RICK ANTONSON

In 1972, Rick Antonson, Mary Trainer, and Brian Antonson (all in their early 20s) founded Nunaga Publishing. For eight years, we thrived with the book business as a sidecar to our lives. The company was eventually acquired by Douglas & McIntyre. This is our story.

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It began when we co-authored In Search of a Legend: Slumach’s Gold – recounting our quest to find gold, and to explain truths and fictions behind stories of a lost gold mine rumoured to be hidden near British Columbia’s Pitt Lake.

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Patriotism was high in those days. Canada’s Centennial was recent. Our province had just celebrated 100 years since joining confederation. Canadian Studies programs were popular on university campuses. These times sparked the vibrant Canadian writing and publishing community we know today.

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Spurred on with similar enthusiasms, we dove into research and dust diving in archives. We used manual typewriters, dial phones, and snail mail – and met-up in person – to complete our manuscript. As it came together, it dawned on us we needed a publisher for this 56-page, saddle stitched gem to see the light of day.

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There were not many book publishing companies in British Columbia at that time (among them Mitchell Press, Gray’s Publishing, JJ Douglas, Talon Books, November House; and a nascent B.C. Publishers Group). History, the outdoors, new literary writers, and guidebooks were cornerstone genres for emerging publishing companies. Everything was new. Thirty-something Bob Dylan’s classic The Times They Are A Changin’ resonated.

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We decided to self-publish. We formalized as Nunaga Publishing (after an Inuit word meaning "My land, My country,” and the title of Duncan Pryde’s Arctic memoir). Enter serendipity: a haircut led to book distribution arrangements. Brian and Rick’s long-time barber, Max, turned out to be a partner in a start-up, Western Heritage Supply, based in New Westminster as were we, and took on distribution. They placed stacks of our Slumach book in racks at gas stations, cafés, and drugstores around the province. Easy access for residents and American tourists made the book a common sight around campfires. The price was $1.95 in a year when US and Canada currencies were on par. It became a Canadian bestseller – over four reprintings (the joy of any successful title) – with 10,000 copies “out there” in the hands of readers. Today it qualifies as a “rarity,” meaning “if you can find it.”

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Not surprisingly, we’d learned that researching, writing, and publishing a book was a lot of work. Given the significant media and bookseller goodwill we’d received for our first endeavour, we settled on the notion that Nunaga Publishing should focus on publishing the works of others. First among those was 1973’s New Westminster: The Early Years 1858 -1898 by the city’s librarian Alan Woodland, whom it seemed every bookseller knew and loved. Highly pictorial and in large format, Woodland’s book was an immediate success.

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That year Rick and Wendy Antonson returned from a seven-day canoe trip around the remote Bowron Lakes in B.C.’s Cariboo region, convinced that a book on canoe routes would be a hit. Tracking down Canoe Sport BC, an organization which provided Gestetner printed copies of many routes with sketch maps, a deal was struck. British Columbia Canoe Routes was published the following year in an attractive, professional volume. Photos were provided by Richard & Rochelle Wright, bringing that team into the Nunaga stable for future books.

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1974 was a year like none other for Nunaga. We knew-not how to say “No.” We accepted terrific manuscripts that came our way, including East Kootenay Saga by David Scott and Edna H. Hanic. The peripatetic cyclist and broadcast personality Corny Burke brought us The Danube Caper of Cornelius Burke.

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Also in 1974, our partnership bought Canadian Frontier Magazine from Garnet Basque’s Stagecoach Publishing. Inexperience and a new-ownership rush led us to publish the Fall Issue late, just in time to learn that magazine distributors saw it as “stale dated.” They simply trimmed the masthead of each magazine and returned to us for full credit. Ouch.

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Not dissuaded from trying new things, we published 1,100 copies of a history-laden map including Granite City and Tulameen, near Princeton, B.C. – it sold out quickly and is today a curio. 

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With a growing list of books (eventually 25 titles), we needed help. Marginally compensated, part-time employees were Wendy handling subscriptions and office mandates, book editor Anthea Bussey (Mary’s sister), Sue Antonson (Brian’s wife) stocking and shipping books from their basement, and all-round manager/editor Dale Flexman (a friend of Rick’s from high school), and accounting by Stan Lyons.

