COLES CANADIANA COLLECTION

Coles Books

     Loyal readers will know that I have referred to and quoted from Major W. Ross King’s, The Sportsman and Naturalist in Canada: Or Notes on the Natural History of the Game, Game Birds and Fish of that Country which was published in 1866. Western University has a copy from that year, but I borrowed the reprint from 1974 which is the facsimile edition from the Coles Publishing Company and one of the titles in their Coles Canadiana Collection.

Coles Bookstores

     Oldsters will remember the stores as being gaudier than Chapters. Coles was for books somewhat like Lastman’s Bad Boy Superstore is now for furniture. When ‘The World’s Biggest Bookstore’ was opened in Toronto, William French offered this description: “As in all Coles stores, the lighting is brilliant enough to permit a surgeon to perform a cornea transplant right in the aisle, if he weren't too distracted by the rippling red neon and flashing white bulbs that frame some of the display stands, or by the chanteuse who was trilling a ballad on the piped-in music.” 

Coles Canadiana Collection

         

     Apart from the stores you will probably most remember the Notes. But, Coles did publish older historical and literary works such as those pictured above. In promoting one of the earlier titles, Sketches of Upper Canada, by John Howison, Esq., an advertisement in the Globe and Mail (April 25, 1970) states: “Introducing Coles Canadian Collection - Exact Duplicates of Valuable Old Canadian Books! “Here is an amazing series different from anything you have ever seen before. Rare old Canadian books have been faithfully reproduced by modern scientific printing methods, capturing all the fragile age and charm of the originals. Even the mature aging of the paper has been duplicated exactly.”

Coles Notes

   

These are surely recognized  and are likely still used by the youngsters (perhaps not the one about the slide rule). They would have sold well even if called "Colofsky Notes" (Jack and Carl’s real name).


Sources:
     For a good account of Coles Canadiana Collection see:
“Vintage Toronto Ads: Gems of Canadiana (and Toronto the Good): Before the Internet Archive, the Coles Canadiana Collection Revived out-of-print Historical Works," Jamie Bradburn, Torontoist, Feb. 14, 2012.

‘The World's Biggest Bookstore Clearly Lacks a Certain Element of Breeding and Class: World's Biggest Bookstore a Tale of Modern Retailing," William French, The Globe and Mail, Nov. 11, 1980.
     In an earlier column, French discussed the new trend of publishing old books and notes that “the leading practitioner of resurrection is the Edmonton publisher, Mel Hurtig, who now has about a dozen titles in his Canadiana Reprint Series and hopes to add at least six every year, if he doesn’t run out of attics and archives. The Hurtig series concentrates on exploration of the West and the Arctic. It includes such titles as Alexander Henry’s Travels and Adventures in Canada and the Northwest Territories Between the Years 1760 and 1776: and Wanderings of an Artist Among the Indians of North America, by Paul Kane.” “Books & Bookmen”, The Globe and Mail, Jan. 10, 1970

French retired as literary editor in 1990 and was not replaced. “About 3,000 Book Reviews Later, William French Retires,” H.J. Kirchhoff, G&M, April 5, 1990.


Canadiana Reprint Series (Hurtig)


Obituaries:
Carl Cole: "Founded Giant Chain of Book Stores: Carl Cole," G&M Dec. 15, 1994

Jack Cole: “Toronto Bookseller Famous for Coles Notes: Jack Cole," G&M, Jan. 25, 1997
"His real name Jack Colofsky. Opened the World’s Biggest Bookstore in 1980."

“Lives Lived: Jack Cole,” Roger Robin, G&M, Feb. 13, 1997
“ His goal was to make a fortune, but there was something more. He wanted to beat “them” at their own game, whether they were pompous literati genuflecting before books, or whiny Canadian publishers begging for grants, or dull competitors flogging tired tactics. Jack was the P.T. Barnum of the book business, always ready to learn from the folly of others.”

Post Script:

 It is interesting to recall that back in the last century one couldn’t shop on Sundays, even for books. In the early 1990s the Ontario legislation became a little more liberal and allowed small bookstores to be open if they were really small and employed less than three staff. This meant that the large Coles stores could not open and Coles objected. See: “Coles Asks Shoppers to Join Protest,” Stephen Smith, G&M, Aug. 14, 1991.

While King’s Sportsman and Naturalist… was published by Coles, his earlier book has recently been re-issued by the Cambridge University Press. Campaigning in Kaffirland, or, Scenes and Adventures in the Kaffir War of 1851–2 is now available and should be of value to those in Postcolonial Studies who need more evidence of the damage done by imperialism.