Stigma

In Stigma: William Hoffer and the Final Judgement Construction Company, editor John Metcalf compiles a selection of essays on bookseller William Hoffer by a range of Canadian publishers and academics, accompanied by Hoffer’s letters, journal entries, and essays—providing a critical lens for Hoffer's contributions to Canadian letters.

“Why a book about a bookseller who has now been dead for more than a quarter of a century? William Hoffer—Bill—lives on in the memories of his contemporaries, many of whom, younger dealers and collectors, he mentored in the niceties of the trade. 

Far beyond the confines of the trade, however, he bequeathed to Canadians four major legacies. His first legacy was his 80 catalogues of books for sale, or Lists, as he modestly called them. His second legacy was to make us aware of how much we didn’t know about writers and their books. His third legacy was his assertion, implicit in all his negative catalogue entries, of the necessity in evaluation of comparing Canadian writing with world literature in English. To not compare was to remain in the sandbox with a scattering of nasty plastic toys. The fourth of Bill’s legacies to us was his challenge to government subsidy of the arts. In essence, his argument was that subsidy masked the brutal fact that an audience did not exist.” (From John Metcalf's introduction.)