McClelland & Stewart originated in Toronto, Ontario, the heart of Canadian publishing, in the spring of 1906. In that year John McClelland and Frederick Goodchild left the Methodist Book Room (later to be known as
Ryerson Press) to establish the company of McClelland and Goodchild. Although the firm was initially founded as a library supply house, it was not long before the imprint of McClelland and Goodchild began to appear ... The firm was incorporated in 1911, and after three years, George Stewart (long known as the best Bible salesman in Canada) joined the company, which then became McClelland, Goodchild & Stewart. In 1918 Goodchild left to form his own company, and the house became McClelland & Stewart Limited, as nature intended.
From the early days, the partners recognized the importance of establishing a Canadian list, while realizing that in order to survive they must continue to act as distributing agents for British and American firms. In addition, they occasionally made direct arrangements with foreign publishers for the publication of books by Canadian and American authors. As the representative of many English and American firms - among them
George Doran and Company (and later Doubleday) J.M. Dent, Cassell, Little, Brown and Company, The Bobbs Merrill Company - McClelland & Stewart undertook the management of the Canadian subsidiaries when some of these firms later incorporated in Canada' ( http://www.mcclelland.com/about/).
