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Lord Lyons: A Diplomat in an Age of Nationalism and War
by Brian JenkinsThe British ambassador in Washington during the US Civil War and ambassador in Paris before and after the Franco-Prussian war, Lord Lyons (1817-1887) was one of the most important diplomats of the Victorian period. Although frequently featured in histories of the United States and Europe in the second half of the nineteenth century, and in discussions and analyses of British foreign policy, he has remained an ill-defined figure. In Lord Lyons: A Diplomat in an Age of Nationalism and War, Brian Jenkins explains the man and examines his career. Based on a staggering study of primary sources, he presents a convincing portrait of a subject who rarely revealed himself personally. Though he avoided publicity, Lyons came to be regarded as his nation's premier diplomat as his career took him to the heart of the great international issues and crises of his generation. As minister to the United States he played a vital role in preserving Anglo-American peace and was a powerful voice opposing Anglo-French intervention in the Civil War. While ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, he helped to prevent French control of the Suez Canal then under construction. In France, he maintained an amiable and constructive relationship with a bitter nation struggling to reorganize itself and its constitution after the Franco-Prussian War. For many historians Lord Lyons has been difficult to ignore but hard to admire. In rescuing him as a truly important historical figure, Jenkins details for the first time the personal and public strategies Lyons employed through decades of exemplary diplomatic service on both sides of the Atlantic.
Lord Mansfield: Justice in the Age of Reason
by Norman S. PoserIn the first modern biography of Lord Mansfield (1705-1793), Norman Poser details the turbulent political life of eighteenth-century Britain's most powerful judge, serving as chief justice for an unprecedented thirty-two years. His legal decisions launched England on the path to abolishing slavery and the slave trade, modernized commercial law in ways that helped establish Britain as the world's leading industrial and trading nation, and his vigorous opposition to the American colonists stoked Revolutionary fires. Although his father and brother were Jacobite rebels loyal to the deposed King James II, Mansfield was able to rise through English society to become a member of its ruling aristocracy and a confidential advisor to two kings. Poser sets Mansfield's rulings in historical context while delving into Mansfield's circle, which included poets (Alexander Pope described him as "his country's pride"), artists, actors, clergymen, noblemen and women, and politicians. Still celebrated for his application of common sense and moral values to the formal and complicated English common law system, Mansfield brought a practical and humanistic approach to the law. His decisions continue to influence the legal systems of Canada, Britain, and the United States to an extent unmatched by any judge of the past. An illuminating account of one of the greatest legal minds, Lord Mansfield presents a vibrant look at Britain's Age of Reason through one of its central figures.
Lord Selkirk: A Life
by J.M. BumstedThomas Douglas, the Fifth Earl of Selkirk (1770–1820), was a complex man of his times, whose passions left an indelible mark on Canadian history. A product of the Scottish Enlightenment and witness to the French Revolution, he dedicated his fortune and energy to the vision of a new colony at the centre of North America. His final legacy, the Red River Settlement, led to the eventual end of the dominance of the fur trade and began the demographic and social transformation of western Canada. The product of three decades of research, this is the definitive biography of Lord Selkirk. Bumsted’s passionate prose and thoughtful analysis illuminate not only the man, but also the political and economic realities of the British empire at the turn of the nineteenth century. He analyzes Selkirk’s position within these realities, showing how his paternalistic attitudes informed his “social experiments” in colonization and translated into unpredictable, and often tragic, outcomes. Bumsted also provides extensive detail on the complexities of colonization, the Scottish Enlightenment, Scottish peerage, the fur trade, the Red River settlement, and early British-Canadian politics.
Lord Strathcona: A Biography of Donald Alexander Smith
by Donna McdonaldDonald Smith, known to most Canadians as Lord Strathcona, was an adventurer who made his fortune building railroads. He joined the Hudson’s Bay Company at age eighteen and went on to build the first railway to open the Canadian Northwest to settlement. As his crowning achievement, he drove the last spike for the nation-building Canadian Pacific Railway. In 1896, Smith became Canada’s High Commissioner in London and was soon elevated to the peerage. He became a generous benefactor to Canadian institutions. This eminently readable biography brings to light new information, including details about Strathcona’s personal life and his scandalous marriage.
