1 comments about With Wolfe in Canada: Or the Winning of a Continent (Works of G. A. Henty).

1. it is abut the fighting between england and france over canda. it is a read worth your time

3 comments about Secret Of the Hardy Boys: Leslie Mcfarlane & the Stratemeyer Syndicate.

1. For fans of THE HARDY BOYS, here's an account of the real writer behind the first books of the series. He's Canadian writer Leslie MacFarlane who, in his early struggling years, signed with Edward Stratemeyer's Syndicate to ghostwrite novels for the juvenile market from outlines provided by the syndicate.
   
   MacFarlane worked on more than one series but it's THE HARDY BOYS that grants him a special position in the firmament (however, ambivalent he was about it). He wrote the first ones plus most of the first 30 books and therefore laid the foundation for much of its style and characterization -- even if the plots weren't his, nor the author's name, and altho he only got a small, flat payment in return.
   
   This book details his personal and professional life from childhood to death in 1977. Much seems to come from diaries that he kept as an adult. And some from letters he wrote to his children. While the Hardy Boys is the main motive behind this book, MacFarlane's other work -- his adult stories, his radio and television contributions -- are examined.
   
   Be aware that MacFarlane's life had no excitement to speak of unless you consider the stress of trying to earn income and sustain his family as a freelance writer as exciting. Still, it might be inspiring not just to aspiring writers but to those who are struggling to get by in their lives.
   
   The writing of this biography is unadorned and a bit repetitive -- sometimes, repeating itself within a couple pages. The chronology is often sacrificed as the author ties together events by theme (a not uncommon technique in biographies). Yes I found every page readable and informative.
   
   (For more on the Stratemeyer Syndicate try the lively GIRL SLEUTH: NANCY DREW AND THE WOMEN WHO CREATED HER.)



2. This is a plodding biography that has some decent content on MacFarlane's involvement with the Stratmeyer Syndicate and his authoring of the Hardy Boys. However, there's a lot of tedious material to get through for a few interesting parts.



3. Most readers of mysteries know the author of the 'Hardy Boys' teen mystery series was the elusive Franklin W. Dixon - but he was a man who never existed. The real founder of Hardy Boys was one Edward Stratemeyer, founder of a children's book empire who began as a mere newspaper reporter with dreams of becoming a famous novelist. Between 1927 and 1947 one Leslie McFarlane wrote the first twenty-four Hardy Boys mysteries for $100.00 per book, agreeing to the anonymity demanded by Stratemeyer's syndicate and starting a trend which was to continue in later books. The Secret Of The Hardy Boys exposes the true grit: a syndicate which built a virtual children's book empire, promoting and development of children's literature in North America.

3 comments about Grey Owl: The Many Faces of Archie Belaney.

1. Beautifully -- in places lyrically -- written, this small volume makes a compelling case for preservation of the natural beauty that once prevailed throughout North America, and which now has become all too rare. Never straying far from her main theme (the life of Grey Owl), Jane Billinghurst draws us into the passion and dedication of her subject, leading us reflect on environmental questions not as dry policy issues, but as ones that can relate to an almost spiritual connection between the individual and his natural surroundings. Must reading for historians, environmentalists, and those with an interest in Canada, this insightful book is thoroughly rewarding for the general reader as well. Very highly recommended.



2. This is a wonderful book. Well researched and balanced. Jane Billinghurst tells the story of Archie B. and I could not put it down. Other's have borrowed it and have praised it also. I am off to check out what else Billinghurst has written!



3. It has been said, "one cannot judge a book by it's cover", however, we must also keep in mind that there are no absolutes as this book is a story which is depicted, in large measure, by the cover. Sensitive, warm, and poetic presentation of the life and contributions of Grey Owl. The photos exceptional in quality, and accurate as to life and times of the era. These are real people, places, and times that were a part of North American history. The manner in which sayings and aspects of Grey Owl are available as the story unfolds are done in such a manner I think you get two books for the price of one. I read the book from cover to cover the first time then re-read the white pages only, and then followed by reading the tan colored pages. Either way it is easy, fast, and enjoyable. I think the author did an excellent job in demonstrating the efforts of Grey Owl. He was an interesting fellow who had a vision and purpose in life which is so unique that a major moving picture has been make about him as well as four documantaries. Jane Billinghurst has created a work which makes possible an interpretation of the content, by the reader, as it is a factual and well documented treatise. There have been several books published about Grey Owl, in my opinion this is, like the Land of Shadows (Don Smith), is a must read for a deeper appreciation of this most remarkable fellow, Grey Owl.

