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Mary Pickford's ambition, passion, innate talent, and savvy business acumen sent her career into the stratosphere and set the blueprint for the modern movie star. Born Gladys Louise Smith in 1892, Pickford was raised in a house on University Avenue in Toronto and began her acting career on the stage. However, her determination led her to the new world of motion pictures, where she not only revolutionized acting method but negotiated her own terms...
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Presenting five titles in the Quest Biography series that profiles prominent figures in Canada's history. The important Canadian lives detailed here are: Emma Albani, a nineteenth century opera singer from Quebec who became a diva of the musical world; Emily Carr, the artist famous for capturing the essence in her paintings of the Native cultures of the coast of British Columbia; George Grant, a prescient political philosopher and author of Lament...
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In 1924 Phyllis (Phyl) Munday did what no other woman had done before - reached the summit of Mt. Robson. She climbed close to 100 mountains in her lifetime, many of those first ascents. She honed her outdoor skills as a Girl Guide leader and remained active in Guides throughout her life. During the 1920s and 1930s, Phyl and her partner Don Munday pioneered exploration into the heart of the Coast Mountains.
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Louis 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.
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The story of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, is the story of early Canada. The story of Prince Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent (1767-1820) is also a story of early Canada. An active participant in the very genesis of the country, including discussions that would eventually lead to Confederation, the Prince lived in Quebec City, undertook historic tours of Upper Canada and the United States (both firsts for a member of the Royal Family) before he was stationed...
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Writer, activist, and politician Nellie McLung (1873-1951) was a strong and effective voice for the women's movement. She was one of the Famous Five suffragists from Alberta whose court challenge in the Persons Case led to women in Canada being declared to be legal "persons" in 1929.
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Known as the "only living Father of Confederation" in his lifetime, Joey Smallwood was an entertaining, crafty, and controversial politician in Canada for decades. Born in Gambo, Newfoundland, Joseph ("Joey") Smallwood (1900-1991) spent his life championing the worth and potential of his native province. Although he was a successful journalist and radio personality, Smallwood is best known for his role in bringing Newfoundland into Confederation with...
9) George Grant
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George Grants Lament for a Nation led some to call him a Red Tory and the dominant force behind the Canadian nationalist movement of the 1970s. Today, reading George Grants books helps us to understand the full implications of American-led, technology-driven globalization on everyday life.
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James Wilson Morrice (1865–1924) was a Canadian painter of extraordinary passion and simplicity whose canvases and oil sketches are valued throughout the world and cherished in Canada as our first real examples of modern art. Though cut short by chronic alcohol abuse, Morrice's restless bohemian life was spent in constant motion. From the colourful canals of Venice to the sun-drenched markets of North Africa to the snowy streets of Quebec City,...
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William C. Van Horne was one of North America's most accomplished men. Born in Illinois in 1843, Van Horne started working in the railway business at a young age. In 1881 he was lured north to Canada to become general manager of the fledgling Canadian Pacific Ralway. The railroading general pushed through construction of the CPR's transcontinental line and then went on to become the company's president. During his time with the CPR, Van Horne developed...
13) John Diefenbaker
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At the age of nine, John Diefenbaker announced, "I'm going to be prime minister when I grow up." He never lost sight of his goal. Diefenbaker was prime minister of Canada from 1957-1963. He believed in social justice, opening up the North, and making things better for western farmers. Canadians responded to his campaign call to "Follow John." This compelling book recreates the tensions of the Diefenbaker era - the time of the Cold War, spy scandals,...
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James Douglas's story is one of high adventure in pre-Confederation Canada. It weaves through the heart of Canadian and Pacific Northwest history when British Columbia was a wild land, Vancouver didn't exist, and Victoria was a muddy village. Part black and illegitimate, Douglas was born in British Guiana (now Guyana) in 1803 to a Scottish plantation owner and a mixed-race woman. After schooling in Scotland, the fifteen-year-old Douglas sailed to...
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During the American Revolution and the border conflicts that followed, Simon Girty's name struck terror into the hearts of U.S. settlers in the Ohio Valley and the territory of Kentucky. Girty (1741-1818) had lived with the Natives most of his life. Scorned by his fellow white frontiersmen as an "Indian lover," Girty became an Indian agent for the British. He accompanied Native raids against Americans, spied deep into enemy territory, and was influential...
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A navigator and cartographer, Samuel de Champlain's passion was for America, which he struggled to explore and have recognized. He still dreamed of reaching India, with its spices and its many riches, by continuing further to the West. But the land called New France – a harsh land from India – was his greatest love. He defended it fiercely to those in power in France and was responsible for its development. Champlain thus ensured the birth of...
17) Mazo de la Roche
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In 1927,Mazo de la Roche was an impoverished writer in Toronto when she won a $10,000 prize from the American magazine Atlantic Monthly for her novel Jalna. The book became an immediate bestseller. In 1929,the sequel Whiteoaks also went to the top of bestseller lists. Mazo went on to publish 16 novels in the popular series about a Canadian family named Whiteoak, living in a house called Jalna. Her success allowed her to travel the world and to live...
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Born in Thamesville, Ontario, a student at Queen's University in Kingston in the 1930's, and editor and later publisher of the Peterborough Examiner from the 1940s to the mid-1960s, playwright, essayist, critic, professor, and novelist Robertson Davies (1913-1995) was one of Canada's pre-eminent literary voices for more than a half-century. Davies, with his generous beard and donnish manner, was the very epitome of the "man of letters," a term he...
19) David Thompson
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Across North America in 2007-2009, communities will celebrate the David Thompson Bicentennials. For 34 years the great explorer, surveyor, and fur trader travelled across the continent, finding and mapping the routes between the St. Lawrence and the Pacific. Trusting the stars and his sextant, he surveyed a continental area so vast it remains a mapping achievement unequalled in human history. This is the story of David Thompsons epic journey his...
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Presenting six titles in the Quest Biography series that profiles prominent figures in Canada's history. Canada is a vast land with many remote regions to be explored. Among the intrepid explorers who travelled the wilderness and mapped Canada's geography are: the French founder of Quebec, Samuel de Champlain; surveyor David Thompson; doomed seeker of the Northwest Passage Sir John Franklin; Arctic explorer Vilhjamur Stefansson; legendary Upper Canada...
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