National Network for Equitable Library Service

When the crew of the fishing schooner Annie Healy left their home port of Fox Harbour, Placentia Bay, on Wednesday, August 17, 1927, no one could have imagined what fate held in store for them. Times were hard in Newfoundland that year. On shore, wives of the crew were often worked to exhaustion, even more so while their men were at sea. Most had lost parents, siblings, or children to tuberculosis. Each family had at least one tragic story.

Mr. Big is the shocking true story of a murder investigation in Newfoundland and Labrador that forever changed the face of the Canadian justice system. On August 4, 2002, three-year-old twin girls Karen and Krista Hart drowned in Gander Lake. They had gone there with their father. He said it was an accident, but the police were convinced Nelson Hart had killed his daughters that day. With not enough evidence to make an arrest, the RCMP launched a $500,000 “Mr. Big” sting operation to try to get a confession.

Although primarily associated with filling doctors' prescriptions and selling medicines and other items for self-care, historically drugstores have also been operated as general stores, selling an intriguing range of toiletries, perfumery, confectionery, seeds for the garden, and household items. For many years, the shopping experiences of customers owed a good deal to the distinctive drugstore aura created by a store's elegant wooden fixtures, rows of attractive glass containers, and a characteristic aroma arising from drugs and the preparations compounded on the premises.

This is a collection of true Newfoundland and Labrador stories about crime and punishment on land and sea. Included here are tales of murder, mutiny, and smuggling on the high seas, as well as riots, assaults, and frauds perpetrated in some of the strangest criminal cases this province has ever seen.

Not Too Long Ago is back by popular demand in this newly revised and expanded edition! In this volume, today's senior citizens talk about some of the more exciting and memorable moments of their lives growing up in Newfoundland and Labrador.

History has told us in unambiguous terms that the statistics from July 1, 1916, were grim and shocking. Most Newfoundlanders and Labradorians can recite the facts on cue: 801 men went “over the top” at Beaumont-Hamel, France; all but sixty-eight were either killed or wounded. Another number, startling as well: thirty, as in thirty minutes, a half-hour. That’s how long it took for German machine gunners to virtually wipe out the Newfoundland Regiment, from 9:15 on that sunny Saturday morning to 9:45.

The stage was set with his memoir Human Beans, but the tale of the wild and weird adventures of Ron Pumphrey really begins right here and now . . . Ron Pumphrey came to public attention seemingly from out of nowhere. This mystery man, who is still larger than life, had a veritably unknown past until the release of Human Beans, the first in this autobiographical series. Now that friend and foe alike have taken a peek into the formative years of this Newfoundland icon, both can agree that Ron’s was a childhood like no other.

In this eagerly awaited follow-up to his memoir The Premiers Joey and Frank, bestselling author Bill Rowe delivers a spirited account of the next three premiers of Newfoundland and Labrador: Brian Peckford, Clyde Wells, and Brian Tobin. [Minister Brian Peckford’s] ongoing vociferous battle with the Trudeau Liberals in Ottawa over the actual ownership of the offshore petroleum resources added to his lustre. He made precisely zero progress against the federal Liberal government, but Peckford’s three years as the “fighting Newfoundlander” . . .

St. John’s has been called the “City of Fire” for a reason, and the St. John’s Fire Department has responded to every call for help. Faithful and Fearless is a richly detailed history of over four hundred years of fighting fires in St. John’s. Outlining the equipment used and the firefighting methods employed from the seventeenth century to present day, the book also introduces the reader to the many firefighters who have worked to keep the city safe. Dramatic historic photographs complement this thorough history by retired St. John’s Deputy Fire Chief Robert Corbett.

Each year, thousands of people visit Bob Bartlett’s boyhood home located in Brigus, Newfoundland and Labrador, to catch a glimpse of this famous sealing captain’s amazing life. Hawthorne Cottage has been designated a National Historic Site. The Log of Bob Bartlett captures details and experiences that are not widely known about his forty years of adventures.