Roy Daniells, head of the English Department at UBC, returned with an enthusiastic hope that a similar conference could be mounted at UBC for British Columbia writers. I was at that time beginning my career as a junior member of the English Department and saw in Roy’s suggestion a way to bring my dream into the realm of reality. I volunteered to organize such a conference, and with the help of a colleague named Michael Booth, and under the Chairmanship of Roy Daniells we set about this task. The Conference was held in the Faculty Club at UBC, 27th to 29th of January, 1956. (Vide Appendix A in Writing in Canada) At this conference, George Woodcock presented his idea of creating a critical journal to deal with the growing body of Canadian literature; Flora McLaren (business manager for 10 years of Contemporary Verse) and Bill McConnell (Klanak Press) spoke about practical difficulties with respect to launching literary journals. A number of resolutions were passed at the conclusion, one of which empowered the Executive (which had been established by an earlier resolution) to “set up a committee to investigate the possibility of establishing a literary periodical for critical and creative writing of high standard.” (p.142, Writing in Canada) George Woodcock and I were both members of the Continuing Executive.
Predictably, the Continuing Executive never met, but neither George nor myself were going to let the matter drop. The catalyst was the appointment of Jacob Zilber, a writer, to the faculty in the English Department. We became friends, and in the fullness of time I told him of my dream and the BC Conference. He was enthusiastic and together we began the process of getting on with it. Meanwhile, George also became a member of the English Department, and carried on a lobby for his particular interest in a critical journal. The Department formed a committee to deal with that. I was on that committee and our deliberations are recorded in the department’s files. Canadian Literature was duly established and began its journey towards recognition as an integral and indispensable part of Canadian culture.
Jake and I were agreed that we wanted to avoid becoming a sort of academic satellite of UBC. We wanted the magazine to be entirely independent, standing on its own two feet, and accountable to no one. Clearly this made the job more difficult. The principal requirement, as always in such cases, was money. Had we had any, we would have been happy to underwrite our venture, but we were both just starting out, and salaries were abysmally low. However, we gathered together a group called the Board of Directors. Most were members of the English Department: Warren Tallman, Don Stephens, Elliot Gose, Jake and myself. Others were former students who were interested and relevant, like Heather Spears Goldenberg, a talented poet. We also consulted people with experience and know-how in this area like Earle Birney and Bill McConnell. Eventually, we had reached the point of needing an editor to begin the process of gathering publishable material of the quality we were looking for. We held an election one night, and I became the first editor. We discussed the issue of what to call our magazine; for a time we favoured Teredo. Then one night Jake phoned to say that his wife, Alice, had suggested Prism. We ordered letterhead and sent out requests for submissions which included our pay scale, which was not likely to make anyone rich, but which was a matter of principle with us. I sent what I believed were publishable materials along to my associate editors for comment, and soon we had enough for our first issue. We made arrangements with a printing firm in Victoria to print our magazine. It was the same company which George had chosen to print Canadian Literature, Charles Morriss Company. We began to sell subscriptions on campus, and among friends and family members. We managed to sell 200 at $3.50, the amount of money we would need to pay for the first issue. A student artist had done a cover design we liked and I did the layout and off it went to the printer. The result was not as aesthetically pleasing as I had imagined it to be, but at any rate, we were on the map. Now came the hard part – staying there. Having spent the money we had taken, we still had to provide three more issues to our subscribers. You can imagine we had an anxious time. One thing we never did was to publish a number without having enough money to pay for it. When we began our second volume, we had managed to obtain the services of the artist, William Mayrs, who from then on created pleasing cover designs for us and I managed to learn enough about the printing process to produce a layout that improved vastly on my first effort.
Wayson Choy, who has since achieved well-deserved distinction as the author of the novel, The Jade Peony, sold advertising for us. He was at the time a student of Creative Writing at UBC. We also received help and support from Buddy and Cherie Smith. The Koerner Foundation and the Canada Council gave us grants. Somehow we struggled on although it took us four years to produce three volumes of four numbers each. The magazine was supposed to be a quarterly. At one time we were broke and at a meeting of the Board, some of us donated $20 to the pot and in exchange were given lifetime subscriptions. I received my copies faithfully until 2002 when I had to move from a large house to a relatively small suite where there was no room for my library. I gave my books to Simon Fraser University along with my run of Prism/Prism International and asked the University to continue my lifetime subscription by sending future copies to Simon Fraser University.
I went on sabbatical leave to England in the summer of 1964. The winter issue of 1963 was my last as editor. The Board had decided that the magazine should become the responsibility of the Creative Writing Department. We had consulted with Earle Birney, who was the Head, and with the Dean of Arts, and were assured that Prism would be welcomed and provided for in the budget. As Prism International it is still going strong. I am proud to have been associated with its birth and infancy.
-- Jan de Bruyn March 4, 2009
(PS I regret that I do not have a copy of the first issue, but I think that I wrote an editorial for it in which I indicated how I intended to perform my function. I would recommend anyone interested enough, to read that and also the editorial I wrote for my last issue, 3:4, Winter, 1963.)
