Mappin, Judy, 1928-2014

Judy Mappin (née Judith Winifred Taylor) was born on October 3, 1928, in Toronto, Ontario. She was the daughter of businessman E. P. Taylor (1901-1989), and she was a trustee of the Charles Taylor Prize for Canadian non-fiction literature, named after her late brother Charles.

She was a Canadian businesswoman and philanthropist. She graduated from McGill University (B.Sc.) and settled in Montreal. From 1974 to 2005, Mappin operated the Double Hook bookstore in Westmount, Montreal, which sold only Canadian books. In 1995, she became the first winner of the Quebec Writers' Federation Award for promoting generations of Canadian writers in her long career as a bookseller. She also served on the jury for the 1999 Giller Prize for Canadian fiction. She founded scholarship programs at McGill University (one in 2000 for undergraduate environmental studies and another in 2002 for graduate students in women's health studies). In 2006, she received an honorary doctorate from McGill. In 2008, she was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada. Judy Mappin Community Award, given to a member of the extended literary community who has made a significant and longstanding contribution to the development and/or dissemination of English-language literature in Quebec, is named after her.

She married John Newton Mappin (1926-2008). She died on February 14, 2014, in Montreal, Quebec.