Identity area
Type of entity
Corporate body
Authorized form of name
New Star Books
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
1971-
History
An informal writing collective was formed in Vancouver in 1969 and eventually grew into the “York Street commune”. They published books first as the Georgia Straight Writing Series and then as the Vancouver Community Press, before political and social trends shifted their editorial focus from literary works more towards titles relating to contemporary affairs and political non-fiction. This new direction was marked with a further name change to New Star Books in 1974.
From 1978 until 1990, publisher Lanny Beckman focused on titles left of the mainstream, serving and marketing mostly to independent or niche bookstores and organizations. The subjects of these titles ranged from criticisms of British Columbia’s Social Credit administration to works on the Nicaraguan and Cuban revolutions, feminism, gay rights, communism, and the immigrant experiences of Chinese Canadians and Eastern Europeans. This radical and activist publishing trend continued through the mid-1980’s, at which point the company began to identify a downturn in public interest in such works and saw sales begin to suffer.
Rolf Maurer assumed control of New Star Books in 1990, at which point the focus of titles began to shift once more. The company continues to publish on political and social issues, but has also reincorporated poetry and prose fiction into its repertoire. Some of the authors published by New Star include Stan Persky, Margaret Randall, Anthony Chan, Joel Lexchin, Helen Potrebenko, Rolf Knight, Jack Scott and Chuck Davis.
Places
Legal status
Functions, occupations and activities
Publishing House
Mandates/sources of authority
Internal structures/genealogy
General context
Relationships area
Related entity
Identifier of related entity
Category of relationship
Dates of relationship
Description of relationship
Related entity
Identifier of related entity
Category of relationship
Type of relationship
Dates of relationship
Description of relationship
Related entity
Identifier of related entity
Category of relationship
Type of relationship
Dates of relationship
Description of relationship
Access points area
Subject access points
Place access points
Occupations
Control area
Authority record identifier
Institution identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
Status
Provisional
Level of detail
Dates of creation, revision and deletion
Created December 17, 2015. SS
Revised October 14, 2016. JMH
Language(s)
Script(s)
Sources
Sources of information used in the development of the administrative history: http://www.newstarbooks.com/about.php and Leyne, Michael (2013) “First Bytes Free: How (and Why) to Create Effective Digital Book Samples”. Retrieved from: http://publishing.sfu.ca/tag/new-star-books/#New Star Books