Extraordinary lives and the purpose of biography is explored in this Special Edition.
People that changed our civilization and became part of our imaginations forever
“It is perhaps as difficult to write a good life as it is to live one.”
Articles
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There is a particular image of Nellie McClung that I repeatedly had to banish from my mind as I was writing about her. It is the photograph always reproduced in histories of Canada – a photograph ...
by Charlotte Gray | comments (2) | June 17, 2009 1:08 PM
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The Contradiction of Biography
The challenge of biography is to explain the contradictions, without explaining them away. Everyone of us is a paradox, or so I have begun to believe in attempting to understand the life of O. D. ...
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A Peep into the Cave of Jacobinism
My encounter with history revealed
Over the fireplace in my study hangs one of my favourite eighteenth-century political cartoons. Titled "Wrangling Friends, or the Opposition in Disorder" it portrays the split between two of the ...
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The Forgotten Canadian and Why We Forgot Him
An Appreciation of William Christian’s book on Sir George Parkin
The recent “history wars” over the re-enactment of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham clearly demonstrate that what we remember, and what we choose to forget or banish from memory, are critically ...
by Terry Cook | comments (0) | June 11, 2009 8:24 PM
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When Do We Bestow Greatness on a Life?
Abraham Lincoln
At what point does a life story warrant a “biography”? When is a life designated as “great”? These questions recurred in my mind recently as I read David Herbert Donald’s biography of Abraham Lincoln ...
by James Marsh | comments (0) | June 11, 2009 7:59 PM
Terry Cook
Blog Posts
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Adrienne Clarkson on Norman Bethune
A Review
Bethune was not extraordinary, but he did extraordinary things.
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Nino Ricci on Pierre Elliott Trudeau
A Review
Ricci argues that Trudeau’s image was forged out of isolated events.
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“It is perhaps as difficlt to write a good life as it is to live one"
Biography is as old as the writing of history, as the biblical stories of Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Joseph attest. Xenophon’s Memoirs of Socrates, Plutarch’s 46 Lives and Suetonius’ Lives of the Twelve Caesars are still read today. Nevertheless, for centuries historians regarded biography as a trivial poor relation to the dignified pursuit of history. While the historian dealt with lofty surveys ...
by James Marsh | comments (1) | June 11, 2009 7:36 PM
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Most biographies are written about people who are well known – artists, politicians, porn stars, whatever – but I chose to write a biography of Louis D. Taylor for the opposite reason, because I’d never heard of him. Taylor was Vancouver’s longest-serving mayor. He first ran for election in 1902 and finally retired, or more accurately, was retired by the voters, in 1938. In between, he served ...
by Daniel Francis | comments (0) | June 11, 2009 6:14 PM
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