Congratulations! You have reached the home page of Colombo & Company and its proprietors Ruth and John Robert Colombo. Here are the co-ordinates.
Site: www.colombo.ca.
Phone: 416-782-6853 (voice). Fax: 416-782-0285
Email for John Email for Ruth
Mailing address: 42 Dell Park Avenue, Toronto,
ON, Canada M6B 2T6.
For JRC’s latest reviews and commentaries, press the Green Button.
Contents The site lists more than two hundred books, from the earliest to the latest, and it identifies those titles that are still in print. [Total of all books in July 1, 2016: 231 titles.] Those books should be ordered directly from their original publishers (including C&C). In addition to lists of books, there are essays on various topics. Check the Subjects of Interest category with its drop-down menus. Also check the Blog where I explain what I am currently doing.
Online Poetry The texts of six of JRC’s poems appear online in the immense website known as “Representative Poetry” hosted by the University of Toronto Library. This link will take you to them. These are earlier poems composed by JRC.
Beside the Point is a new compendium of the adages, aphorisms, and epigrams that were composed over a three-year period by author and editor John Robert Colombo.
Here for Now is a new collection of close to two hundred poems and effects composed during the calendar year 2016 by John Robert Colombo. The poet reacts to the issues of the day but in the main he offers observations and comments on cultural concerns, civilized values, and metaphysical matters of enduring interest. Also included are the daily entries of a year’s journal which to some extent place the poems and effects in the contexts of their times. 
Immense Estates consists of all the poems that were composed by poet and anthologist John Robert Colombo during the calendar year 2015. The poems are arranged in chronological order and are also dated, so it is possible to read through the year in question, and by matching these texts with the entries in the writer’s daily journal, also included, it is possible to follow one person through the 365 days of the year in question. The texts are characterized by much speculation and more innovation and even clear innuendo, being rather philosophical in nature and suggestive of some imaginative formations uncommon in contemporary literature. 
It is not widely known that the great French storyteller Jules Verne set seven of his exciting, action-packed adventure novels in Canada, that is, in Upper Canada and Lower Canada, in the Klondike, in the Mackenzie District, in the Niagara District … on land, on tundra, on plains, on rivers, on seas, on icefloes, and in the air. Here are the complete texts in English translation of these seven novels, collected by John Robert Colombo, who contributes the foreword titled “Jules Verne’s Canada,” and the scholar and author Jean-Louis Trudel contributes an afterword, a scholarly study of “Jules Verne’s Influence on French-Canadian Science Fiction.” 
Self-Schrift consists of commentaries on all the books written, compiled, edited, and translated by John Robert Colombo.
My latest publication is Uncommonplaces: Aphorisms of John Robert Colombo. It consists more than 3,400 original aphorisms and aphoristic-style expressions. (They are arranged from Abilities to Zombies.) A separate section offers close to 300 more evocations that are devoted to men and women prominent in public life known personally to the aphorist. They range from Acorn to Zukofsky. Uncommonplaces has a striking cover designed by writer, designer, and photographer Bill Andersen. Trade paperback, full-colour covers, 6″ x 9″, 408 pages. ISBN 978-1-894-540-73-5. Colombo & Company, $50.00 + postage and handling. Also available as an 
Words on Parole is the title of Ruth Colombo’s newest book of poems. It speaks of release, and the poems in this collection speak of release from concurrent life sentences. There is fascination with justice. There is perception in the hindsight of childhood and reflection in the foresight of old age and death. In between, there is insight into the dynamic between sisters, and the dialogue between the poet and mentors such as a landlady in childhood and a mother-in-law in decline. There is thought and feeling and sentences aching for truth in this collection from a poet who has always wanted to be her own woman, and who likes the self she has forged, a self who wants to write about the world from the great monolith of Australia to the Third Rome in Russia. Words on Parole is the sequel to Concurrent Life Sentences, the earlier volume of autobiographical poetry. Both books are trade paperbacks with visually striking covers designed by Bill Andersen.
The subtitle of Uncommonplaces is “New Aphorisms of John Robert Colombo.” There are more than 3,400 original aphorisms and surprising aphoristic expressions, as well as a separate section which offers close to 300 more aphorisms which attempt to describe those men and women the aphorist has met. All the contents have been arranged in alphabetical order by subject, so they range from Abilities to Zombies, or in the case of the personalities, from Acorn to Zukofsky. Colombo writes, “There are words around us that we resist using at our pleasure or peril, and these words are the most common ones.” By and large these commonplaces (or platitudes) whirl about like dervishes until they become uncommonplaces, remarks worth pondering. 400 pages.
The Notebooks of John Robert Colombo
This is the general title of five volumes that collect the occasional writings of one of the most prolific of Canada’s authors and anthologists. It is a treasury of his lesser-known works. In addition to researching, writing, editing, collecting, compiling, annotating, translating, and publishing over 222 books between the years 1957 and 2017, the author has written more than 1,000 short articles and essays – more than 1,000,000 words in all – that are now appearing, in the main for the first time, in this uniform edition. The Notebooks shed light on the achievement of this writer and editor-at large and share with readers, both general and specialist, one person’s informed thoughts, observations, feelings, and enthusiasms about cultural considerations, civilized values, literature, mysteries, Canadiana, and the world at large.
Soft cover. 5.5 x 8.5 inches, French flaps, author photographs by Bill Andersen, set of five books, trade paperback format, total of 2,323 pages.
Volume I: ISBN-13: 978-1-55497-760-4
Volume II: ISBN-13:978-1-55497-761-1
Volume III: ISBN-13:978-1-55497-762-8
Volume IV: ISBN-13: 978-1-55497-763-5
Volume V: ISBN-13: 978-1-55497-764-2
Set of 5 Volumes: ISBN-13-978-1-55497-795-9 (trade paperbacks)
Set of 5 Volumes: ISBN-13-978-1-55497-766-6 (e-books)
Available from The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box. $150.00