Established in 1972 by Kirk Howard, Dundurn Press Limited started primarily as a small publisher of Canadian history, military history, politics, current affairs, and biography. Since then Dundurn has expanded its original publishing mandate to include lavishly illustrated, well-researched art books dealing with respected painters such as A.Y. Jackson, Tom Thomson, Lawren Harris, Frederick Varley, and the female artists of the Beaver Hall Group in Montreal, as well as works on important Canadian cultural institutions such as the National Arts Centre, the Canadian Opera Company, the Stratford Festival, and the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. Since 1972, Dundurn Press and its associated imprints have published more than 1,650 titles of which 800 are still in print. Dundurn publishes about eighty-five to ninety new titles per year and is now one of the largest publishers of adult and young adult fiction and non-fiction in Canada. Books published by Dundurn Press have won or been nominated for many awards and distinctions, including the Governor GeneralÕs Literary Award for Fiction, Non-Fiction, and Translation; the Toronto Book Award; the City of Ottawa Book Award; the University of British Columbia Medal for Canadian Biography; the Commonwealth Writers Prize; the Rogers WritersÕ Trust Fiction Prize; the Edgar Allan Poe Award; and the Arthur Ellis Award for Mystery Fiction. DundurnÕs childrenÕs imprints have also won or been nominated for numerous awards, including the Sheila A. Egoff Award, the Red Cedar Award, the Silver Birch Award, the White Pine and Red Maple Awards, the Ann Connor Brimer ChildrenÕs Literature Prize, and the CLA ChildrenÕs Book of the Year.