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In geology an erratic is a "boulder or rock formation transported some distance from its original source, as by a glacier." In award-winning novelist Mark Frutkin’s case, his movement from his native Cleveland. Ohio, was instigated by his wish to protest and resist the U.S. military draft during the Vietnam War, and his destination was Canada.An estimated 50,000 to 100,000 American Vietnam War draft resisters sought sanctuary in Canada.

In this comprehensive biography, Christine Mander depicts the life and times of Emily Murphy with a refreshing candor and vitality. A true Canadian heroine – pioneering feminism, writer (under the alias Janey Canuck), patriot, mother, anti-drug crusader, first woman magistrate of the British Empire and rebel – Emily Murphy defied conventional labels. To Hell with Women Magistrates, fulminated one court official on her appointment.

In a career that spanned five decades, Elmer Iseler proved himself pivotal to the development of choral music in Canada. After founding Canada’s first professional choir in 1954, he became artistic director and conductor of the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir. In 1979 he established Canada’s leading chamber choir, the Elmer Iseler Singers.

The diaries, letters, and sketches of Elizabeth Simcoe are drawn upon as sources in this portrayal of the energetic and remarkable woman who came to Upper Canada with her husband when he was appointed lieutenant governor.

Eleven Exiles is a personal account of the American Revolution. By focusing on eleven different people who were on the losing side of the American Revolution, and who had to make new lives for themselves in what remained of British North America. Eleven Exiles reflects the major themes of those turbulent years. What were the attitudes of these men and women toward the significant social and political ideas of the time? What motivated them to leave their home and move to a wildnerness? What challenges and hardships did they face?

From 1876 to 1915, Edward James Lennox was a formidable force in Toronto’s architectural community. Many of his buildings are still landmarks in a city that continues to evolve.Born and educated in Toronto, Lennox looked to the past for inspiration but was never captured by it. His prototypical Annex houes on Madison Avenue, Old City Hall, and Casa Loma bear witness to his technical expertise and aesthetic sensibilities.

Who were the beats? Not the sandle-clad "beatniks" of popular lore but dedicated writers, experimenters, skit improvisers, theorizers, hedonists, close friends, bisexual free lovers, shapers of the future. The beats hung out at Columbia university and cheap Times Square cafeterias, devouring ideas. David Creighton shows how the world has taken up their message. In Ecstasy of the Beats he gives a fresh portrait of Carolyn Cassady, "Queen of the Beats," and of the four major Beat writers.

The biggest surprise - and disappointment - that life holds is that it is over so fast. The golden tomorrow, to which most people (usually women) put off their hopes rarely appears. This is the lesson learned by Helen McLean in her memoir. Details from a Larger Canvas is about a woman with the expectations of her time and class heavy upon her shoulders; in short, she is supposed to be much the same woman as her Rosedale matron mother-in-law whose life was bound up in sets of rules and whose life had little expression except in the form of materialistic acquisition and censure.

Private Jack Poolton was among the Canadians landing at the disastrous raid on Dieppe. Fortunate to have survived, Jack was taken to a prisoner of war camp in Germany. In Destined to Survive: A Dieppe Veteran’s Story, Jack Poolton relates the story of his training, capture, and experiences in the POW camp. We follow Jack’s three escape attempts, and his subsequent punishment. And we share his elation when Jack and his fellow prisoners are liberated by American soldiers.Poolton and the other POWs never lost their desire to escape.

Daylight in the Swamp is the bush memoirs of Selwyn Dewdney, a noted Canadian artist and recorder of native rock art. His two great loves, art and the Canadian north, come together in this book. His respect for native culture and art is reflected in his own work, his insight into native rock art, and his passion for canoeing and the northern experience.The third theme of the book is history spanning the period from 1910 through to the 1970s during which the old north largely vanished.