In addition to my just-released Authorized Images (a comprehensive survey of how renowned literary authors were depicted on postcards during the Victorian and Edwardian Ages), I am within a few years of finishing three other huge projects.

One is an encyclopedic examination of how libraries around the world were celebrated a century and more ago via what we now call antique postcards. Most of the world’s public libraries were constructed, coincidentally enough, in the same years that the picture postcard came to dominate the world’s postal networks—meaning that among the most architecturally-prominent edifice in many towns and cities was the library—an institution lionized in postcards of the era with a pride (especially in what the library said regarding a town’s sophistication) scarcely imaginable today. 

Also in the pipeline is my Book of the Century, a gargantuan history (1.3 Million words and counting) of World War One (and the century leading up to it), a one-stop source for learning how long-held hates were simmering in the years between Napoleon’s defeat at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 and the Armistice of 1918. This book, which I have been researching and writing for 25 years, will contain thousands of antique postcards never before published in any book. These images brining stunning clarity to all aspects of the First World War and its causes. In addition, there will be hundreds of vintage illustrations of the figures who had important roles in the Great War’s emergence and development. Among the unique features of Book of the Century will be its thorough review of women and the too-often ignored but vital parts they played in the Great War’s evolution and ultimate conduct. This book will also be distinguished by hundreds of new, easy-to-read maps allowing the reader to easily situate towns or battle sites. Finally, at the heart of Book of the Century, will be nearly 2 million words of mellifluous prose, free from military and academic jargon, a well-documented text regaling the reader with tales about the First World War and the events which led to its outbreak—all told in a manner that will keep you turning the pages

              Yet another book on which I have been working for some decades is my literary memoirs. For nearly 30 years I was the Artistic Director in Toronto of the world’s top literary readings program, a period in which I hosted over 10,000 readings by thousands of internationally esteemed authors of fiction, poetry, and drama, including 26 Nobel laurates. In fact, I estimate that I had meaningful encounters with more globally eminent creative writers than anyone on the planet. My descriptions of these encounters will focus on the usually happy, sometimes sad, and always poignant incidents that occurred behind-the-scenes which experience has taught me the public savours hearing.

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