No comments about I Never Sold My Saddle.

5 comments about Unknown Shore: The Lost History of England's Arctic Colony.

1. This is an OK read about the Arctic. There are actually two stories here. The first revolves around English explorer and pirate Martin Forbisher and the second about an American Charles Francis Hall. Forbisher was searching for the northwest passage to China and found what he thought was a passage way and a black stone. Assayers felt the stone could yield a fortune in gold. The passage Forbisher found was a bay and the stone contained little in the way of precious metals. Hall searched for the survivors of an earlier Artic expedition of Franklin. He was disappointed too. What he found were the traces of Forbisher's expedition. Both explorers searched for something that was not there.
   The book is of interest to those historians who like the explorations of the Arctic and Antarctic. What is facinating is the life of the Inuit or native peoples who inhabit this inhospital land. It was interesting to read of how these people adapted to their environment. The white man may have thought them savages. They were far more civilized than the white man. As stated an OK read about a little known expedition.



2. I was very interested in Frobisher Air Base now Iqaluit Airport. My interest centered around the part it played in the US nuclear war plans, early warning, communications and strategic location during the 80s and 90s. First I needed to learn about the history of the area and exploration. Unknown Shore provided that first glimpse of early life and exploration. The cast of characters and the way their names became geographic locations are explained to a lesser degree though. If you like reading about remote and harsh areas of the world you will like this book. It could use a few more maps and pictures but I say that for every book I read.



3. An unfortunately rare example of an eminently readable work of history. Ruby does an outstanding job of setting his story in the context of the times with a modern historian's insight into social and cultural history. This is far more than just another in a series of the latest vogue in Arctic exploration narratives. Through skillful use of his sources, the author brings both his European and Inuit protagonists to life. The reader is left with the haunting image of fragments of a remote Arctic island studding the landscape of a prosaic London suburb as testimony to both the folly and awe-inspiring tenacity of the sixteenth-century explorers. This is fascinating complementary reading for students of the colonization of other areas of the world.



4. Robert Ruby's Unknown Shore is a little misleading in its subtitle (The Lost History of England's Arctic Colony) in as much as the history was not quite lost nor was there actually a colony, only the briefest of attempts at a colony in a farcical plan to mine the soil for gold. That said, the book is quite entertaining as it pieces together the story of Martin Frobisher and his ill-fated Elizabethean Arctic adventures and the always fascinating Charles Francis Hall's discovery of the location of Frobisher's Meta Incognita in the nineteenth century. (For a wonderful and full account of Hall, see the very fine Weird and Tragic Shores by C. Chauncey Loomis). The two stories blend fairly well and the author keeps the narrative sparkling along at an entertaining clip. This was a good Arctic read for those addicted to these books and a good place to begin for someone who wants to learn what the addiction to these Arctic books is all about from a book that shows men whose addiction to that cold world ran so much deeper than merely reading about it.



