The Globe and Mail today has published Noreen Shanahan's very comprehensive look back at the life of Nancy Fleming, former Executive Director of the Book and Periodical Council, and one of the great builders of our culture. Ms. Fleming passed away last month after a long illness.
As executive director of the Toronto-based Book and Periodical Council, she left behind a legacy that includes Freedom to Read Week, the Canadian Children's Book Centre, Access Copyright, the Canadian Copyright Institute, Give the Gift of Literacy, and everything from the Book Industry Freight Plan for book shipments to the royalty payments of the League of Poets. A certifiable bookworm, her own shelves bulged with hundreds of books.
Canada's readers, writers, booksellers, librarians and publishers will miss her principled leadership.
the book room: novelist, John Degen interviews other writers, and talks about copyright way too much
1 comment:
Nancy Fleming could well have chosen to be a writer herself. About a year ago, she wrote a very moving letter to my parents in response to death of their eldest son. Her letter reached out in a nourishing and nuturing way that I have never seen the like of before. She must have known of her own impending death, yet still she reached out with empathy and love.
I will always cherish my memory of Nancy Fleming.
Leslie Parker
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