The Encyclopedia of British Columbia was published in September 2000 by Harbour Publishing, an award-winning independent book publisher owned and operated by Howard and Mary White.

Learn more about Harbour Publishing at our main site: http://www.harbourpublishing.com/

The company was established in 1974 on the Sunshine Coast, where its headquarters are still located. Harbour is well known for the Raincoast Chronicles, a series of anthologies on BC coast history and culture, of which 18 have been produced. Harbour is also the publisher of the best-selling Fishing With John by Edith Iglauer, which early in 2000 was made into a film; The Fraser River by Alan Haig-Brown and Rick Blacklaws and HR: A Biography of H.R. MacMillan by Ken Drushka, both winners of the Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Book Prize; the popular Grizzlies and White Guys and Bella Coola Man by Clayton Mack; and The Great Bear Rainforest: Canada's Forgotten Coast by Ian and Karen McAllister with Cameron Young, winner of the 1998 Bill Duthie Booksellers' Choice Award.

Other well-known Harbour authors are the best-selling novelist Anne Cameron; the Governor General's Award-winning writers Al Purdy and Patrick Lane; and Tom Henry, author of Dogless in Metchosin, The Good Company, Small City in a Big Valley and Westcoasters: Boats that Built BC, which in 1999 won the Bill Duthie Booksellers' Choice Award.

The Canadian Historical Association has cited Howard White as "a tireless promoter and creator of quality British Columbia regional history," recognizing that Harbour Publishing "has nurtured and brought into being a remarkable range of works that capture the essence of British Columbia."

White is also an award-winning writer of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, articles and essays. His book Writing in the Rain won the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour, and he has also been awarded a Canadian Media Club Prize, the Eaton's BC Book Award, the Canadian Historical Society Career Award, the Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize and, in 1997, the Order of British Columbia.