Colombo-Plus

JRC is known across Canada as “the Master Gatherer” for his many books on the lore and literature of the country. He has been dubbed John “Bartlett” Colombo for his “quote books.” He has been called “Canada’s Mr. Mystery” for his studies of mysterious Canadiana.

An occasional public speaker and radio and television personality, he is a recipient of the Harbourfront International Literary Award; he was awarded an honourary doctorate in literature by York University; and he is a member of the Order of Canada.

Among his other honours are the Centennial Medal, the Order of Cyril and Methodius (first class), and Esteemed Knight of Mark Twain. He is currently a Fellow, Northrop Frye Centre, Victoria College, University of Toronto.

Biography

• Born in Kitchener, Ont., Canada, 24 March 1936
• Lives in Toronto with his wife Ruth; they have three adult children
• Bears no resemblance to Peter Falk of the NBC-TV series “Columbo”
• Boasts four ethnically different grandparents: Greek, German, Italian, French-Canadian
• Editor-at-large since 1963
• Author, compiler, or translator since 1957 of over 180 bylined books

Career

• Known nationally as a “Master Gatherer,” John “Bartlett” Colombo, “Superfan,” and “Canada’s Mr. Mystery”
• One-time adviser to the Canada Council, Ontario Arts Council, and North York Arts Council, City of Toronto Book Awards Committee
• First co-ordinator of literary readings at the Bohemian Embassy (1960) and Toronto’s Harbourfront (1974)
• Editor (1960-2000) of over 125 books for Canadian publishing houses
• First writer-in-residence at a community college, Mohawk College, Hamilton, Ont., 1979-80
• Host, “Colombo Quotes” (CBC-TV, five programs), Fall 1979
• Participant at events in Moscow, Sofia, Bucharest, Budapest, Washington, New York, Montreal, Ottawa, Philadelphia, etc.
• Keynote speaker, Institute of U.S. and Canada, conference, Moscow, Russia, 1993
• Keynote speaker, Waku Waku Conference, Ibusuki City, Japan, 1994
• Weekly guest, “Don Harron’s Morningside,” CBC Radio, 1980-81
• Irregular columnist/reviewer, The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, etc.
• Consultant, Petro-Canada’s “Canada First Quiz,” Spring 1984
• Consultant and chief writer, U.S. tourism supplements, Camp Associates
• Axmith McIntyre Wicht, 1985, 1993
• Recipient of numerous awards, including Ontario Library Association’s Certificate of Merit; Periodical Distributors of Canada’s Best Paperback of the Year 1976; Centennial Medal; Esteemed Knight of Mark Twain; Order of Cyril and Methodius (1st class); 1985 Philips Information Systems Literary Prize
• D.Litt. (h.c.), York University, Toronto, June 1998 / Member, Order of Canada, 2004
• Biographer-biographee: The Canadian Encyclopedia, The Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature, The Canadian Who’s Who, Contemporary Poets, etc.
• Course leader, Canadian Management Centre of the American Management Association
• Participant, ideaCity, June 2002 / Associate, Northrop Frye Centre, Victoria College, University of Toronto, 2007-2008 / Coat of Arms granted, May 2007
• Quote Books
• The Penguin Dictionary of Popular Canadian Quotations (Penguin, 2006)
• Colombo’s Famous Lasting Words (Douglas & McIntyre, 2000)
• Colombo’s All-Time Great Canadian Quotations (Stoddart, 1994)
• The Dictionary of Canadian Quotations (Stoddart, 1991)
• Colombo’s New Canadian Quotations (Hurtig, 1987)
• Colombo’s Concise Canadian Quotations (Hurtig, 1976, 1998)
• Colombo’s Canadian Quotations (Hurtig, 1974)

Reference

• 1000 Questions about Canada (Hounslow, 2001)
• 999 Questions about Canada (Doubleday, 1989)
• 1001 Questions about Canada (Doubleday, 1986)
• Canadian Literary Landmarks (Hounslow, 1984)
• Colombo’s 101 Canadian Places (Hounslow, 1983)
• Colombo’s Canadian References (Oxford, 1976)