5. This is a tale about an English pirate-turned-explorer who few people have ever heard of, and the establishment of British colony on an Arctic island that is perhaps even less known...but that's short-changing this elaborate true adventure. Bought this one because I liked the author's last book, "Jericho," which was a history of a place, but also of archaeology itself and of wave after wave of quirky scientists who came to study the ruins of the famous city. This new book has an even broader sweep, from pre-naval power London where morality always took a back seat to fortune-seeking, to the coast of West Africa where a ship's crew was worth less to investors than a few tons of pepper, to the Czar's palace in Moscow, the roiling North Atlantic and the confusing, ice-packed passages above North America. This is a tale festooned with accurately-drawn characters. The scholarship is so clearly reliable that you know that you're not getting the pop-magazine caricatures of, say, Sebastian Junger's "The Perfect Storm." Also, with Ruby's style of examining a place through the eyes of multiple adventurers from several eras, you're getting a deeply-textured tale that makes Krakauer's "Into Thin Air" seem one-dimensional. And you also get a fun - and often funny - yarn featuring modern reporters in polar bear pants, privateers who seize all shipping - even that of their countrymen - a pompous alchemist, mutual puzzlement as white man meets Inuit, horrific storms at sea, and discussions of the how Queen Elizabeth's sex life affected exploration. By the end, I had not only enjoyed myself but absorbed an extraordinary amount of the FEEL of an era - or two - and a place. In this sense it's also comparable to Patrick O'Brien's seafaring Maturin and Aubrey series.

1 comments about Mohawk Saint: Catherine Tekakwitha and the Jesuits.

1. This is not a biography of the humble young Mohawk woman whose courage, holiness, faith, and purity earned her (as thousands who know and love her truly believe) that place in Heaven. This book, in the author's own paraphrased words, is meant to "bring Tekakwitha down from heaven." (And it is part of a gloomy trend to do just that - to as much as one can to bring one's subject down.) And, thankfully, despite over two hundred pages of trying, he has not succeeded in dragging her down.
   
   There are people who were primarily historic figures and those whose lives are mainly of religious significance. Blessed Kateri (or Catherine, as the author prefers to call her) Tekakwitha was very clearly the latter. But this book approaches her from the former point of view, making her a postmortem pawn in the Jesuit's missionary work among the natives in Canada. The mystical and the supernatural (from a religious view) are ignored. The author seems even unwillingly to use the title of "Blessed" in reference to her.
   
   At one point, the author even seems - in a very subtle way - to imply the Kateri and her closest friend (Marie-Therese Tegaiaguenta)were lovers. If, as he writes, there is "no reason to think they were lovers," why mention it at all? What does it serve?
   
   The author dwells on each and any discrepancy in the original accounts by the two missionaries who knew Kateri during the last years of her life. (Even the Bible - in all its various popular translations - has its discrepancies.) Any story of any person, any account of any event is bound to have differences when told by two different witnesses. That alone is not enough reason to discount the differences.
   
   His grim portrait of Kateri in no way accounts for the great numbers of people (not only Native Americans, but from around the world) who have a profound love for this holy young woman.
   I can speak from my own experiences and observations that she has had a great impact even on people who knew little or nothing of her.
   
   Historians may find this book of interest, but for those who have a devotion to this wonderful saint-to-be, there is little to recommend it.
   
   On a personal level, I have been studying the life of Blessed Kateri for a number of years. My personal collection includes nearly a hundred works of literature on her. These range from reprints of the original biographies by Fathers Chauchetiere and Cholonec to fluffy, sentimentalized (to the point of being quite ridiculous) books for young readers.
   
   I am also the creator of the web site mentioned on page 241 of this new book. I work for and look forward to the day when she is finally declared a saint.
   
   I pre-ordered this book many months ago and read it with an open mind as I am always eager for new details on her life. For me, it was a dull read (the narrative flow seems uneven) with left me unimpressed (not with Catherine Tekakwitha) and with a very unpleasant taste.
   
   Historians, cultural anthropologists, and the politically correct may find something of interest in this dry and dreary book, but for those who have a devotion to this wonderful saint-to-be, there is little to recommend it.
   
   (I gave it one star because there is no lesser option and, well, my site was mentioned in the Notes to Chapter 9. I suppose I owe it something.)

5 comments about SCTV: Behind the Scenes.

1. I felt this book was missing the overall essense of what SCTV was all about. Few anecdotes on how characters were created and developed. Not all of the SCTV cast participated, which was a letdown.
   
   Unfortunately, I stopped reading after 3/4 of the way through.



2. In the pantheon of televised comedy, "SCTV" (or "Second City Television") is often cited as a little-seen but much-praised example of the heights of creative brilliance. In "SCTV: Behind the Scenes", former cast member Dave Thomas sifts through his memory bank to recount the tale of the little Melonville station that could.
   
