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Ruth Panofsky loves a good story. So when the English professor discovered intriguing tales about a flagship Canadian publishing company, she knew what to do: dig deeper.

Five years later, Panofsky’s work has culminated in her latest publication, The Literary Legacy of the Macmillan Company of Canada: Making Books and Mapping Culture (University of Toronto Press). Released earlier this year, the book explores the rise and fall of a Canadian publishing icon – an influential branch of the London-based Macmillan Company. In fact, its Canadian division represented such treasured writers as Stephen Leacock, Mazo de la Roche, Robertson Davies and Alice Munro, and published classics such as Ethel Wilson’s Swamp Angel and Hugh MacLennan’s The Watch That Ends the Night. And it all happened on Bond Street, which decades later would become part of Ryerson’s campus.

Between 1905 and 1980, when the Macmillan Company of Canada was sold to Gage Publishing, it was a leader in the Canadian publishing industry. Well before the growth of global publishing corporations and the ubiquity of e-books, the Macmillan Company of Canada was staunchly nationalistic, dedicated to promoting a uniquely Canadian perspective. But, as Panofsky learned in her research, the directors and editors of the company were just as interesting as the authors they published.

“The executives were dynamic, charismatic, complicated people who were also visionaries. Without them, the company wouldn’t have thrived the way it did. But they also had their own foibles,” says Panofsky.

In fact, it was only by happenstance that she came to focus on the company. While studying a few of its authors, she stumbled upon stories of greed, corruption, and betrayal among the firm’s top brass. So, with funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Panofsky embarked on a process she calls “terrifically fun,” interviewing former Macmillan employees and spending countless hours in the company’s archives. The project involved a great deal of travel, taking Panofsky to the British Library, home to the vast Macmillan Company papers, as well as the New York Public Library, which houses the archival records of Macmillan’s American division, and McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont., where the Canadian archives are kept.

Through materials such as letters, financial records, executive correspondence, readers’ reports, and communication between editors and authors, Panofsky was able to piece together the professional – and often personal – details of Macmillan’s leaders. And their lives were anything but staid.

For example, Frank Wise, Macmillan Canada’s founding president, is credited with turning the company into a budding powerhouse. “He bulldozed his way through the publishing world,” says Panofsky. But, she goes on, Wise also had a biting tongue and a penchant for taking company money. The latter habit eventually landed him in prison on fraud charges.

Later, following the sudden death of second president Hugh Eayrs, his secretary Ellen Elliott served as head of publishing during the difficult years of the Second World War. Elliott played a key role in signing author W.O. Mitchell, but in spite of her success – and 27 years of loyal service to the company – she fell victim to a leadership coup orchestrated by her colleague John Gray. As president, Gray went on to cultivate strong relationships with many authors, including Morley Callaghan and Adele Wiseman.

“Books published by the Macmillan Company of Canada have helped us understand ourselves as Canadians,” says Panofsky. “The company shaped modern literary culture in Canada and taught us who we are.”