Books » Regional Canada Biographies & Memoirs

In the boomtowns of the Alaska-Yukon stampedes, where gold dust was common currency, the rarest commodity was an attractive woman, and her company could be costly. Author Lael Morgan takes you into the heart of the gold rush demimonde, that ""half world"" of prostitutes, dance hall girls, and entertainers who lived on the outskirts of polite society. Meet ""Dutch Kate"" Wilson, who pioneered many areas long before the ""respectable"" women who received credit for getting there first ... ruthless heartbreakers Cad Wilson and Rose Blumkin ... ""French"" Marie Larose, who auctioned herself off as a wife to the highest bidder ... Georgia Lee, who invested her earnings wisely and became one of the richest women in the North ... and Edith Neile, called ""the Oregon Mare,"" famous for both her outlandish behavior and her softhearted generosity.

Bishop William Carpenter Bompas was a difficult man, cantankerous, stubborn, and more than a little eccentric. He carried on his shoulders the deep spirituality of his own faith, the assumptions of his background, and the cultural aggressiveness of the Victorian age. He was a church leader who often disagreed with his church and ignored its advice. Bompas's life in the North offers insights into the compelling forces of religion and faith. In a new Introduction, historians William Morrison and Ken Coates examine Bompas's career, exploring themes central to the history of the church in Canada and to aboriginal-newcomer relations.

In this memoir Penny Petrone tells what it was like growing up in Northern Ontario as the daughter of parents who moved to Canada from the class-bound feudal society of Southern Italy during the first quarter of the century when America was the dream of millions of Europeans.

Ever been dared to ride a bucking bronc? Or charged by an angry bull buffalo? Or had the temperature drop so low the firewood shatters into matchsticks? Follow the adventures in Caleb and Me, as a man and his dog go in search of gold, wiley cows and tractor parts. From tall tales to down-to-earth stories about the hardships of country life, this book is a heart-warming collection bound to please the whole family.

Starting with his first patient, a horse, Ben Dlin discovered that rural doctors are called upon to do things that he never dreamed of when he was an intern. "I learned that I had to be prepared to do anything, any time and any place, without regard for the hour, the inconvenience, the exhaustion and the absence of assistance." Set in the post-war period of the 1940s and early 50s, Dlin recounts the responsibility of being the one person who is caled upon in emergencies to make split-second decisions that can impact patients and their families for life. "I believed than and I still believe now that every student of medicine should spend time in rural practice. It is the place to discover what you're made of. But more importantly, it is the best place to learn the profession. Within the novice it creates a lifelong humanistic approach to medicine that remains no matter what specialty is pursued.

The texture of life in pre-Confederation settlements has been traced chiefly through the published diaries of women in Upper Canada. "The Diary of a Country Clergyman", a welcome complement to these narratives, introduces a male perspective on rural life in Lower Canada. A crusty yet diffident Scot, James Reid began his career as a sectarian evangelical missionary. The diary finds him thirty years later as a moderate, if conservative, Anglican clergyman. Through this remarkable document, village routines and intrigues, as well as Reid's circle of friends and his clerical colleagues, come vividly to life. His private reflections on the tensions and growing pains experienced by the colonial church at a formative stage in its evolution, and his reaction to events on the wider political scene, give us valuable insights into his life the times.Reid was a man of considerable complexity and his foibles and vanities are apparent in his narrative. The glimpses of his home life shed much light on gender relations and the history of the family. The diary has been edited and annotated by M.E. Reisner, who provides the background to Reid's narrative. Her informative biographical sketches, collected in an appendix, shed further light on representative local figures and the community dynamics of his town. "The Diary of a Country Clergyman" will be of interest to the general reader and social historian alike.

Frank Howard's mother was a prostitute; his father, purportedly her pimp. When he was six months old they placed him in the care of foster parents who never let him forget that he was the child of those "...no-good sons of bitches...".

At twelve he was committed by a judge to the care of the Childrens' Aid Society and taken to an orphanage in Vancouver. En route he was sexually molested by the policeman accompanying him. Dumped into the foster care circuit, he twice attempted suicide. He never finished grade ten. At eighteen he was sentenced to two years in the B.C. Penitentiary for armed robbery.

In From Prison to Parliament Howard describes those early years, his life in prison, and how, on finishing his sentence, he vowed never to return to crime. He never did.

He became a logger, then President of the Loggers' Local of the I.W.A. At twenty-eight he entered politics as a C.C.F. M.L.A. and went on to become the M.P. for the Northern B.C. riding of Skeena. He held that seat for seventeen years, longer than anyone else since its formation in 1914. During his twenty-seven years as a politician, he won ten elections.

Frank Howard was decidedly instrumental in getting Aboriginal people who lived on reserves the right to vote in federal elections. His three-year filibuster in the House of Commons produced reforms to Canada's divorce laws. His passion for prison reform led to the closure of Canada's barbaric Saint Vincent de Paul Penitentiary.

Blunt, tough, Frank Howard pulls no punches in describing some of his C.C.F./ N.D.P. fellow politicians. Reading From Prison to Parliament, it's easy to understand how his street smarts served his constituents, while at the same time infuriating other politicians.

Pages: 80, Paperback, Talonbooks

Between 1830 and 1870, as many as 40,000 slaves made the perilous journey north to freedom in Canada with the help of the Underground Railroad. It was neither underground nor was it a railroad, and was most remarkable for its lack of formal organization, so cloaked in secrecy that few facts were recorded while it "ran." The story of the Underground Railroad is one of suffering and of bravery, and is not only one of escape from slavery but of beginnings: of people who carved out a new life for themselves in perilous, difficult circumstances. In I Came as a Stranger, Bryan Prince, a descendent of slaves, describes the people who made their way to Canada and the life that awaited them. From Uncle Tom's Cabin in Dresden, Ontario to Harriet Tubman's Canadian base of operations in St. Catharines, the communities founded by former slaves soon produced businessmen, educators, and writers. Yet danger was present in the form of bounty hunters and prejudice.Complemented by archival photos, I Came as a Stranger is an important addition to North American history.