Humour & Lore

• The Penguin Book of More Canadian Jokes (Penguin, 2003)
• The Ukrainian and the Tractor (C&C, 2002)
• Only in Canada (C&C, 2002)
• The Penguin Book of Canadian Jokes (Penguin, 2001)
• Incredible Canadiana (C&C, 2000)
• Yet More Iron Curtains (C&C, 2000) / Canadian Capers (C&C, 2000)
• All about Us (C&C, 1998) / More Iron Curtains (C&C, 1998)
• 666 Canadian Jokes (C&C, 1996)
• The Stephen Leacock Quote Book (C&C, 1996)
• Slightly Higher in Canada (C&C, 1996)
• Iron Curtains (C&C, 1996)
• Metro’s Goldwyn Mayor (C&C, 1995)
• Quotations from Chairman Lamport (Pulp Press, 1990)
• Great Moments in Canadian History (Hounslow, 1984)
• The Toronto Puzzle Book (McClelland & Stewart, 1984)
• Colombo’s Canadiana Quiz Book (Western Producer, 1983)
• René Lévesque Buys Canada Savings Bonds (Hurtig, 1983)
• Colombo’s Hollywood (Collins, 1979)
• Colombo’s Little Book of Canadian Proverbs, Graffiti… (Hurtig, 1975, 1997), etc.

Compilations

• Red Humour (BSDB, 2006)
• Two for Faludy (BSDB, 2006) / Miniatures (BSDB, 2006)
• The Penguin Book of Popular Canadian Poems and Songs (Penguin, 2002)
• Small Wonders (C&C, 2000)
• The New Consciousness (C&C, 1997) with Cyril Greenland
• Erotica Canadiana (C&C, 1995)
• Ogdenisms (Hounslow, 1994)
• Walt Whitman’s Canada (Hounslow, 1992) with Cyril Greenland
• Worlds in Small (Ronsdale Press, 1992)
• We Stand on Guard (Doubleday, 1985, 1998) with Michael Richardson
• Colombo’s Book of Canada (Hurtig, 1978, 1998), etc.

Poetry

• End Notes (2008
• Parts of the World (2007)
• All the Aphorisms of JRC (BSDB, 2006)
• Autumn in August (C&C, 2006)
• All the Poems of JRC (BSDB, 2005)
• To Take from Life (C&C, 2005)
• Yes and No (C&C, 2004)
• One Hundred Poems (BSDB, 2003)
• More or Less (C&C, 2003)
• Foundlings (C&C, 2002) / Far Star (C&C, 2001)
• Half a World Away (C&C, 2000)
• Interspaces (C&C, 1999)
• What Is What (C&C, 1998)
• Ether (C&C, 1997)
• Contrails (C&C, 1996)
• Earlier Lives (C&C, 1996)
• Mostly Monsters (C&C, 1995)
• Space Poems (C&C, 1995)
• Luna Park (Hounslow, 1994)
• Off Earth (Hounslow, 1987)
• Selected Poems (Black Moss, 1982)
• Selected Translations (Black Moss, 1982), etc.

Translations

• Some Hungarian Poets (C&C, 1995) with George Jonas
• Co-translator of volumes of poetry by George Faludy (Hungarian), Robert Zend (Hungarian), Ludwig Zeller (Spanish), Marin Sorescu (Romanian), Pavel Javor (Czech), Ewa Lipska (Polish), Waclaw Iwaniuk (Polish), Dora Gabe (Bulgarian), Andrei Germanov (Bulgarian), Lyubomir Levchev (Bulgarian)

Native Studies

• The Native Series (6 volumes, C&C, 2004)
• Voices of Rama (C&C, 1994)
• The Mystery of the Shaking Tent (Hounslow, 1993)
• Songs of the Great Land (Oberon, 1989, 1997)
• Songs of the Indians (Oberon, two volumes, 1983, 1998)
• Windigo: An Anthology (Western Producer, 1982)
• Poems of the Inuit (Oberon, 1981, 1997)
• Fantastic Literature / Algernon Blackwood’s Canadian Tales of Terror (C&C, 2004)
• Years of Light (Hounslow, 1982)
• Friendly Aliens (Hounslow, 1981)
• Blackwood’s Books: A Bibliography (Hounslow, 1981)
• Not to Be Taken at Night (Lester & Orpen, 1981) with Michael Richardson
• Other Canadas (McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1979) / CDN SF&F (Hounslow, 1979) / Mostly Monsters (Hounslow, 1977, 1995)
• Mysteries / Strange but True (Dundurn, 2007)
• Terrors of the Night (Dundurn, 2005)
• The Monster Book of Canadian Monsters (BSDB, 2004)
• True Canadian UFO Stories (Prospero, 2004)
• The Midnight Hour (Dundurn, 2004)
• True Canadian Ghost Stories (Prospero, 2003)
• Many Mysteries (C&C, 2001) / Ghost Stories of Canada (Hounslow, 2000)
• Ghosts in Our Past (C&C, 2000)
• Weird Stories (C&C, 1999)
• The UFO Quote Book (C&C, 1999)
• Mysteries of Ontario (Hounslow, 1999)
• Singular Stories (C&C, 1999)
• Three Mysteries of Nova Scotia (C&C, 1999)
• Closer than You Think (C&C, 1998)
• Marvellous Stories (C&C, 1998)
• Haunted Toronto (Hounslow, 1996)
• Ghost Stories of Ontario (Hounslow, 1995)
• Strange Stories (C&C, 1994)
• Ghosts Galore! (C&C, 1994)
• Close Encounters of the Canadian Kind (C&C, 1994)
• Dark Visions (Hounslow, 1992)
• The Little Book of UFOs (Pulp Press, 1992)
• UFOs over Canada (Hounslow, 1991)
• Mackenzie King’s Ghost (Hounslow, 1991)
• Mysterious Encounters (Hounslow, 1990)
• Extraordinary Experiences (Hounslow, 1989)
• Mysterious Canada (Doubleday, 1988)
• Colombo’s Book of Marvels (NC Press, 1979)