Lost in Cabbagetown: A Memoir of Surviving Boyhood in 1960s Toronto
by Terry BurkeA poignant memoir of a rough-and-tumble boyhood on the streets of Toronto’s Cabbagetown.When the Burke family left Ireland, in 1959, they thought they were leaving the trials and tribulations of the Dublin slums behind. Instead, Molly, Bill, and their nine children found the same poverty and hardship awaiting them in the east end of Toronto.For their sixth-born son, Terry, growing up in Cabbagetown was a daily struggle to survive. Whether it was the bullies on the street or the gangs in Regent Park, fights were an everyday occurrence. School should have been a refuge, but some of the priests and nuns were more terrifying than any street bully. The only escape for Terry was to find his way down into the Don Valley, where he could search the river for muskrat or imagine himself escaping on one of the freight trains, chucking north, up the valley floor.But a childhood in Cabbagetown didn’t seem to last very long. Forced into adulthood and driven from home in the wake of tragedy, Terry struggled to survive on his own and find a way back to his family.In this touching memoir, Terry Burke tells a poignant story of hunger, pain, love, and loss, and the enduring bonds of family.
The Lost Prime Ministers: Macdonald's Successors Abbott, Thompson, Bowell, and Tupper
by Michael HillAfter John A. Macdonald’s death, four Tory prime ministers — each remarkable but all little known — rose to power and fell in just five years. From 1891 to 1896, between John A. Macdonald’s and Wilfrid Laurier’s tenures, four lesser-known men took on the mantle of leadership. Tory prime ministers John Abbott, John Thompson, Mackenzie Bowell, and Charles Tupper headed the government of Canada in rapid succession. Each came to the job with qualifications and limitations, and each left after unexpectedly short terms. Yet these reluctant prime ministers are an important part of our political legacy. Their roles were much more than caretakers between the administrations of two great leaders. Personal tragedy, terrible health issues, backstabbing, and political manipulation all led to their eventual downfalls. The Lost Prime Ministers is the dramatic saga of these overlooked Canadian leaders.
Lost Province: Adventures in a Moldovan Family
by Stephen HenighanStephen Henighan, a Romanian grammar book and hours of language tapes under his belt, billets with a family as an English teacher in Moldova, a country born from the dismantling of Romania during World War II. <P><P>As a Westerner in this "lost province" and former Soviet republic, Henighan feels he’s an unnerving disappointment for many Moldovans, especially to the MTV-addicted, twenty-year-old Andrei.
Louis Applebaum: A Passion for Culture
by Walter PitmanCanadian composer Louis Applebaum devoted his life to the cultural awakening of his native land, and this "magnificent obsession" drove him to become a founder of the Canadian League of Composers and the Canadian Music Centre. He was an instrumental figure in the early development of the National Film Board, the Stratford Festival, and the National Art Centre in Ottawa. For nearly half a century he composed music for the Stratford Festival, television, radio, and films. This illustrated biography explores the man who was beloved by his fellow artists and the icon to whom every Canadian, knowingly or not, is indebted.
Louis Riel: Firebrand
by Sharon StewartLouis Riel devoted his life to the Metis cause. A fiery activist, he struggled against injustice as he saw it. He was a pioneer in the field of Aboriginal rights and land claims but was branded an outlaw in his own time. In 1885, he was executed for treason. In 1992, the House of Commons declared Riel a founder of Manitoba. November 16 is now designated Louis Riel Day in Canada.
Love Her Madly: Jim Morrison, Mary, and Me
by Bill CosgraveA riveting memoir that works its magic like a slow-acting drug, revealing the story of Jim Morrison’s first love, a long-lost friendship, and the man who existed before the Doors. In the spring of 1965, Bill Cosgrave was smuggled across the border into the United States after receiving an irresistible invitation from his captivating friend Mary Werbelow. When he made it to her apartment in Los Angeles, Mary introduced Bill to her boyfriend, Jim Morrison. The two young men quickly bonded. When Jim and Mary’s relationship faltered, Jim headed for Venice beach with his notebook. Bill and Jim spent endless days together, enjoying the aimlessness of their youth and the freedom of the times, fuelled by Jim's unlimited supply of dope. Jim’s writing would morph into iconic hit songs, rocketing him to international fame as the hypnotic lead singer of the Doors. Beautiful Mary would set off on her own journey. After years of futile searching, Bill finally tracks down the woman he had secretly loved. He’s dying to know where her life has taken her and stunned by what he discovers.
