Great Book Cities and The Private Library

Back on 14 May 2009, we took a look at the international book town movement.  Today, we want to look at a great book city.

When one thinks of great book cities, what usually comes to mind are major publishing centers: New York, London, Paris, Rome, Caracas, New Delhi and the like.  But there are a lot of other cities that qualify for that distinction.  One of our personal favorites is Toronto:

Canada's most populous city, the capitol of the Province of Ontario, Toronto was founded in 1793 as the town of York.  Like the other great cities noted above, Toronto is a publishing center. And like the other great cities noted above, Toronto is home to a vibrant book culture that draws from a nexus of universities, public libraries, independent booksellers and a host of cultural organizations.

The publishing project known as A History of the Book in Canada, which we discussed in our post of 27 August 2009, was headquartered at the University of Toronto (home to the Toronto Centre for the Book and the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library--the latter holds the largest repository of publicly accessible rare books and manuscripts in Canada), where its volumes ultimately were published by the University of Toronto Press.  Anyone who collects early children's books will already be aware that the Toronto Public Library (which many folks do not realize is in fact the largest public library system in North America), is home to the famed Osborne Collection of Early Children's Books.  

Most importantly, Toronto is still home to a dwindling mix of independent booksellers like Nicholas Hoare (which makes us think of the Cecil Court booksellers over in London--Nicholas himself apprenticed at London's Heywood Hill), and what is arguably Toronto's best-named bookstore, This Ain't the Rosedale Library.  (Get the inside details on these and other great Toronto booksellers by clicking here.  Pages, alas, no longer is among these.)

Add to the above a great selection of tea shops and bakeries, and what we gotta do...buy the plane ticket for you?!