Books New and Now
Footloose: A Commentary on the Books of Gordon Sinclair
John Robert Colombo’s back cover copy reads as follows: “Footloose is a commentary on the books written by Gordon Sinclair, the feisty, Toronto-born journalist and broadcaster who ‘girdled the globe’ four times in the 1930s and 1940s as a roving correspondent for the Toronto Daily Star, filing lively and colourful feature stories and articles about his impressions and experiences of life and death in faraway places. Back home, he recast himself as a curmudgeonly radio commentator with CFRB Toronto, and then took his seat as one of the original panelists on CBC-TV’s Front Page Challenge. Footloose consists of commentaries on the eight books that he wrote: six travel books and two volumes of memoirs. They shed a sidelight on Canada and the world stage ad well as on international travel before, during, and after World War II.”
Trade paperback, 6.5″ x 8.5″, vi + 132 pages, 2-colour cover. $30.00
ISBN-10 1-894540-65-4 / ISBN-13 978-1-894540-65-0
End Notes: Poems with Effects
End Notes is a volume of “poems with effects” composed by John Robert Colombo during the year 2007. It is an idiosyncratic collection that offers the reader odd insights into the concerns and curiosities of the mind of a person well stocked with interesting and offbeat information, ideas, words, concepts, feelings, and intuitions. There are evocations of the space art of Chesley Bonestell as well as tributes to the memory of Nathan Cohen, Gordon Sinclair, and Margaret Avison. Included also is a Dream Diary. The present volume is not so much a note at the end, but some notes on ends and means – and in-betweens.
Trade paperback, 6.5″ x 8.5″, xiv + 216, 4-colour cover. $30.00
ISBN-10 1-894540-64-6 / ISBN-13 978-1-894540-64-3
Whistle While You Work
John Robert Colombo has subtitled this collection “A Chrestomathy.” The book consists of the essays, columns, commentaries, and cumshaws that he has written since the year 2000. They cover a broad array of subjects, including celebrations of Canadiana (what is the connection between King Tut and Toronto, aside from the touring exhibition?) and studies of esoteric interest (a lot on Anthroposophy, Theosophy, Traditionalism, Fourth Way).
Trade paperback, 6.5″ x 8.5″, 404 pages, 4-colour cover. $35.00
ISBN-10-1-894540-67-0 / ISBN-13-978-1-894540-67-4
The Big Book of Canadian Ghost Stories
This is indeed a big book! it has been described by one reader as the only book on ghosts “the size of the telephone directory”! It is the biggest collection ever published in this country, and it is entirely devoted to first-person accounts of events and experiences involving ghosts and spirits. There are more than 200 eye-witness accounts, plus a photograph section, along with commentaries and comments by the compiler, John Robert Colombo. Roughly half the accounts come from the columns of 19th-century newspapers; the balance come from on-going research with living witnesses who have chosen to communicate with Colombo and share with him and his readers how they were frightened by witnesses what they could not explain. Be frightened, be very frightened! Colombo has gone on record as saying, “I do not believe in ghosts and spirits. I do not disbelieve in ghosts and spirits. I am interested in ghosts and spirits.”
Trade paperback, 7″ x 10″, 512 pages, 4-colour cover. $29.92
ISBN 978-1-55002-844-7 / Order from Dundurn Press, Toronto.
Colombo & Company
42 Dell Park Avenue / Toronto M6B 2T6 / Canada
Phone 1 (416) 782 6853 / Fax 1 (416) 782 0285
E-mail jrc@ca.inter.net
C&C’s Terms
A discount of 10% is extended to wholesalers, libraries, and bookstores. Individual purchasers are requested to include full payment with order. To all Canadian orders, add 5% GST (No. R1224212 17). To all orders, for shipping and handling, add $5.00 first title ($2.00 thereafter). Invoiced orders: 30 days. Quantity discounts available. Make cheques or money orders payable to Colombo & Company.
A Baker’s Dozen of JRC’s Recent Publications
The Big Book of Canadian Ghost Stories
All the Aphorisms of John Robert Colombo
One Word Poems
A Little Book of Facts about a Really Big Country
End Notes: Poems with Effects
Footloose: A Commentary on the Books of Gordon Sinclair
The Penguin Dictionary of Popular Canadian Quotations
Leacock’s Fantasia
Leacock’s Mysteries
R.M. Bucke: The New Consciousness
Maurice Level: Stories of Fear and Fascination
The Native Series (six volumes)
In the Works and Forthcoming