   Now for the disclaimer: I haven't seen all that much of SCTV. NBC did a fair job of running reruns of the show a few years back, but I saw very little of it. I was interested in purchasing the DVD box sets when they first came out simply on word-of-mouth, but the price tags scared me off. So this is my first real look at the show...in a book form.
   
   Back to the review: Dave Thomas recounts the highs and lows of performing cutting-edge sketch comedy at a time when "Saturday Night Live" was gradually becoming the very "showbiz variety" program it had set out to mock. Beginning in 1976, and coming to an end eight years (and several network changes) later, the show was much-heralded but little-seen stateside during its prime. Only in the aftermath of its final Cinemax season, when the various cast members began turning up in a variety of comedy productions, did the show earn a small but cultish audience.
   
   The book starts with Thomas revealing how the show was born from the talents of various stage performers like himself, John Candy, Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, Joe Flaherty, Andrea Martin, and others. Thomas proceeds to document the various behind-the-scenes struggles that the cast went through with producers and directors, and networks. From its lowly birth to the expansion to the States and going from a half-hour to a full ninety minutes (the "Network 90" version that most people remember when they think of SCTV), Thomas lets the reader in on all the various ups-and-downs that he and the rest of the cast went through to maintain creative control. In a time when producers like Lorne Michaels or Fred Silverman dictated the content, SCTV was unique in having control and final say on the direction of the show.
   
   Unlike its more popular peer SNL, SCTV was not littered with drug problems that picked off cast members ala Belushi or Farley. But they did suffer a big loss years later; Thomas provides a loving memorial to departed John Candy, the only one of the original cast who is not alive for interviews (the other absent voices, Levy and Martin, are thankfully very much alive; their absence is missed, but not necessary).
   
   Again, I wouldn't pretend to be an expert on SCTV, but after reading this book and keeping in mind the comedians who got their start, I feel a little more in awe of what they managed to achieve far from the madding crowd of American television crassness.
   
   Thomas's is not the only voice heard, as various personalities associated with the show (writers, producers, directors, and the cast) share their own tales. The oral history of anything is bound to be fraught with inaccuracies or omitted memories, but the book is coherent on many main points.
   
   From analyzing how he and Rick Moranis became distanced from their castmates thanks to their alter egos Doug and Bob McKenzie, all the way to what the cast are doing now (or "now" as in 1997, when the book was published), Dave Thomas shares memories and lets us in on the way SCTV worked. The result is a loving look back at what many of the cast members feel was their best work. I'll leave that to the more experienced SCTV fanatic to determine that, but for my money "SCTV: Behind The Scenes" is a worthy tribute.



3. SCTV is starting to get it's due with this book and the release of the DVd collections. Dave Thomas, a founding member of the troup, brings in just about everyone involved in the show to give their 2-cents worth. The book is very comprehensive taking the reader through many of the groups sketches from the original concept idea to the finished sketch. It really is a must read for fans of the show because of the input from cast members and producers, and director and even the hair and makeup talent. My only reason for the four stars and not five stars is the fact that very little attention was paid to the final Cinemax season , which was without Dave Thomas. I guess this is natural, but the final season is given a real short-change treatment and none of the better sketeches are covered in much detail. The book is loaded with pictures and and a per-show sketch budget. very good read.



4. This sat on my "wish list" for quite a while because it was unavailable. However, it recently was restocked here at Amazon, and I suspect that it was because of the upcoming release of the first set of DVDs of the show. Well, the wait was worth it, and the timing great! Can't wait to get the DVDs even more now after reading Dave's very interesting, very well produced book. The human stories, the business insights, as well as the hilarious recantings of many legendary skits come together perfectly here. I only wished there were more direct quotes from Eugene and Andrea. It seems Andrea was the most inaccessible, perhaps because of some bad blood between she and Dave (?).

   Any true fan of SCTV owes it to themselves to read this book. Very interesting. Very funny.




