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 governor Sir George Simpson; and mountaineer Phyllis Munday. Their stories are detailed in these entertaining and informative biographies. Includes Samuel de Champlain John Franklin David Thompson Vilhjamur Stefansson George Simpson Phyllis Munday

Presenting a special 2-book bundle of Anthony Dalton’s outstanding writing on Canada's polar regions, their history, and their greatest explorers. “Dalton does an excellent job ... a very enjoyable read.”— Bios Newsletter Includes: River Rough, River Smooth Manitoba’s Hayes River runs over 600 km, from Norway House to Hudson Bay. Traditionally used for transport and hunting by the indigenous Cree, it became a major fur trade route from the 17th to 19th centuries. This is the account of the author’s journey on the Hayes in the company of modern-day voyageurs reliving the past. Arctic Naturalist J. Dewey Soper was the last of the great pioneer naturalists in Canada, and spent many years in the Arctic, where he discovered the breeding grounds of the blue goose and charted the final unknown region of Baffin Islands coastline.

Voyageur Classics is a series that issues special new versions of Canadian classics, with added material and special introductions. In this bundle we find two classic works of Canadian historical writing. During three extraordinary years, 1805-1808, Simon Fraser undertook the third major expedition across North America, culminating in his famous journey down the river in British Columbia that now bears his name. Fraser’s exploratory efforts helped lead to Canada’s boundary later being declared at the 49th parallel. In this new volume, librarian and archivist W. Kaye Lamb provides a detailed introduction as well as illuminating annotations to Fraser’s journals. In the early 1850s, white American abolitionist Benjamin Drew was commissioned to travel to Canada West (now Ontario) to interview escaped slaves from the United States. In the course of his journeys in Canada, Drew visited Chatham, Toronto, Galt, Hamilton, London, Dresden, Windsor, and a number of other communities. Originally published in 1856, Drew’s book is the only collection of first-hand interviews of fugitive slaves in Canada ever done. It is an invaluable record of early black Canadian experience. Includes The Refugee The Letters and Journals of Simon Fraser, 1806-1808

Voyageur Classics is a series of special versions of Canadian classics, with added material and new introductions. In this bundle we find five classic works of twentieth century fiction, drama and poetry, a period when Canada’s literary identity was shaped. Originally published in 1962, The Silence on the Shore is considered by many critics to be renowned Hugh Garner’s best, most ambitious novel. Originally published in 1967, Combat Journal for Place d’Armes was initially met with shock and anger by most reviewers but has become a literary touchstone. The Donnellys tells the tale of a secret society and a massacre that shocked the Canadian public, a story overlooked by the artistic community until Reaney’s 1975 play elevated the events to the level of legend. In This Poem I Am presents the best of poet Robin Skelton’s adventurous poetry. And Exploration Literature is a groundbreaking collection of early writing inspired by the opening of a continent, an entry point into the beginnings of a literate response to the awe and wonder inspired by an unfolding geography. Includes Canadian Exploration Literature Combat Journal for Place d’Armes The Donnellys In This Poem I Am The Silence on the Shore

Canada has no greater interpreter and champion than John Ralston Saul, who for years has been challenging our common notions of Canada. These four books examine our history and myths, our relationships and modern reality, and together brilliantly portray a unique and remarkable country. Reflections of a Siamese Twin In Reflections of a Siamese Twin, Saul turns his eye to an examination of Canada itself. Caught up in crises—political, economic, and social—Canada continues to flounder, unable to solve or even really identify its problems. Instead, we assert absolute differences between ourselves: we are English or we are French; Natives or Europeans; early immigrants or newly arrived; from the east or from the west. Or we bow to ideologies and deny all differences in the name of nationalism, unity, or equality. In a startling exercise in reorientation, John Ralston Saul makes sense of Canadian myths—real, false, denied—and reconciles them with the reality of today’s politics, culture, and economics. A Fair Country In this startlingly original vision of Canada, John Ralston Saul argues that Canada is a Métis nation, heavily influenced and shaped by Aboriginal ideas: Egalitarianism, a proper balance between individual and group, and a penchant for negotiation over violence are all Aboriginal values that Canada absorbed. An obstacle to our progress, Saul argues, is that Canada has an increasingly ineffective elite, a colonial non-intellectual business elite that doesn’t believe in Canada. It is critical that we recognize these aspects of the country in order to rethink its future. The Comeback Historic moments are always uncomfortable, Saul writes in this impassioned argument, calling on all of us to embrace and support the comeback of Aboriginal peoples. This, he says, is the great issue of our time—the most important missing piece in the building of Canada. The events that began late in 2012 with the Idle No More movement were not just a rough patch in Aboriginal relations with the rest of Canada. What is happening between Aboriginals and non-Aboriginals is not about guilt or sympathy or failure or romanticization of the past. It is about citizens’ rights. It is about rebuilding relationships that were central to the creation of Canada. These relationships are just as important to its continued existence. Wide in scope but piercing in detail, The Comeback presents a powerful portrait of modern Aboriginal life in Canada illustrated by a remarkable selection of letters, speeches, and writings by Aboriginal leaders and thinkers, showcasing the extraordinarily rich, moving, and stable indigenous point of view across the centuries. Louis-Hippolyte LaFontaine and Robert Baldwin Here, Saul argues that modern Canada did not begin in 1867; rather its foundation was laid years earlier by two visionary men, Louis-Hipplyte LaFontaine and Robert Baldwin. Opposites in temperament and driven by intense experiences of love and tragedy, together they developed principles and programs that would help unite the country. After the 1841 union, the two leaders of Lower and Upper Canada worked to create a reformist movement for responsible government run by elected citizens instead of a colonial governor. During the “Great Ministry” of 1848 to 1851—despite violent opposition—they set about creating a more equitable nation. They revamped judicial institutions, established a public education system, made bilingualism official, and designed a network of public roads. Writing with verve and deep convictions, Saul restores these two extraordinary Canadians to rightful prominence.

Discover the Royal Family as they “go home to Canada.” Collected together are five must-have books on the Royal Family’s relationship with Canada, their tours, and a Canadian perspective on their biographies. Includes: Royal Tours 1786–2010 Fifty Years the Queen Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother 1900–2002 Royal Observations Royal Spring