A Brunswick Press Book: The Children's Book of Roads

Brunswick Press published three books for children by Leonard L. Knott and illustrated by Jacques Gagnier.  I managed to snag an inexpensive copy of The Children's Book of Roads. 

It was published in 1952.  Overall, it's pretty representative of children's book publishing in Canada at this time as Gail Edwards and Judith Saltman outline in Picturing Canada: A History of Canadian Children's Illustrated Books and Publishing (2010).  The content is nationalist and educational.It's dedicated to "boys and girls all across Canada who seek fun and adventures in reading their country's story."  The inside covers are an animated map of Canada with a strong black road connecting Newfoundland to British Columbia.

There is a fair amount of text divided into sections such as "The Wheel Comes to Canada," "The Trails of the Pioneers," and "The Road Builders."  As it happens, this book was "prepared with the editorial co-operation of the Canadian Good Roads Association."

The illustrations are all black and white line drawings with some background colour which was pretty typical of Canadian picture books at this time since it a cheaper.   Edwards and Saltman say illustrators "were encouraged to strive for accuracy and correctness of detail, rather than decorative effect" (55).  There seems fairly true of Gagnier illustrations.The center spread of The Caribou Trail is pretty striking.

The occasional drawings of kids are pretty stereoptyical 1950s wholesome, reminiscent of Dick and Jane and Spot. They are always watching the progress from a distance.

Brunswick Press also published Knott's  The Children's Guide to Canada's Capital in 1952 and The Children's Guide to Montreal in 1955, which was reprinted in 1967 in time for Expo 67.

Before joining forces with Brunswick Press, Knott wrote and published others books for children including:  A Children's Guide to Boston, A Children's Guide to Calgary, The Children's Book about Pulp and Paper, etc.  All his previous books were published by Editorial Associates, a Montreal PR firm between 1946-1950. That alone gives some insight into how sparse the world children's publishing was in Canada at this time. Knott appears to have worked in PR in Montreal for many years.

How Knott's last few books for children ended up being published by Brunswick Press is unknown. They have a somewhat similar look to the ones Editorial Associates published.

Looking at The Children's Book of Roads give insight into just how unique the Beaverdime Books were at this time.  It also adds to my impression that children's book publishing at Brunswick Press was somewhat random.