National Network for Equitable Library Service

This 25th edition of Raincoast Chronicles intertwines Alan Haig-Brown's experiences of his formative years as a deckhand on a We Wai Kai seiner with the historical and cultural context of BC's commercial fishing industry. In Raincoast Chronicles 25, Haig-Brown recounts his formative years as a deckhand in the 1960s and early '70s on a fishing boat run by the We Wai Kai family he married into as a teenager.

Delores Churchill, Haida weaver, shares the stories of her life, her culture, and the importance of passing cultural knowledge from one generation to the next. Told with humility, humour, and deep respect, From a Square to a Circle is a testament to the values of her people, a technical guide to her masterful weaving skills, and a gift to the reader at every point along her journey. This book shines light on Delores's weaving teachers, including her strong-minded mother Selina (Ilst'aayaa), whose teachings Delores once resisted as a child.

A captivating account of the lives of Laura, Christine, and Caroline Lindhard—three sisters who left their home in Stege, Denmark, in 1870 due to war, political turmoil, and limited opportunities—and sought out new lives in the Cariboo region of British Columbia. There are few stories of entrepreneurial, business class women in nineteenth century BC. They didn't keep diaries or save letters like the ruling class women often did, and they were usually overlooked in newspaper reports.

It has often been observed that the First World War jolted Canada into nationhood—and as Mark Forsythe and Greg Dickson show in this compelling book, no province participated more eagerly in that transformation—or felt the aftershock more harshly—than British Columbia. In From the West Coast to the Western Front, Forsythe—host of CBC Radio's mid-day show BC Almanac—marks the 100th anniversary of World War I by teaming with historian Greg Dickson and the ever resourceful BC Almanac audience to compile a sweeping portrayal of that crucial chapter of BC history.

A writer and educator reflects on the idealistic, tumultuous, and eye-opening time she spent as a back-to-the-land hippie homesteader in Kootenays in the 1970s. What compelled a nice Jewish girl from the suburbs of New York to spend a decade of her life as a hippie homesteader in the BC wilderness? Galena Bay Odyssey traces Ellen Schwartz's journey from a born-and-raised urbanite who was terrified of the woods to a self-determined logger, cabin-builder, gardener, chicken farmer, apiarist, and woodstove cook—living on a communal farm in the Kootenays.

Living in pre-Civil War Philadelphia, young Black activist Mifflin Gibbs was feeling disheartened from fighting the overwhelming tide of White America's legalized racism when abolitionist Julia Griffith encouraged him to "go do some great thing." These words helped inspire him to become a successful merchant in San Francisco, and then to seek a more just society in the new colony of Vancouver Island, where he was to become a prominent citizen and elected official.

The first book to reveal the 1858 mining milieu by those who witnessed it firsthand. Only four extensive miners' journals are known to have survived from 1858. Quoting generously from the diaries, Alexander Globe focuses on the miners' actual words, providing an engaging authenticity and bringing the miners' distinctive voices, personalities and experiences back to life. History comes alive as these personal testimonies reveal the adventures and dreams of glory that these courageous men sought, the hardships they endured, and the fortunes won and lost.

At age nineteen, Pat Ardley packed up her belongings and left Winnipeg for Vancouver, looking for adventure. Little did she know that she'd spend the next forty years in the wilderness, thirty of which would be spent with a man known as George "Hurricane" Ardley. Pat met George soon after arriving in Vancouver, and not long after that the two of them set out for Addenbroke Island to work as junior lighthouse keepers. The journey up to the little island in the Fitz Hugh Sound, 483 km north of Vancouver, took four rolling days by Coast Guard ship—and a huge leap in lifestyle.

This autobiography by Emily has been called "probably the finest... in a literary sense, ever written in Canada." Completed just before Emily Carr died in 1945, Growing Pains tells the story of Carr’s life, beginning with her girlhood in pioneer Victoria and going on to her training as an artist in San Francisco, England and France. Also here is the frustration she felt at the rejection of her art by Canadians, of the years of despair when she stopped painting.

Elizabeth May was born to be an activist. As a young girl, Elizabeth was worried about the health of the planet and believed it was her job to protect it. While other children were playing, she was raising money for important causes, researching the latest science and organizing protests.