Rolf Kalman moved to Montreal from Hungary in the early 1950's. He founded Simon & Pierre, a publishing company he named after his two cats, in 1972, which began as an offshoot from his days spent as an editor for Performing Arts magazine. Before that he worked at odd jobs around the CBC, mostly with televised theatre production. "(A Collection of Canadian Plays) is my gift to Canada. It's a gift in return for my Canadian citizenship."