Highway Book Shop
Subtitle: northern Ontario's unexpected treasure
By: by Lois Pollard ; with research assistance by Susan C. Hopkins ; excerpts from letters and speeches by the late Douglas C. Pollard and floor plans drawn by Paul Bogart ; edited by Deborah Ranchuk
Contributors: Ranchuk, Deborah, 1954-; Pollard, Douglas C., 1925-2009; Hopkins, Susan C.
Publisher: White Mountain Publications
Published: 2011
Place of publication: New Liskeard, ON
Language: eng
Number of pages: 262
ISBN-13: 9781894747301
Subjects: History; Bookstores; Booksellers and bookselling; Biography; Publishers and publishing; Intellectual life; Authors, Canadian (English); Highway Book Shop
Description: "In March 1981, The Toronto Star's Today Magazine asked its readers to nominate 100 praiseworthy things, the best in their category anywhere in Canada. Highway Book Shop was nominated as the Best Bookstore. Other writers have noted that from its small beginning in job printing, Highway Book Shop became one of the largest independent book stores in Canada, and a tourist attraction in its own right. It is also credited as a promoter and preserver of local history and culture, and for this and other reasons, its founder and proprietor Dr. Douglas C. Pollard was awarded membership in the Order of Canada, October 23, 2008.

Unique in its character, with its policies grounded in service to the reading public, it attracted four generations of customers who returned year after year. This is the story from its beginnings told by Lois Pollard while the pieces of the story exist intact, undamaged by time. The Tri-Town area comprises the City of Temiskaming Shores (formerly New Liskeard, Haileybury and Dymond Township) and Cobalt. Its location is approximately 150 kilometers or about 95 miles north of North Bay on Highway 11. Highway Book Shop has been referred to jokingly as bearing the address 300,000 Yonge Street, because if you follow Toronto's Yonge Street straight north you will eventually find yourself on Highway 11.

The book includes an extensive Appendix which includes a series of the floor plans depicting how the Book Shop expanded over the years, a listing of the over 300 individual authors published by HBS over the years, and a listing of the 460+ book titles they published. Many have asked how and why a small enterprise could have pursued its way steadily into the internet age, as though a strange phenomenon had occurred. We present some of the answers in this history of an unexpected, unique book shop and publishing house in northern Ontario."--Www.wmpub.ca/1033-HBS.htm.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Douglas' Early Journey [Douglas C. Pollard]; title: Family Roots; title: Military Service; title: Educational Activities; title: A Medical Set Back; title: A New Direction; title: Marriage; title: Highway Book Shop Starts to Grow; title: Publishing; title: Dieting, Publication, Education; title: The Making of a Book; title: The Real Costs of Publishing; title: Advertising and Promotion; title: Advertising Strategies; title: Word Travels Fast; title: Highway Signs; title: Increased Advertising Generates Results; title: Beyond the Scope of Advertising; title: Mail Order Begins; title: The Search Service; title: The Books Overflow; title: 14 Lang Street, Cobalt; title: Expanding Community Commitment.; title: Tourism and Recreation; title: Cobalt; title: Municipal Advisory Committee 1976-1977; title: Invitation From Canadian Smelting & Refinery Limited and Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy; title: Royal Commission on the Northern Environment; title: Cochrane-Timiskaming Travel Association; title: James Bay Frontier [Northern, Northeastern Ontario]; title: 1979 ~ A Year Of Mixed Emotions; title: A Family Tragedy; title: Life Goes On Despite The Grief; title: A Friend Is Important; title: Changes; title: Timiskaming Industrial Training Committee (TITC); title: 'Doc' Pollard Is Honoured; title: Pathways College; title: Douglas and Lois; title: 1980 to 1986; title: A New Wedding Coach; title: The Wedding.; title: Lois ~ Those First Days At The Book Shop; title: Boston Creek Reunion; title: Early Days; title: Working At Highway Book Shop; title: Public Transportation Has Been A Challenge; title: Warehousing; title: Latchford Legion Building; title: The Downtowner, Toronto; title: Lambda Properties; title: Utopia; title: National Grocers Building, New Liskeard; title: TAHA: Temiskaming-Abitibi Heritage Association poem (abbreviated) by Dave McLaren; title: In Sickness and in Health; title: Turn of the Century.; title: Y2K; title: Fixing the Floor 2002; title: Cats; title: The Internet Building; title: What, Besides Books, Makes A Good Bookstore?; title: Sidelines and Ideas; title: Pop Machine; title: Music in the Background; title: Beavers; title: Coffee Shop; title: The Envisioned New Shop; title: The Art Community; title: Poetry; title: Debunking The Legends; title: Order Of Canada; title: Where Seems To Be The End, There Will New Beginnings Be; title: Appendix.