Bennett, Avie

Toronto real estate magnate who rescued McClelland & Stewart from Jack McClelland and has pumped about $2 million annually into the company ever since because he believes in the value of independent culture and the virtue of arm’s length management. No one in the history of this country’s publishing industry has done anything as generous, and no one has received less of the recognition deserved. Bennett is the best argument going for local/private control of cultural assets, which is the only argument over culture no one has been making, even though it’s the only sane one. It’s too bad we don’t deserve Bennett, and a tragedy that he’s the only one we have. It’s also no accident that he’s packing it–and McClelland & Stewart–in as not worth the trouble.

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