James Harley Marsh: Biography

“We don’t receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us.” – Marcel Proust

James Marsh was the founding editor and long-time Editor-in-chief of the the prestigious Canadian Encyclopedia, from its inception in 1980 through its publication in print in 1985 and its transformation into the digital realm. Born in Toronto, the first son of Ada and John. he attended Davenport and Perth Avenue schools in Toronto before spending five years at Oakwood Collegiate. His stint at Waterloo Lutheran University (now Wilfrid Laurier) studying literature and philosophy was ended after two years by his first permanent job as a social science editor at Holt Rinehart & Winston in Toronto. Within two years he learned all aspects of the publishing business, from copy editing, page design and assembly and (as editor of a new dictionary) even the intricacies of the international phonetic system, to the inner workings of the typesetting and printing industries. He was the editor of a centennial history of Canada called Canada: Unity and Diversity and of a series of social studies volumes – writing one of them along the way (The Fishermen of Lunenburg) on site in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.

James Marsh in Florence 2010

In 1970 renowned Canadian publisher Jack McClelland and the Institute of Canadian Studies at Carleton University co-hired James Marsh to be the editor of the Carleton Library, a series of scholarly works on Canadian history and social science. In ten years he edited 60 volumes in the series and co-authored his first textbook, New Beginnings, published by M&S. He also completed a combined history and art history degree and raised a daughter, Rebeccah.

After a national search, Edmonton publisher Mel Hurtig brought James Marsh to Edmonton in 1980 to be the editor in chief of The Canadian Encyclopedia. There he drew up plans for Canada’s first comprehensive encyclopedia since the 1950s and hired some 40 staff, 200 consultants and several thousand contributors. The ambitious project was completed and published on time, within budget and to great reviews and commercial success in September 1985.

James Marsh was editor in chief of all three print editions of The Canadian Encyclopedia (1985, 1988 and 1999), of the Junior Encyclopedia of Canada (of which he was the principal author) and numerous CD-ROM versions and was from 1999 to 2013 editor in chief of the online versions of The Canadian Encyclopedia and The Encyclopedia of Music in Canada, of which he was instrumental in bringing online.

Since 2000 James Marsh also developed content for the Historica Foundation, where he planned and co-wrote the web sites “Champlain in Acadia,” “Voices: Getting the Vote,” and “Asia Canada,” and for the successor Historica-Dominion Institute, where he has produced the web sites “Black History Portal,” and “War of 1812.” He has also been responsible for the creation of Access.ca, a web site to relate curricula to online resources, for FYICanada, an interactive site for young people, and Historywire.ca, which has morphed into The Canadian Encyclopedia Blog. At the end of his career James brought innovation to The Canadian Encyclopedia with a successful mobile version and a series of apps called Cities in Time. He took some 1000 photographs as a contribution to the most recent Toronto in Time. By these means James sought to bring the idea of an encyclopedia into the contemporary world by bringing the standards of excellence an authority to the mobile world and tying Canadian content to a more localized and narrative context.

James Marsh’s publications include the books The Fishermen of Lunenburg (Toronto: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1968), The Fur Trade in Canada (Toronto: Collier Macmillan, 1969), The Exploration of Canada (Toronto: Collier Macmillan, 1970), New Beginnings: a Social History of Canada, Volumes I & II (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1971), co-authored with Daniel Francis,”Timeline of Canadian and World History” (1983-present), Alberta: A Story of the Province and Its People (Toronto: Nelson, 1993), Beginnings: From the First Nations to the Great Migration (Toronto: Nelson, 1996), “Making History Whole Again,” review of Who Killed Canadian History? by J.L. Granatstein, Ottawa Citizen, April 26, 1998 and “Tous les Savoirs du Monde,” Lumina (Journal of 18th Century Studies) (Fall 2000). He is co-editor of Alberta: A State of Mind, published by Key Porter in summer 2005 and author of the chapter “Peoples of Alberta” in that volume. He is also author of “Alberta’s Quiet Revolution: The Early Lougheed Years” in Michael Payne et al, editors, Alberta’s 2005 Centennial History (University of Alberta Press) and of a tribute to the premier after his death published both in the Calgary Herald and Edmonton Journal.

James Marsh reading under a statue of the great Denis Diderot in Paris, 1986.

James Marsh has also been the author of over 100 Dateline history columns which appeared weekly in the CanWest newspaper chain, as well as an article on Vimy Ridge written for the National Post, over 500 articles in The Canadian Encyclopedia and numerous blogs.

James Marsh is a member of the Order of Canada and was awarded the Lorne Dawson Centenary Medal of the Royal Society of Canada (1986) in recognition of his achievement of producing The Canadian Encyclopedia, as well as the Alberta Centennial Medal for Albertans who have made “significant contributions to their fellow citizens,” and of the Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Medal. He is a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. He served as a member of the federal Advisory Council on the Information Highway and is currently a member of the editorial board of the Virtual Museum of Canada.

James retired from The Canadian Encyclopedia in 2013 but retains the honorific of Editor Emeritus. The Globe and Mail kindly wrote and appreciate of James’ career on their editorial page.