The Icelandic Canadian - 01.09.1981, Síða 13

THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
11
Icelandic Canadian Magazine. The older
men who had been struggling so long and so
hard to preserve here the Icelandic culture
and the language were skeptical of success.
They gloomily predicted that the magazine
would last at the most three years!*
In the second issue of the magazine there
is a comment from the Winnipeg Tribune,
and later greetings from the well known
author, Nellie L. McLung. There were also
nice letters from people in various parts of
Canada and the U.S.A., who had lost all
contact with the Icelandic matters, and were
happy to be “brought back into the fold”,
you might say.
In 1944 Mrs. Sal verson retired from the
Board and W. J. Lindal became Editor-in-
Chief. Three years later, at the January an-
nual meeting, 1947, Holmfridur Danielson
was elected Editor.
Perhaps readers would be interested in
knowing what it entailed to be Business and
Circulation Manager for the Icelandic
Canadian Magazine (H. F. Danielson took
on the extra job of Business manager after a
few years).
After an issue of the magazine had been
put in the mail, the round of duties started all
over again. Hjalmur collected from the
printers all the articles that had been pub-
lished, all the pictures and other material
that had to go back to the contributors, and
sent to the main contributors extra copies of
the magazine. Then he collected all the cuts
* A similar attitude of gloom and doom prevailed two
years later when I was trying to establish the Ice-
landic Canadian Evening School. When I was
enthusiastically “talking it up" at the Icelandic
National League Convention one old lady popped up
and said: “A nu ad fara ad kenna Islenzku a ensku?"
(Are they now going to start teaching Icelandic in
English!) Surprisingly this venture, too, became a
great success, and the resulting book, Iceland’s
Thousand Years, has been sold all over the world to
libraries and universities. Since the Advent of the
Chair in Icelandic at the University of Manitoba
(and the lesson helps sponsored by the Icelandic
National League in 1975, it has become the norm
“to teach Icelandic in English”.
and stored them alphabetically in a special
cabinet bought for that purpose. (The cuts of
the soldiers’ pictures were stored in big
boxes in the basement — there were so
many of them!) Then he gradually entered
all the business transactions in two ledgers
— one for the advertising. Continually he
renewed and revised the circulation lists. He
ordered and stored all supplies; right away
he started to address the envelopes for the
next issue, slipping such notices as were
needed under the flaps of each envelope,
and filed all in separate boxes according to
destination.
The contract for printing the magazine
had been awarded to the Viking Press. For
the attractive appearance of the magazine
full credit must be given to John V. Samson,
foreman of the plant, and his able assistant,
Sveinn Oddson (compositor), who under-
took from the start to design and execute the
format and lay-out of the magazine, which
they did with artistic talent and efficient
dispatch. These good people, with the addi-
tion of Eddie Goodmundson, who came into
the picture after his service in the Armed
Forces, were delightful to work with: con-
genial, efficient, and helpful in every way.
And they became our jolly good friends, as
well. Johnny and Eddie bought out the
Viking Press in 1949, and it was re-named
the Viking Printers, still continuing to print
the Icelandic weekly, Heimskringla. For-
tunately for us the printing shop was located
a stone’s throw from us, on the comer of
Sargent and Banning, until they moved in
1957. While the magazine was at the
printers there was endless running back and
forth, with copy, with galley-proofs, with
page-proofs, with this and that and every-
thing. At the last moment after the pages had
been set, Hjalmur hurried to make the index
for the advertisers, and so the magazine was
finally “put to bed”.
When the big day arrived for delivery of
the next issue we really went to work for the