This issue will be my last issue in the position of chief editor of Books in Canada. It has been an experience for which I am deeply grateful.
We have had some successes in the last few years in weaving together the peppy and the plodding-in placing, side by side, journalistic and academic writing, all for the general literary reader. We redesigned the magazine, lengthened our reviews, and brought some new writers and old classics to your attention. The tone we aimed for was serious, or whimsical, but rarely sensational. A brief respite from the onslaught of novelty that has been the affliction of recent modern life.
Luck, and a balance of public and private funds, allowed an institution that set out on the high road to celebrate its twenty-fifth year of reviewing just over a year ago. The Canada Council, its officers, and the Ontario Arts Council, and its officers, gave much support to Canadian writing through us. They offered Books in Canada stability and were always understanding, and never attempted to influence our content. I would like to thank the publisher, Adrian Stein, for encouraging us to take the intellectual high road, especially at a time when there has been much pressure on general interest magazines to abandon it. He provided us with a rare opportunity.
I would especially like to thank Gerald Owen, the remarkable managing editor, for his immense learning and interest in so many things and different kinds of writers. He produced the magazine in a day-to-day way, with a display of extraordinary hard work and devotion, shouldering its burdens more than anyone. At times I could swear I saw him carrying our entire Books in Canada office home with him. Professor Thomas Pangle, the senior advisory editor, a brilliant and generous human being, brought out the best in all those around him, always helping to promote others. It has been a privilege to work with both Tom and Gerald, and I like to think that the three of us managed to work out a collaborative arrangement that set the tone and policies of the magazine.
It is a pleasure therefore to announce that as of the next issue Gerald Owen will be taking over as the chief editor. Thomas Pangle will remain in his position as senior advisory editor. I will become an editor-at-large; since no-one knows what to do with former chief editors, and since no-one really knows what an editor-at-large is, I figure I have found my place. I shall pour myself into that position; whatever its shape, I shall assume it. That is, as long as I can have more time to read, write, and be with my family. These private ambitions beckon, promising much happiness; and prompt me to say my sad Adieu, and wish

All Fine Things to the Readers of Books in Canada,

Norman Doidge