James Bacque

James Bacque was a novelist, book editor, essayist, and historian whose work has helped raise awareness in human rights issues associated with war crimes, particularly spurring debate on and research into the treatment of German POWs at the end of World War II.

Bacque was the founding partner and president of new press book publishers from 1969–1975. He also worked as a reporter for the Stratford Beacon-Herald; as an assistant editor for Saturday Night magazine and for Canadian Homes magazine; and as an editor for Macmillan of Canada and for Seal Books.

His fiction titles include The Lonely Ones, 1969 (Big Lonely in the paperback edition, 1970); A Man of Talent, 1972; Creation (with Robert Kroetsch and Pierre Gravel), 1972; The Queen Comes to Minnicog, 1979; and Our Fathers’ War, 2006.

His history titles include Crimes and Mercies, which was an immediate bestseller when first released in the U.K. by Little, Brown, and Other Losses, which has been published in Canada, the U.K., the U.S., Germany, Japan, Italy, Turkey, Portugal, Korea, and Hungary.

Bacque was the subject of a one-hour BBC TV documentary in 1990 and has also been featured in four TV documentaries in France, Germany, and Canada. He has appeared on the CBS Evening News; Good Morning America; and CBC TV’s The Journal.

He has given readings and lectures across Canada and Europe, and his articles have been published in many magazines and anthologies, including Saturday Night, Books in Canada and the Globe and Mail.