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Seligman’s career began in her hometown of New York City before she moved to London, England and finally to Toronto and McClelland & Stewart, her home for nearly four decades. During her career she was known to be unfailingly loyal to her longstanding authors and ceaselessly willing to help her younger writers begin their own literary journeys. She was admired in publishing circles well beyond the country’s borders, and though they may not have known it, by readers around the world through many of the great novels to emerge from Canada since the late 1970s.

In her adopted country, where the literary world is a small and intimate one, her loss will be especially significant. Author Andrew Pyper once tweeted, “A neighbour has the most amazing free mags and books on the front lawn. Irresistible. Then I realize it’s Ellen Seligman’s house.”

Seligman is survived by her partner James Polk and her sister Margaret Seligman. There will be a private family funeral, followed by a public memorial, with details to come.