Critical Studies

• Footloose: A Commentary on the Books of Gordon Sinclair (C&C, 2008)
• Early Earth (BSDB, 2006)
• The Denis Saurat Reader (BSDB, 2004)
• O Rare Denis Saurat (BSDB, 2003)
• Lambert’s Day (C&C, 1999)
• The Occult Webb (C&C, 1999)
• Conjuring Up the Owens (C&C, 1999)

Almanac

• General Editor, The Canadian Global Almanac (Macmillan, 1992-99)

Maps

• QuasiBook Edition of the Writer’s Map of Canada (C&C, 1995)
• Writer’s Map of Toronto (C&C, 1991) / Writer’s Map of Ontario (C&C, 1992)

Bibliography

• Self-Schrift (C&C, 1999)
• Omnium Gatherum (C&C, 1994)
• Colombo & Company
• Founder of Colombo & Company, a personal imprint, retailer and wholesaler of new and reprinted titles by the founder and other authors
• 2005 catalogue lists more than 100 new and reprinted titles

Tributes

• “A Master Gatherer” (Robin Skelton)
• “The Great Collector” (Douglas Hill)
• “A unique and irreplaceable artist” (Hugh Hood)
• “Canada’s Mr. Mystery” (Robert C. Girard)
• “The search for the civilized Canadian can end in the person of JRC” (Vancouver Sun)
• “I like you, Canada man…” (Yevgeni Yevtushenko)
• “The searchings of JRC are significant and profound” (Andrei Voznesensky)
• “A definite ornament on the literary scene” (Louis Dudek)
• “I don’t write books. I’m like that John Robert feller…I rewrite books” (Don Harron)
• “For you I will gladly come to Toronto to perform any time” (Marcel Marceau)
• “We are twins…” (Ray Bradbury)
• “Vous êtes un excellent ambassadeur” (Roland Giguère)
• “He’s Canada’s Pac Man!” (Marty Gervais)
• “JRC is a national treasure.” (Spider Robinson)
• “A major figure in the Canadian literary world” (George Woodcock)
• “Hail Colombo, the Gem of the Literati!” (J.G. Granatstein)
• “Colombo the Discoverer” (Robert Lewis, editor of Maclean’s)
• “Before you could say `anthology’ he was already been collecting a year” (Joey Slinger)
• “He’s written every book ever published” (Michael Enright)
• “A prolific writer and editor whose achievements are so numerous they are foolishly taken for granted” (Richard Kostelanetz)
• In a very real way you have become the guardian of perpetuating the Canadian psyche–in a fascinating and readable fashion. (Peter C. Newman)
• Listed as one of 300 “Great University of Toronto Alumni: People Who Have Made a Difference” (Thinkers Category) 2002 Quip
• “I have made a career overestimating the curiosity of the Canadian people.” (Quoted by Douglas Hill, “The Great Collector,” The Globe & Mail (28 Jan. 1984)

John Robert Colombo

42 Dell Park Avenue, Toronto M6B 2T6, Canada

Phone 1 (416) 782 6853 / Fax 1 (416) 782 0285

Email jrc@ca.inter.net / Website www.colombo.ca

Literary Homepage http://www.library.utoronto.ca/canpoetry/colombo/

SIN xxx-xxx-xxx / GST No. R122421217 / BN 12242 1217RT /Writer’s Guild XG20-2533 / ACTRA T04-17112 / November 2008