5. For years, I'd been waiting for some kind of compendium of SCTV trivia or a chronology of shows, and when this book came out, I had to buy it.

   It's missing commentary from a few of the principal cast members, but overall, well worth the investment. The insight into that one episode with Sir Ralph Richardson and Sir John Gielgud alone is worth it, and it's got a well-balanced view of the show from the producers, to the cast, to the production department, make-up artists, etc.

   It's a tragedy that this brilliant show hasn't been put on DVD just yet, but it will. SCTV was far more irreverent than SNL, and much cleverer than Monty-Python, not to mention more prolific. Until then, pick this up as an SCTV primer.

No comments about Silent Observer.

5 comments about Jon Vickers: A Hero's Life.

1. Folks, this man is my hero. As an artist he is near pearless. Anyone who loves great acting can find inspiration if not enjoyment in Opera from seeing or hearing the great singing actors of our history like Callas, Gobbi, and most especially Jon Vickers. Watch his live performance as Peter Grimes under Colin Davis and you will see what I mean.
   Now to the subject at hand. Something should be remembered folks when you read the fact that he did not want to cooperate with this journalist from USA Today. He never really wanted full heartedly to be a 'professional singer'. He sang as a hobby why persueing a business career.
   He married a lovely women and had five children with her; six mouths to feed. If he fought against overuse of his instrument, lack of quality from fellow singers and directors, and had the courage to insist for higher salaries in this most grueling of businesses, I would say the man had his reasons and one has to wonder how he made it out of this business with any sanity. How can anyone dare to judge a man's behavior when his wife of 38 years is dying from a long battle with cancer?
   He says that he gave all his art to the glory of his God and that in it he found his purpose. I would say that if the stress of this self-inflicted goal made him a little difficult to be around or work with, then any of you who feel worthy to analize and judge him need to see if you could perform these works better then he.
   How dare this woman not allow him to tell his story as he wishes or even force him to tell it at all. If she has the right to privacy then so does he. And don't give me any stuff about 'the people needing to know everything'. Most folks today cannot tell what is important or not. Critical thinking is the worst thing being inflicted on students and artists in today's society. This retired artist has a constantly growing following. One of the biggest in history. And the man is retired. We have his work documented. It is there for all to see. Let this man tell us his story in his own way and leave him in peace.
   Have I read this book about my hero? Yes. It is more revealing than most fans realize. That is what is unfair about this. Provocative? Yes, but at the expence of an already great man by his simplicity that makes him great. View his art but leave his life to himself.



2. CRITICS' COMMENTS on Jon Vickers: A Hero's Life

   Peter G. Davis, music critic, New York magazine, formerly of The New York Times:
   ""Jon Vickers: A Hero's Life ranks among the most impressive books I have ever read about an individual singer . ...If the man himself remains an intriguing enigma, that in no way lessens the achievement of this objectively written, painstakingly researched, immensely readable biography."

   Antony Peattie, BBC Music Magazine:
   "This major new biography gives an unusually full picture of the man, his voice, and his career ... One of the best studies of a singer that I have ever read."

   Patrick J. Smith, Opera News:
   "Jeannie Williams has done an excellent job in bringing back memories of an extraordinarily vivid singer."

   Publishers Weekly:
   "In this remarkably even-handed, unauthorized account, Williams engagingly depicts the conflicting aspects of a great artist's personality and howthey shaped his career."




3. This is one of the finest biographies of a singer I have ever read. (And I've read a lot.) Jon Vickers was one of the greatest singers of the past 50 years, the supreme Siegmund, Florestan, Tristan, Aeneas and Peter Grimes of his time. (And no slouch as Otello, Canio, Samson and Parsifal, either.) He was a singer with a unique timbre, an iconoclastic temprement, and a burning sense of his artistic mission. Like many great artists, he could sometimes act a little crazy. He was stubborn, short-tempered (he did not suffer fools at all, much less gladly) and on occasion, downright irrational and almost violent. He was also a deeply spiritual man and great artist capable of giving performances of almost transcendant beauty and intensity.

