Manitoba Business: Watson and Dwyer Publishers

In 1977, this Winnipeg-based publishing company was co-founded by Shirlee Anne Smith and Helen Spinks Burgess, named for their mothers’ respective maiden names. It specialized in books on western Canadian and fur trade history.

Among the books published by the company were the following, in chronological order:

Title	Author/Editor	Year
The Autumn and Winter Catalogue 1910-1911 of the Hudson's Bay Company		1977
The Home Children: Their Personal Stories	Phyllis Harrison (editor)	1979
Many Tender Ties: Women in Fur-Trade Society in Western Canada, 1670-1870	Sylvia Van Kirk	1980
Alexandre: A Saga of Northern Ontario	Helene Brodeur	1983
Coplalook: Chief Trader, Hudson's Bay Company, 1923-1939	A. Dudley Copland	1985
The Apprentice's Tale	Hugh Mackay Ross	1986
Rose Delima: A Saga of Northern Ontario	Helene Brodeur	1987
Dogtown to Dauphin	Adam S. Little	1988
The Manager's Tale	Hugh Mackay Ross	1989
Trader, Tripper, Trapper: The Life of a Bay Man	Sydney Augustus Keighley	1989
Across the Keewatin Icefields: Three Years Among the Canadian Eskimos, 1913-1916	Christian Leden, edited by Shirlee Anne Smith, translated by Leslie Neatby	1990
Grain: The Entrepreneurs	Charles W. Anderson	1991
A Good Solid Comfortable Establishment: An Illustrated History of Lower Fort Garry	Graham A. MacDonald	1992
From Bush to Boardroom: A Personal View of Five Decades of Aviation History	Duncan MacLaren	1992
Sigfusson's Roads	Svein Sigfusson	1992
A Narrative History of Fort Dunvegan	Daniel Francis and Michael Payne	1993
My Amma and Me	Evelyn K. Thorvaldson	1993
The Manitoba Flood of 1950: An Illustrated History	J. M. Bumsted	1993
Climates of Our Birth	Stuart James Whitley	1994
The Winnipeg General Strike of 1919	J. M. Bumsted	1994
Western Witness: The Presbyterians in the Area of Synod of Manitoba	James W. Marnoch	1994
Last Steps to Freedom: The Evolution of Canadian Racism	John Boyko	1995
A Partnership of Equals: The Struggle for the Reform of Family Law in Manitoba	Berenice B. Sisler	1996
The Honourable Donald: A Saga of Northern Ontario	Helene Brodeur	1996
The Red River Rebellion	J. M. Bumsted	1996
Gold Diggers of the Klondike: Prostitution in Dawson City, Yukon, 1898-1908	Bay Ryley	1997
Projectile Points of Manitoba	Michael M. Dobson	1997
Watch the Rope	Wlliam E. Morriss	1997
Winnipeg Landmarks	Murray Peterson and Robert J. Sweeney	1997
She Was Only 3: The Trials of John Thomas James Jr.	John D. Montgomery	1998
Directions: A Guide to Libraries in Manitoba	Donna G. Strike	1998
Inuit Art: An Anthology	Introduced by Alma Houston	1998
I Volunteered: Canadian Vietnam Vets Remember	Tracey Arial	1998
She Was Only 3: The Trials of John Thomas James Jr.	John D. Montgomery	1998
Winnipeg Landmarks II	Murray Peterson and Robert J. Sweeney	1998
Under the Southern Cross	Jeffrey P. Morski	2000
Western Challenge: The Presbyterian Church in Canada's Mission on the Prairies and North, 1885-1925	Peter Bush	2000
Trials & Errors: The People vs Brian Gordon Jack	John D. Montgomery	2001
Beyond Redemption: The People vs Lucas and Bender	John D. Montgomery	2004
A Snug Little Flock: The Social Origins of the Riel Resistance of 1869-70	Frits Pannekoek	2009

See also:

Memorable Manitobans: Helen Spinks Burgess (1920-1994)

Memorable Manitobans: Shirlee Anne Smith (1926-2020)

Memorable Manitobans: Joseph Gordon “Gord” Shillingford (1960-2016)

Sources:

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 12 September 2025