Charles Burchell, one of Canada's most recognized booksellers, died July 10. He was 84. Burchell was born in Halifax, N.S. After attending Mount Allison University, he moved into retailing with Eason's of Canada department stores, where for the next five years he was a troubleshooter for many departments and helped direct advertising and promotion.
In 1966, he took a job managing the Book Room Limited in Halifax. Shortly after joining the bookshop, he was elected a director of the Canadian Booksellers Association, a position he was re-elected to for more than 18 years, the longest director ever to serve.
Burchell became president of the Book Room in 1977, and served the company for a total of 44 years. In 1982, he was named Bookseller of the Year, the highest honor presented at that time to the Canadian bookselling industry. He was the first bookseller in Atlantic Canada to be so honored.
That same year, he accepted an appointment to serve on the N.S. government's Committee on Publishing. The results of the committee recommendations helped shape publishing policy in Nova Scotia. Burchell was asked in 1997 to appear in Ottawa before Senator Michael Kerby's Banking Committee on HST-Tax-In pricing. The result was a new 15% tax imposed on all goods sold in Canada (food exempted), with only books receiving a partial exemption. In Canada, this was considered an understanding by the federal government regarding the importance of books in Canadians' lives.
A founding member of the Atlantic Booksellers' Association, Burchell served as its president. He joined nine other bookseller cooperatives across Canada for a task force to help develop an electronic ordering system for the Canadian industry. He also served as a founding director of Booksellers Co-operative, an independent buying group for booksellers in Canada. In addition, he presented commentaries on the book industry and small business, as well as book reviews, for radio, newspaper, and TV.
Burchell was supportive of authors, especially Canadian writers. In his 44 years as a bookseller he hosted authors from across the country and around the world. On his retirement, he was honored with the Canadian book industry's Libris Award for dedication and excellence in the book trade.
Bookselling was not in his early plans, but he found it to be a wonderful profession, Burchell's obituary noted, adding: "He was grateful to have spent his working career as a bookseller. He met so many wonderful people in that time; authors, fellow booksellers, publishers, the reading public, and those people who could advance the interest in books and make them available to more people."
As the book world changed in the early part of the century with the arrival of online competition, the Book Room, which had been founded in 1838, closed in 2008.
On his 82nd birthday, Burchell reflected on his life, describing it as a "wonderful experience" that gave him the opportunity to meet so many authors from all walks of life and many parts of the world. He enjoyed being able to bring writers and readers together.