   Jeannie Williams gives a comprehensive picture of the great tenor, both his abundant virtues and his manifest warts. The book is well-reasearched and remarkably complete in its account of his career, considering that Vickers refused to participate or cooperate with the author. Vickers' deep Christian beliefs and convictions are treated respectfully and recognized as an integral part of what made him the artist that he was.

   The most fascinating chapters are the ones on Vickers' notorious Tannhäuser cancellation in the late 70s (which left both Covent Garden and the Met in the lurch), and on his relationship with the opera "Peter Grimes." As to the former, Vickers maintained that he could not sing Tannhäuser because his religious convictions prevented him from finding any point of connection with the character, and because he found Tannhäuser "revolting." But every single person interviewed for the book, many of them wholly sympathetic to Vickers, believed that the real reason for Vickers' cancellation was because he could not handle the vocal demands of the part. The author allows the reader to draw his or her own conclusion about the incident. As for Peter Grimes, which many consider Vickers' greatest role, Williams affirms that the composer disliked Vickers interpretation intensely and resented Vickers' unilateral (and unauthorized) rewrite of some of the text. (Vickers later claimed that Britten had sanctioned the changes and that they had been made in collaboration with conductor Colin Davis, but according to Williams, they were entirely Vickers' doing.)

   This is the very best kind of operatic biography - written by someone who deeply admires the subject but who does not allow that admiration to cloud her judgment or degenerate into fan-like gush. This will no doubt remain the definitive biography of Vickers for quite some time. Highly recommended.




4. Reviewing this book is frustrating. As a biography, it is very well written and as close to objective as humanly possible. This is no drooling, glossy fan book altho Ms Williams is certainly a fan of Mr Vickers (as I have been for many years). The paradox comes as we read of Mr Vickers nasty temperament that hides behind a cloak of being so "religious" while showing numerous instances of public rudeness to colleagues as well as to his public by signing contracts he had no intentions of fulfilling (such as his Tannhauser). If a truly great artist and human being as Lauritz Melchior frankly admitted the role of Walther lay too uncomfortably high for him, why couldn't Vickers admit the role of Tannhauser was too difficult for him. Instead he hides behind a hypocritical excuse of "religion" or "morality." How moral is Siegmund, one of hsi signature roles, who runs off with his sister (who is married to another character) AND has a child with her? Ms Williams shows us that Vickers was quite similar to a composer her served so well, Richard Wagner - a genius but a lousy person.



5. The other day I watched a man sweeping the street where I live and it was fascinating. He took such care, and made great attention to all the little details. I was watching a great artist at work. I doubt if there is a book about him though. My point is, [if you've got this far], should these folk, like Vickers, Callas - certainly, Joan Sutherland, and to a lesser extent Rita Hunter, et al, be examined quite so thoroughly from the point of their human attributes? I mean, I'd like to be able to sing leading roles at the Metropolitan Opera, but I don't have a voice. I think I'm a nice person, though I do get hate mail for my reviews. So, again, another point, should we expect Vickers to be able to do what he did night after night and still be a nice person?

   Dare I say it? I don't want to get too close to people whose performances I've enjoyed, because I have the idea that they may not be very pleasant people. Likewise, I have no real desire to read about their appalling behaviour. These people are only singers for heaven's sake. They need keeping in line, whether it's by Rudolf Bing, Joe Volpe, John Tooley or Wolfgang Wagner. Vickers had a great career, but like so many singers, including Callas, Bjoerling, di Stefano, Corelli, Christoff right down to Rita Hunter, once the personality disorder gets in the way of the talent you may as well not bother.

   It's sad really, because there's no-one like Vickers around today. [I mean, I live in a city that thinks Andrea Bocelli is a great artist, but who am I among so many?] The fact that Britten walked out on Vicker's Peter Grimes tells me more about Britten than it does about Vickers. I would have taken it as a compliment.

   Maybe more people should be like me: Go the performance, applaud the performer and don't bother to peer behind the little bushes they are hiding behind.

No comments about Frank Barr: Bush Pilot in Alaska and the Yukon (Caribou Classics).