Douglas Gibson is a publisher, editorial advisor, speaker and performer and, most recently, he is the author of a book called, "Stories About Storytellers." Gibson visited the Weyburn Public Library on July 23 and held the intimate crowd captive for a full ninety minutes.
Gibson's presentation was comprised of stories of his personal experiences working with famous Canadian authors throughout his extensive career as a book editor and publisher for McClelland and Stewart. He elicited a wide range of responses from those present, including plenty of humour, gooseflesh and even some well-hidden tears.
While the stories Gibson told were endearing and antecdotally witty, he saved the best saved for last, giving Weyburn a real taste of what it was like to work with the late, great W.O. Mitchell.
Gibson worked with Weyburn's own treasured author on ten books. He said that Mitchell 'remained proud of being a prairie boy' and he described his work with the beloved author as both 'rewarding and infuriating.'
Gibson described Mitchell as 'incident prone,' adding that he 'loved being around him'. He shared a few stories about his relationship with 'Bill' Mitchell, including his last visit with him, all of which can be found in Gibson's book.
'Stories About Storytellers' provides a number of candid accounts of Gibson's experiences working with Stephen Leacock, Hugh MacLennan, Peter C. Newman, Robertson Davies, Mavis Gallant, Brian Mulroney, Morley Callaghan, Barry Broadfoot, Pierre Trudeau, Harold Horwood, Jack Hodgins, Val Ross, James Houston, Charles Ritchie, Peter Gzowski, Bob Hunter, R.D. Symons, Alistair MacLeod, Paul Martin and Alice Munro.
Munro is quoted as having described Gibson's book as a 'prize read for those interested in writers, books, Canada, life, and all that kind of thing.'
