Remembering the Made In-Canada Coles Notes

There are just a handful of Coles bookstores left in Toronto and one fewer after today. The Coles store in this Etobicoke mall is permanently closing at the end of the day, after 63 years. (It is also the last day for the Coles that has been in Hamilton’s Jackson Square for 50 years.) I think this Coles at Cloverdale may have been where I bought my first copy of Coles Notes (for King Lear) and it got me thinking about how the Canadian-made Coles notes became Cliff Notes in the U.S… and how the phrase “give me the Coles Notes version” has become part of our lexicon.

What are Coles Notes? Here are some facts about those beloved pre-Google student time-savers:

• Coles Notes were first published in 1948 by the Coles bookstore in Canada.
• These concise (printed!) study guides aimed to help students in understanding literary works.
• The first title was a guide to the French novella “Colomba” by Prosper Mérimée. Jack Cole and Carl Cole, the brothers who founded Coles in 1940, invented Coles Notes when local high school students were struggling with a French paper. They hired someone to translate the book, selling over 1,000 copies.
• They covered a wide range of subjects, including English novels, as well as mathematics, science, and foreign languages.
• Over 120 titles were published.
• In 1958, Jack Cole and Carl Cole sold the U.S. rights to Coles Notes to Cliff Hillegass.
• Cliff Hillegass then published the books under the name “CliffsNotes”.
• CliffsNotes became widely recognized as a condensed study guide series in the United States.
• Coles Notes are currently owned by Indigo Books in Canada, who are the owners of Coles.

Chapters aquired Coles in 1995. Then Indigo acquired Chapters, and subsequently Coles, in 2001. Many Coles have closed in recent years, especially those near Indigo or Chapters stores, with some converted into IndigoSpirit outlets.

I don’t have any copies left of my Coles notes but I remember while they definitely didn’t take the place of reading the book, they were a helpful companion. As a book lover, it’s always tough to see a book store close, especially one that has been in the community for so many years.

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