Ian Montagnes, who died on Oct. 26 at the age of 93, was a powerhouse in the world of Canadian publishing, serving for a decade as editor-in-chief of the University of Toronto Press. He worked on everything from a series of books on the photographer Yousuf Karsh (not an easy man to work with), to the Dictionary of Canadian Biography, a massive, years-long project. A man who loved words, he took a three-year leave to go to the Philippines to teach plain writing at the International Rice Research Institute outside Manila. It was part of the green agriculture revolution, with...