Crad Kilodney

Who is Crad Kilodney?

Crad Kilodney is a Canadian writer who lives in Toronto, Ontario.

Kilodney obtained a degree in astronomy, but instead of working in that field he took a job at Exposition Press, a self-publishing company. Many of his experiences in that job, and with vanity publishing in general, shaped his outlook on fiction and provided him with material for many stories. The stories "Three Dead Men" and "A Moment of Silence for Man Ray" are examples of this.

After moving to Canada, he worked at a number of other book publishers, mostly in their stockrooms, and while doing so decided that it might be best to reach people by publishing his books and selling them face-to-face on the street. This he did from 1978 through 1995, and published over thirty books in this manner. Kilodney could generally be found, and indeed was a fixture, on Yonge Street and at the University Of Toronto downtown campus with a cardboard sign hanging from his neck, holding a book he was selling.

In 1991 Kilodney was charged with selling commercial goods without a license, making him the only Canadian writer ever charged for selling his own writing. At various times he kept a tape recorder with him and recorded quite a bit of bizarre byplay between himself and prospective customers; the tapes are compilation recordings. They are extremely rare and are collector's items.