DOUGLAS GIBSON was born in Scotland in 1943. After somehow acquiring degrees from the University of St Andrews and from Yale, he came to Canada in 1967. He soon became a Trainee Editor at Doubleday Canada in Toronto. The die was cast. For more than 40 years he was to work in Canadian book publishing, first as an Editor, then as the Publisher at Macmillan of Canada from 1979 to 1986, then as the Publisher at McClelland & Stewart from 1988 to 2004. From 1986 to the present he has been in charge of Canada's very first editorial imprint, Douglas Gibson Books.
Over the years he won many publishing awards (Publisher of the Year, Editor of the Year, The Canadian Booksellers' Association President's Award "for the many distinguished Canadian authors and books he has published"). Other honours include becoming the MacLennan Lecturer at McGill, an Adjunct Professor at Simon Fraser University, and in 2009 he was made an Honorary Member of the Writers' Union of Canada.
After publishing thousands of books and editing well over a hundred -- by a galaxy of major authors -- he decided to earn his Writers' Union membership by WRITING A BOOK OF HIS OWN. The resulting volume , STORIES ABOUT STORYTELLERS: Publishing Alice Munro, Robertson Davies, Alistair MacLeod, Pierre Trudeau, And Others, was published by ECW Press in Fall, 2011. After an opening chapters dealing with Stephen Leacock ("who brought me to Canada") the chapters are devoted to the authors he worked alongside, as their editor: Hugh MacLennan, R.D. Symons, Harold Horwood, Barry Broadfoot, Morley Callaghan, W.O.Mitchell, Robertson Davies, Jack Hodgins, James Houston, Charles Ritchie, Pierre Trudeau, Mavis Gallant, Peter C. Newman, Brian Mulroney, Robert Hunter, Alistair MacLeod, Paul Martin, Peter Gzowski, Val Ross, and Alice Munro.
Alice Munro has kindly contributed the Introduction, which concludes with the typically mischievous line: "Here is my prize read for those interested in writers, books, Canada, life, and all that kind of thing."
Alistair MacLeod has added the generous quote: "No one has done more for Candian Literature than this man, Douglas Gibson."
Since the book's publication, to promote it Gibson has created a STAGE PLAY ( also entitled "Stories About Storytellers") which he has performed on more than 30 occasions across the country. The locations range from 400-seat theatres to cabaret barstools, and from Literary Festivals to small town bookstores, and even to  church groups and Book Clubs. The summer of 2012 will see him perform at Literary Festivals in Moose Jaw and on the Sunshine Coast, with travels from events in Haida Gwaai all the way to Halifax in store.
He is always available to promote his book to bookstores and groups of readers.Check out his website (including his blog) at www.douglasgibsonbooks.ca, or contact him directly ( doug 1929@rogers.com) or through his publicist Simon Ware at ECW (sware@ecwpress). He has stories to tell...and advice to pass on from his years behind the scenes.