Love or Die Trying: How I Lost It All, Died, and Came Back for Love
by Bob Ramsay"A ruthlessly honest memoir of love, loss, and redemption." — WADE DAVISA story of addiction and recovery, love and perseverance, and a reminder that it’s never too late to start over.Bob Ramsay had it all — and lost it all, often. At forty, he lived in a drug treatment centre in Atlanta. Starting over back in Toronto, he began dating an older woman, a doctor named Jean Marmoreo, who had three teenage kids. The chances of this relationship lasting were zero. But they married and created a very different “out there” life for themselves, climbing mountains, running marathons, and exploring the ends of the earth.Then one day Bob’s heart stopped, and life got much worse after it was restarted. But once again, perseverance and love won over fate, and today, Bob turns connection into an art form, while Jean Marmoreo is a MAiD doctor, leading her patients across the thin veil between life and death.Love or Die Trying is a love story that unfolded against all odds and a reflection on a life anchored between a first death and the future.
The Love Queen of Malabar: Memoir of a Friendship with Kamala Das
by Merrily WeisbordKamala Das (1934-2009) is one of India's most beloved and controversial literary figures. She was hailed and reviled as the first Indian woman to write an autobiographical cult classic about love and desire. Admirers dubbed her, "The First Feminist Emotional Revolutionary of Our Time." The tabloid press called her "The Love Queen of Malabar." Merrily Weisbord found Das's work so compelling that she flew to South India to meet her. The Love Queen of Malabar is the story of their decade-long friendship, an experiment in mutual revelation. Recounting the development of their relationship, Weisbord relates the dramatic events of Das's life, including her transition from celibacy to sexual awakening at age sixty-seven when, provoking the greatest scandal of her notorious life, she converted to Islam for love and renewal. Both observer and direct participant, Weisbord elegantly presents new biographical insights and cultural details about Kerala and India without exoticisation or stereotyping. The Love Queen of Malabar is an evocative and beautifully crafted work, as seamless as the finest novel, and will captivate readers across the globe.
Loving Large: A Mother's Rare Disease Memoir
by Patti M. HallIf not me, then who will save my child? A mother must confront the unthinkable when her son is diagnosed with a rare medical condition. Patti M. Hall’s life is pitched into an abyss of uncertainty when a golf ball–sized tumour is discovered in her teenage son’s head and he is diagnosed with gigantism, a disease of both legend and stigma. After scrambling to access a handful of medical experts in the field, Patti learns that her son could grow uncontrollably, his mobility could be permanently limited, and his life could be cut short without timely and aggressive treatment. Patti’s attention shifts fully to her son, away from her relationships as well as her own career and health. Her new normal sees her step into a dozen additional roles, including nurse, researcher, advocate, risk assessor, and promise maker, while she struggles and fails to rebuild her life as a recently divorced woman. In Loving Large, Patti discovers that resilience is learned and that the changes experienced in the aftermath of crisis can often create the greatest opportunities.
Loyal Service: Perspectives on French-Canadian Military Leaders
by Colonel Bernd Horn Roch Legault Lieutenant-General J.H.P.M CaronFrench Canadians have a long, proud history of serving their nation. From the earliest beginnings, French Canadians assisted in carving out and defending the nascent country. They were critical as defenders and as allies against hostile Natives and competing European powers. In the aftermath of the conquest, they continued, albeit under a different flag, to defend Canada. Loyal Service examines the service of a number of French-Canadian leaders and their contributions to the nation during times of peace, crisis, and conflict spanning the entire historical spectrum from New France to the end of the twentieth century.
Lucille Teasdale
by Deborah CowleyCanadian surgeon Lucille Teasdale and her husband founded Lacor Hospital in northern Uganda in 1961. For 35 years the two doctors treated such contagious diseases as malaria, TB, and AIDS, and Teasdale performed thousands of operations under difficult conditions. They lived through civil war, hostage takings, and epidemics. Teasdale received the highest humanitarian awards from the U.N. for her lifes work in Africa.