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We hit our stride in 1975. Prison Doctor by Dr. Guy Richmond attracted national media as Parliament debated a new law abolishing capital punishment. Doctor Richmond’s testimony in favour of doing so drew considerable attention to his book. Magazine and newspaper excerpts followed, and delivered Nunaga’s imprint national recognition. We ventured into fiction with Maud Emery’s evocative west coast pioneer story, A Seagull's Cry. And, the University of B.C. gardener and well-known television commentator David Tarrant’s Highrise Horticulture secured our reputation for publishing high profile, lovingly designed, eclectic books.

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Beginning in 1976, after publishing three issues of the quarterly history magazine, we converted the format into the Canadian Frontier Annual – as we knew how to promote and sell books, if not magazines. Ably compiled by Brian along with editor Gordon Stewart, the new approach retained subscribers and found a bookstore market as well.

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Nunaga undertook distribution for other publishers. One, very helpful to Nunaga’s financial wellbeing, was the British Columbia Recreational Atlas from the B.C. government's Department of Recreation and Conservation. It sold over 25,000 copies in its first year. There was nothing so refreshing to us as the friendly sound of a bookseller’s cash register ring (except perhaps Canada Council grants).

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None of the three partners ever drew pay. Each rolled along with other careers: Mary was in communications with Simon Fraser University; Brian was Production Director with western Canada’s biggest radio station, CKNW; Rick soon was managing a tourism association. During 1976, Mary decided to concentrate on other activities and Rick purchased her 1/3rd partnership in the company.

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Mary’s fingerprints were still on that year’s four titles including a signature story of B.C.’s wilderness, Spatsizi, by T. A. (Tommy) Walker, and British Columbia Cross-Country Ski Routes, with stories, maps and photographs from Richard & Rochelle Wright.

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With what now feels a misguided confidence in the long term, the company was renamed Antonson Publishing in 1977. We ventured into co-publishing with Mountain Press of Missoula, Montana, placing the Antonson imprint on books like Eating Wild Plants by Kim Williams. We engaged booksellers that year with Richard Wright & Rochelle Wright’s Canoe Routes Yukon Territory, and their much-anticipated update of Canoe Routes British Columbia.

1978 brought a wonderful collection of writings by the now rebranded Richard Thomas Wright, Westering. And a major contribution to Canadian history was published: Professor Peter N. Moogk’s, Vancouver Defended. Canadian Frontier Annual, edited by Gordon and Brian (with an introduction by George Woodcock) continued to enjoy national readership.

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Our final Nunaga/Antonson publication was in 1979. Great Stories from the Canadian Frontier, edited by Gordon and Brian, wrapped it up. That was our only book that year, reflecting our reduced availability of time – the demands of careers, growing families, travel interests, and the precarious nature of book publishing. Our company was sold to Jim Douglas & Scott McIntyre who merged the list with their firm, by then among the preeminent publishers in the country.

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All in, it was a grand adventure. Our integrity with authors and booksellers and the media was noteworthy. All our bills and royalties were paid. We’d enjoyed a heap of satisfaction of so many authors having a voice, and each titles finding an audience.

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In 2007 we-three reconvened as co-authors for a new edition of Slumach’s Gold (160 pages) which went on to sell 15,000 copies. The writerly relationship continued with our 2015 Whistle Posts West: Railway Tales of British Columbia, Alberta and Yukon. Both were released by Heritage House Publishers. Fifty-two years after our first book together launched Nunaga Publishing, we collaborated on a 224-page, 8 x 10, full-colour-throughout, new book (OK, technically 3rd edition): Slumach’s Gold: In Search of a Legend – and a Curse (benefitting from the legend’s exposure on History Channel’s series Deadman’s Curse).

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We never found the gold—but we found the treasure of a 55-year friendship. Our 2024 released book spent 16 weeks on the B.C. bestsellers list until one day Heritage House told us “Congratulations! There are no books left in the warehouse. We’re reprinting.”

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We look back in 2025. We’re in our mid-70s and still writing books. Bob Dylan is eighty-something and still singing songs.

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