Toronto’s book scene was forever changed nearly 50 years ago when Frans Donker opened the first Book City location in the Annex.
Donker founded Book City, one of Toronto’s longest running independent bookstores with his wife Gini in 1976, after working as a sales representative for various publishers.
He died earlier this month after running the local bookstore chain for 38 years.
Donker’s son Ian — who now runs the city’s four remaining stores after buying the business 10 years ago — said his father had a personality no one could forget.
“He had a very big personality and was a very lively, opinionated guy,” Ian said. “He was six-foot-six with a big beard and a thick Dutch accent. You remembered him as soon as you met him."
He said Frans had always harboured a love for selling books and tried to price them fairly.
“He was outspoken and he felt very strongly about book selling and how important it was to society at large,” Ian said. “He loved selling [books], he loved retail, he cared about his ‘remainders,’ [which were] the discount books. He cared about his tables and his windows.”
When Book City was first established, Ian said his dad would buy tons of advertising space in newspapers. When newspaper ads no longer helped him sell books, he pivoted to newer forms of technology like radio. And when radio stopped being the most efficient form of communication, the business moved online.
“We've always changed with the times, right from 1976 onwards. We were the second bookstore in Canada to have our stock on computers,” Ian explained.
Frans also wasn’t afraid to take it up with the law. Ian said in the 1970s, when it was customary for businesses to close on Sundays so everyone could attend church, his dad kept Book City open.
“He opened on Sundays when he wasn't allowed to open on Sundays. He got fines for being open. We went to court a few times because he felt if he had to pay rent on Sunday that he should be allowed to be open on Sundays."
Book City has changed quite a bit over the years. The city has four locations — the Beaches, the Danforth, Yonge and St. Clair and Bloor West Village — but at the height of business, there were six storefronts. The flagship store in the Annex closed down in 2014.
When asked about his dad’s literary taste, Ian said Frans “read a bit of everything.”
“He read widely. He liked his fiction, he liked his mystery, and he liked his history and biographies,” Ian mused.
After owning Book City for 10 years, Ian divulged the most important thing he’s learned.
“You do what you do in order to be able to sell books because at the end of the day, the most important thing is to get books and ideas into other people's hands.”
As for his relationship with his dad? He told TorontoToday this:
“We opened stores and we closed stores. We shared our opinions with each other — sometimes loudly, sometimes in agreement. He always listened and I always listened and even though we disagreed, we worked together fairly well. I’m in a good place. We left on good terms.”