Lucky Dog: How Being a Veterinarian Saved My Life
by Sarah BostonLucky Dog is a hilarious and heartwarming memoir by a renowned veterinary oncologist who tells us what we can learn about health care and ourselves from our most beloved pets.What happens when a veterinary surgical oncologist (laymen’s term: cancer surgery doctor) thinks she has cancer herself? Enter Sarah Boston: a vet who suspects a suspicious growth in her neck is thyroid cancer. From the moment she uses her husband’s portable ultrasound machine to investigate her lump — he’s a vet, too — it’s clear this will not be your typical cancer memoir.She takes us on a hysterical and thought-provoking journey through the human health care system from the perspective of an animal doctor. Weaving funny and poignant stories of dogs she’s treated along the way, this is an insightful memoir about what the human medical world can learn from the way we treat our canine counterparts. Lucky Dog teaches us to trust our instincts, be our own advocates, and laugh while we’re doing it.
Mac Runciman: A Life in the Grain Trade
by Paul D. EarlOne of the most turbulent periods in the history of prairie agriculture is chronicled in a new book about the life and times of Alexander "Mac" Runciman, the Saskatchewan farmer who led the United Grain Growers as president from 1961 to 1981. Mac Runciman earned the respect and admiration on both sides of the great agriculture debates of the 1960s and 1970sófrom individual farmers to Pierre Trudeau, who offered Runciman a cabinet post in 1980 (Mac turned him down).Mac Runciman: A Life in the Grain Trade tells the story of how Runciman rose through the ranks of the UGG to play a central role in the fierce debates over the modernization of grain handling, subsidized freight rates, and the role of The Canadian Wheat Board. Runciman's reminiscences give new insights into the events and personalities of that critical period in Canadian agricultural history, a time in which the rural community began to question highly centralized and regulated marketing and transportation systems. The events and decisions of those years continue to reverberate in today's controversies over grain marketing and grain transportation.
Macdonald at 200: New Reflections and Legacies
by Patrice Dutil Roger HallA modern look at a classic leader. Macdonald at 200 presents fifteen fresh interpretations of Canada’s founding Prime Minister, published for the occasion of the bicentennial of his birth in 1815. Well researched and crisply written by recognized scholars and specialists, the collection throws new light on Macdonald’s formative role in shaping government, promoting women’s rights, managing the nascent economy, supervising westward expansion, overseeing relations with Native peoples, and dealing with Fenian terrorism. A special section deals with how Macdonald has (or has not) been remembered by historians as well as the general public. The book concludes with an afterword by prominent Macdonald biographer Richard Gwyn. Macdonald emerges as a man of full dimensions — an historical figure that is surprisingly relevant to our own times.
MacMillan on Music: Essays by Sir Ernest MacMillan
by Ernest Macmillan Carl MoreyIn addition to his activities as conductor, administrator, educator, composer, and organist, Sir Ernest MacMillan (1893-1973) found time to write more than one hundred essays and lectures on music. Always ready to use his enormous prestige to further the causes of music, MacMillan took every opportunity to admonish Canadians to develop our own composers, to honour our own performers, to educate our children musically, and to offer opportunities for all to hear, learn about, and enjoy great music.This selection of twenty essays and lectures covers the period from 1928 to 1964, and ranges over the gamut of MacMillan’s life and interests: the cause of the Canadian composer; music education for adults as well as children; critical reviews; his early years as an organist; internment in a German prison camp during the First World War; Shakespeare and music; church music; and the lighter side in two humorous send-ups of academic lectures on Bach and Wagner. Here is a panorama of music over thirty-five years at mid-century, through the eyes of one of Canada’s most brilliant and all-embracing musicians.
Maggie & Me: A Memoir
by Damian BarrLong-listed for the Green Carnation Prize and The Sunday Times' selection for Memoir of the Year. "This amazing book tells the story of an appalling childhood with truth and clarity unsmudged by self-pity. It grips from beginning to end.” — Diana Athill, Costa Book Award–winning author of Somewhere Towards the End Frank McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes crossed with Billy Elliot, Maggie & Me is a unique, tender, and witty memoir of surviving the tough streets of small town Scotland during the Thatcher years. October 12, 1984. An IRA bomb blows apart the Grand Hotel in Brighton. Miraculously, Maggie Thatcher survives. In small-town Scotland, eight-year-old Damian Barr watches in horror as his mum rips her wedding ring off and packs their bags. He knows he, too, must survive. Damian, his sister, and his Catholic mum move in with her sinister new boyfriend while his Protestant dad shacks up with the glamorous Mary the Canary. Divided by sectarian suspicion, the community is held together by the sprawling Ravenscraig Steelworks. But darkness threatens as Maggie takes hold: she snatches school milk, smashes the unions, and makes greed good. Following Maggie’s advice, Damian works hard and plans his escape. He discovers that stories can save your life and — in spite of violence, strikes, AIDS, and Clause 28 — manages to fall in love dancing to Madonna in Glasgow’s only gay club. Maggie & Me is a touching and darkly witty memoir about surviving Thatcher’s Britain; a story of growing up gay in a straight world and coming out the other side in spite of, and maybe because of, the iron lady.
