Mr. George has passed away

It is a sad day for Canadian independent book store lovers. Mr. George, the iconic independent Montreal bookseller who ran Argo Books on Ste. Catherine St. W. for 40 years, died yesterday of cancer. He was 83.

I always loved going into Argo and browsing through their wide selection of books. I bought a lot of titles there that couldn't be found in Chapters or Indigo, like hard-to-find books on literary criticism and specialty poetry books.

Argo will also always have a place in my heart because some of the first publications to have published my work have been distributed there. It is sad to lose one of Montreal's avid supporters of independent press.

I don't know what's going to happen to the bookstore but regardless of whether it stays open or not, Mr. George's good-natured spirit and enthusiasm for literature will be missed.