“I am being taught my own work”: Editor Claire Pratt of McClelland and Stewart

[para. 1]: "One of the first women to enter the book trade as a professional editor, Claire Pratt (1921–1995) was at the vanguard of mid-twentieth century Canadian publishing. At McClelland and Stewart, where she was senior editor from 1956 to 1965, Pratt made her most significant contribution to Canadian literary culture. She worked collegially with Jack McClelland, the charismatic head of the firm, and experienced firsthand the challenges and rewards of Canadian literary publishing. She also worked closely with English professor Malcolm Ross, who served as general editor of the firm’s paperback reprint series New Canadian Library, and directly with some of Canada’s most prominent writers, including parliamentarian Stanley Knowles, journalist Peter C. Newman, historian W.L. Morton, novelists Henry Kreisel and Margaret Laurence, and poet Irving Layton. Unlike the majority of women in publishing “whose domestic and behind-the-scenes labour [as wives, daughters, and employees often] made the family business possible, or made it flourish,”1 and who typically toiled invisibly in a field dominated by men, Pratt’s interest in literature and art was fostered by both her parents who encouraged her to pursue a career in publishing."