Magic Carpet Flying: The Ride of Your Life
by Pamela RyanMagic Carpet Flying traces psychologist Pamela Ryan’s journey through her life’s adventures, from the rapture of achievement to the personal anguish of loss. Drawing on childhood lessons in rural Australia and later work in the Australian outback, Africa, Asia, and other parts of the world where she travelled to help others tackle the darkness of mental illness, suicide, and large-scale tragedy arising from terrorist attacks and natural disasters, Ryan reveals how she not only survived trauma but turned her journey into a "magic carpet ride." Exploring what it is to "live truth," to "make ourselves up as we go along," to aim for the stars, and to become the "pilot in command" of our own destiny, Pamela Ryan’s unforgettable journey in Magic Carpet Flying reveals what it means to be fully alive.
Making it Home: The Story of Catharine Parr Traill
by Lynn WesterhoutAs a pioneer in Canada in the early 1800s, Catharine Parr Traill was one of the first writers to record the Ontario wilderness in literary and scientific detail, and her stories for young people became part of a new focus on young people. Her books on emigration encouraged other pioneers who struggled with life in a new country. Catharine was a natural storyteller who loved to write. As an adult in Canada, she wrote while she was hungry and fearful for her family’s safety. Her life was one of hardship and adventure, but also of great joy. This biography shows how an English girl called Katie became an adult who gave so much to North America’s early literature.
A Man and His Words
by J. Patrick BoyerRobert Boyer was a consummate Canadian, whose long career can be measured by words. An author, journalist, researcher, editor, printer, and public speaker, Boyer’s professional life began at the age of 19 when he became a newspaper editor, and continued through the publication of his twelfth book at the age of 88. He was also a church organist, a member of the Ontario Legislature for seventeen years, and the first vice-chairman of Ontario Hydro. A Canadian Shield Book Published by Dundurn in partnership with Canadian Shield Communications Corporation.
The Man Who Carried Cash: Saul Holiff, Johnny Cash, and the Making of an American Icon
by Julie ChadwickThe unlikely, rocky relationship between an American country superstar and his straightlaced Canadian manager. Before there was Johnny and June, there was Johnny and Saul. The Man Who Carried Cash chronicles a relationship that was both volatile and affectionate between Johnny Cash and his manager, Saul Holiff. From roadside taverns to the roaring crowds at Madison Square Garden, from wrecked cars and jail cells all the way to the White House, the story of Johnny and Saul is a portrait of two men from different worlds who were more alike than either cared to admit. Saul handled the bookings and the no-shows, the divorce and the record deals, drugs, overdoses, and arrests. He was there for the absolute worst of times, but also for the best: Carnegie Hall, Folsom Prison, “A Boy Named Sue,” and Cash’s hit television series. But in 1973, at the zenith of Cash’s career, Saul quit. Until now, no one knew why.
The Mantle of Struggle: A Biography of Black Revolutionary Rosie Douglas
by Irving AndreRosie Douglas, former prime minister of Dominica, had a life unlike any other modern politician. After leaving home to study agriculture in Canada, he became a member of the young Conservatives, under the Canadian prime minister’s guidance. However, after he moved to Montreal to study political science his politics started to shift. By the late sixties he was an active civil rights supporter and when Black students in Montreal began to protest racism in 1969, he helped lead the sit-in. He was identified as a protest ringleader after the peaceful protest turned into a police riot, and served 18 months in prison. After his deportation from Canada in 1976, having been named a danger to national security, Douglas participated in political movements around the world building global solidarity. He became a leader of the Libyan-based revolutionary group World Mathaba and supported Nelson Mandela’s African National Congress. Once back home in Dominica, he led the movement for Dominica’s full political independence from Great Britain, then served as a senator in the post-independence government, an MP, party leader, and finally prime minister. Relying on family sources, interviews, newspaper articles, government documents, and Douglas’ own articles, letters, and speeches, Irving Andre has drawn a rich and riveting record of this important Black revolutionary.