Bookseller, publisher.
Born at Newcastle, England in 1911, one of seven daughters of William Scorer (1883-1961) and Elizabeth Scorer (1883-1970), she came to Canada with her family at age three. Educated at Winnipeg, she worked as a secretary for Purity Flour for many years. During the Second World War she went to Britain as an ambulance driver, then worked for an English publisher after the war. She returned to Canada in 1951 and worked at the Eaton’s book department until 1959 when she opened her own bookstore, Mary Scorer Books.
In 1967, she established Manitoba’s first full-time publishing company, Peguis Publishers. It published many books on Manitoba history. The bookstore initially financed the publishing, but she gradually moved full-time into the publishing business and sold the bookstore to other parties. In recognition of her community service, she was given a Manitoba Good Citizenship Award (1975), was named YWCA Woman of the Year (1982), and was inducted into the Order of the Buffalo Hunt (1984).
She died unmarried at the Concordia Hospital on 23 January 1988. An annual prize for the best book by a Manitoba publisher is named in her honour.
Obituary [William Scorer], Winnipeg Free Press, 29 July 1961, page 47.
“Scorer remembered as pioneer publisher,” Winnipeg Free Press, 27 January 1988, page 34.
Obituary, Winnipeg Free Press, 27 January 1988, page 43.
Dictionary of Manitoba Biography by John M. “Jack” Bumsted, Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 1999.
Obituaries and burial transcriptions, Manitoba Genealogical Society.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 24 May 2024
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