WLU Press at 50
by Gerry Schaus
On September 10, 1974, Richard K. Taylor sent out the following “News Release”:
Wilfrid Laurier University Press Aims to Make Books Affordable
Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, announced today the formation of a publishing arm to be known as Wilfrid Laurier University Press. In making the announcement, Dr. Norman Wagner, dean of graduate studies at the university and director of the press, said the new venture is dedicated to producing significant publications by Canadian authors at reasonable cost.
Unlike the large university presses, Wilfrid Laurier University Press is able to bring work from manuscript form to finished product in a matter of months. Many university presses take several years.
Because typesetting is done on campus, and because of other economies, the new press is publishing full-length books in soft cover for $3.50 and $5.95 for cloth. This price, considering the short run and specialized subjects, marks an important step forward in making books available.
Dr. Wagner said dissemination of the results of scholarly research is vital to the life of the nation. “With books today often costing $15 or more, it is obvious that ways must be found to break this spiral....The private libraries accumulated by scholars just won’t exist in the future unless ways are found to make important books available at an affordable cost,” Dr. Wagner said. “We think this new press built upon the close co-operation of author and production staff, with minimum overhead, is a significant step in finding a solution to this problem.”
Dr. Norman Wagner, first Director of
And so it was that WLU Press took its first steps. Fifty years and more than 700 titles later, WLU Press has reached its golden milestone. No doubt you’ll hear more about its plans to celebrate the big event as the year moves along. Prominent among the many people who worked at the Press over the years are fellow retirees who have contributed
Harold Remus
Doreen Armbruster
It was Harold who brought me on board the WLU Press Editorial Board in 1980. I was a very young professor with almost no publication experience. It was just the second university committee I was asked to sit on after arriving in 1978. Being eager and willing, if wet behind the ears, I did my best to contribute to discussions about which manuscripts to approve. Believe me though, it was Harold Remus’ show and if Harold liked a manuscript, it was very quickly approved, even while he was willing to listen to our opinions. It was directly due to that experience on the Editorial Board that Prof. Stephen Wenn and I turned to WLU Press when we were looking for a publisher in 2007 for the collected papers from an international conference we organized on the history of the Olympic Games. It was a great delight to work with the Press and move through the various stages of publication so smoothly and collegially. I remember dropping over to the Press offices on several occasions and always finding friendly faces ready to chat, and tackle the issues we were facing.
By the way, just to recommend to Laurier retirees a very special book published by WLU Press, that might be of interest: Harold Remus’s I Remember Laurier: Reflections by Retirees on Life at WLU with the editorial work on it by such WLURA stalwarts as Rose Blackmore and Boyd MacDonald, Loren Calder, Frank Millerd, Baldev Raj, Joan Kilgour, and Bob Alexander. The price is no longer $3.50 or $5.95 for a hard cover version, as Norm Wagner advertised WLU Press books in 1974, but you can get an electronic version for $10.00, which old Norm would be very proud of.
Congratulations, WLU Press!