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Following Confederation, Canada was deemed a Dominion and provided with sufficient powers to conduct its own affairs. But the de facto experience was that when its affairs crossed international borders, Imperial preferences took precedence and Dominion reverted to colony. The arena of copyright was no exception. American publishers had captured the Canadian reading market through both piracy and private arrangements with British copyright owners. The Canadian government tried to regain its market through an innovative measure which would provide compensation to foreign copyright owners and foster Canadian publishers and authors. That proposal was firmly denied by Britain; it sought instead to hold Canada to the role of customs officer with respect to the duties owed for unauthorized American reprints circulating in the colony. This historic fact is not in doubt; but a study from the perspective of British authors, largely through the journal of the Society of Authors (U.K.), offers insight into these nineteenth-century events. Intriguingly, British authors had shown an intelligent awareness of the difficulties surrounding reading in the colonies and, both implicitly and explicitly, gave some support for Canada’s proposal. However, stronger voices from within the British publishing sector ensured that copyright remained bound by tradition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the history of the Canadian publishing industry between 1920 and 1930, taking into consideration the Canadian Copyright Act of 1921 and the relationship between publishers and authors in Toronto, Ontario focusing especially on the firms of McClelland and Stewart, Ryerson Press, and the Macmillan Company of Canada. Topics explored include the rise of a unique Canadian identity, the impact of World War I on Canadian society and culture, and the field of Canadian textbooks and studies.