James Harley Marsh, CM (born September 10, 1943) is a Canadian editor, writer and encyclopedist. Marsh found his métier in a summer job with educational publisher

Holt, Rinehart and Winston Holt McDougal is an American publishing company, a division of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, that specializes in textbooks for use in high schools. The Holt name is derived from that of U.S. publisher Henry Holt (1840–1926), co-founder of the e ...

, learning all aspects of the business from copy editing 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''). From 1970 to 1980 Marsh was the editor of the Carleton Library Series, a series of scholarly works on

Canadian history The history of Canada covers the period from the arrival of the Paleo-Indians to North America thousands of years ago to the present day. Prior to European colonization, the lands encompassing present-day Canada were inhabited for millennia by ...

and

social science Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of soc ...

that made a significant contribution to the growth of

Canadian studies Canadian studies is an interdisciplinary field of undergraduate- and postgraduate-level study of Canadian culture and society, the languages of Canada, Canadian literature, media and communications, Quebec, Acadians, agriculture in Canada, natu ...

in universities. In 10 years he edited 60 volumes in the series while co-authoring his first textbook on Canadian history, ''New Beginnings''. After 33 years as the founding editor of ''

The Canadian Encyclopedia ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' (TCE; french: L'Encyclopédie canadienne) is the national encyclopedia of Canada, published online by the Toronto-based historical organization Historica Canada, with the support of Canadian Heritage. Available fo ...

'', James Marsh retired on March 31, 2013. He was described as a 'Canadian who changed the world' by ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

'' newspaper.

''The Canadian Encyclopedia''

Edmonton publisher

Mel Hurtig Mel Hurtig (1932–2016) was a Canadian publisher, author, political activist, and political candidate. He was president of the Edmonton Art Gallery. He described himself as a Canadian nationalist, while he also wrote several books critical of ...

brought Marsh to Edmonton in 1980 to be the editor in chief of ''

''. There Marsh drew up plans for Canada's first comprehensive

encyclopedia An encyclopedia (American English) or encyclopædia (British English) is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge either general or special to a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into articles ...

since the 1950s and hired some 40 staff, 400 consultants and several thousand contributors. The ambitious project was completed and published to laudatory reviews in September 1985. James Marsh has been editor-in-chief of all three print editions of ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' (1985, 1988 and 1999), of ''The Junior Encyclopedia of Canada'' and he has shepherded the encyclopedia into the digital world with numerous

CD-ROM A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains data. Computers can read—but not write or erase—CD-ROMs. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold both comput ...

versions with publisher

McClelland & Stewart McClelland & Stewart Limited is a Canadian publishing company. It is owned by Penguin Random House of Canada, a branch of Penguin Random House, the international book publishing division of German media giant Bertelsmann. History It was founded ...

and the online versions with the

Historica Foundation Historica Canada is a Canadian Charitable organization (Canada), charitable organization dedicated to promoting the Canadian history, country's history and Canadian citizenship, citizenship. All of its programs are offered bilingually and reach mo ...

. He is also the editor in chief of the ''Canadian Youth Encyclopedia'' and of ''The Encyclopedia of Music in Canada''. Since 2000 Marsh has also been Director of Content Development at the

, where he has planned and co-written the web sites "Champlain in Acadia," "Voices: The Canadian Political System," "Canadian Black History Portal," "Asia Canada," and "HistoryWire.ca."

Selected works

*''The Fishermen of Lunenburg'' (1968) *''The Fur Trade in Canada'' (1969) *''The Exploration of Canada'' (1970) *''New Beginnings: a Social History of Canada'', Volumes I & II (1971), co-authored with Daniel Francis *"Timeline of Canadian and World History" (1983–present) *''Alberta: A Story of the Province and Its People'' (1993) *''Beginnings: From the First Nations to the Great Migration'' (1996) *"Tous les Savoirs du Monde," ''Lumina'' (Journal of 18th Century Studies) (2000) *Co-editor, ''Alberta: A State of Mind'' (2005) *"Alberta's Quiet Revolution: The Early Lougheed Years" in Michael Payne ''et al.'', editors, ''Alberta Formed/Alberta Transformed'' (2006). *James Marsh has also been the author of over 100 newspaper articles on Canadian history.

Honours

*Member of the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the ...

(1987) *Centenary Medal of the

Royal Society of Canada The Royal Society of Canada (RSC; french: Société royale du Canada, SRC), also known as the Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada (French: ''Académies des arts, des lettres et des sciences du Canada''), is the senior national, bil ...

(1986) *Alberta Centenary Medal (2005)

External links

The Canadian EncyclopediaJames H. Marsh HomepageThe Canadian Encyclopedia BlogJames H. Marsh retires from The Canadian Encyclopedia

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Marsh, James Harley 1943 births Living people Canadian book editors Members of the Order of Canada Canadian encyclopedists