Alexander Young Jackson (1882-1974) is a name that instantly conjures up images of our rugged northern landscape and the controversial Group of Seven. This is the first-ever full-length biography of one of Canada’s most beloved characters, and the first to examine in one book the artist, outdoorsman, soldier, teacher, debater, writer, and outspoken defender of modern art.Jackson spent nearly seventy years travelling Canada on a lifelong quest to, rendering his impressions of its di...

Tom Thomson (1877-1917) occupies a prominent position in Canada's national culture and has become a celebrated icon for his magnificent landscapes as well as for his brief life and mysterious death. The shy, enigmatic artist and woodsman's innovative painting style produced such seminal Canadian images as The Jack Pine and The West Wind, while his untimely drowning nearly a century ago is still a popular subject of fierce debate.Originally a commercial artist, Tho...

James Wilson Morrice (1865–1924) was a Canadian painter of extraordinary passion and simplicity whose canvases and oil sketches are valued throughout the world and cherished in Canada as our first real examples of modern art.Though cut short by chronic alcohol abuse, Morrice's restless bohemian life was spent in constant motion. From the colourful canals of Venice to the sun-drenched markets of North Africa to the snowy streets of Quebec City, he was, as his friend Henri Matisse de...

Presenting ten titles in the Quest Biography series that profiles prominent figures in Canada’s history. The important Canadian lives detailed here are: painters Tom Thomson and James Wilson Morrice; explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson; frontiersman Simon Girty; railway baron William C. Van Horne; early politicians George Simpson and James Douglas; revolutionary Metis leader Louis Riel; writer Robertson Davies; and early movie star Mary Pickford.Includes

Presenting five titles in the Quest Biography series that profiles prominent figures in Canada’s history. The important Canadian lives detailed here are: nineteenth century railway builder William C. Van Horne; early nineteenth century governor and fur baron George Simpson; legendary Group of Seven-associated landscape painter Tom Thomson; intrepid early frontiersman Simon Girty; and Canada’s first world-famous movie star, Mary Pickford.IncludesWi...

Presenting five titles in the Quest Biography series that profiles prominent figures in Canada’s history. The important Canadian lives detailed here are: firebrand Metis leader Louis Riel; landscape painter James Wilson Morrice; Arctic explorer and ethnologist Vilhjalmur Stefansson; revered novelist Robertson Davies; and the “Father of British Columbia,” James Douglas.IncludesLouis RielJames Wilson MorriceVilh...

Presenting three titles in the Quest Biography series that profiles prominent figures in Canada’s history. Canada’s vast wilderness presents many opportunities for artists to capture its beauty in their distinct styles, and the country has produced its share of talented landscape painters. Tom Thomson’s work is known the world over for its wild, vivid portrayals of Ontario’s wilderness. Emily Carr captured the lushness of the west coast as well as the traditional culture of the indigenous ...

Chartered in 1869, Southern Illinois University has been a stalwart presence on the southern Illinois landscape for a century and a half. This book celebrates the 150th anniversary of the university’s founding by exploring in depth its history since 1969, when the last book to celebrate a major anniversary was published.Chapters reflect on SIU’s successful athletics program, the various colleges and departments within the university, the diverse holdings and collections of the libr...

This is an intimate biography of an artist who became a legend after his death, but who in his private life stands revealed as a troubled man who was, in many ways, his own victim.Joan Murray’s new biography is part detective work, too: she investigates his beliefs, and the origins of his great masterpieces, and provides a convincing description of the possible circumstances of his death.The art of Tom Thomson represents one of the high points of Canadian modernism, which f...

Beginning in 1912, Defiant Spirits traces the artistic development of Tom Thomson and the future members of the Group of Seven, Franklin Carmichael, Lawren Harris, A. Y. Jackson, Franz Johnston, Arthur Lismer, J. E. H. MacDonald, and Frederick Varley, over a dozen years in Canadian history. Working in an eclectic and sometimes controversial blend of modernist styles, they produced what an English critic celebrated in the 1920s as the most vital group of paintings” of the 20th century. Ins...

The view 16-year-old Thomas Osborne first had of Muskoka was at night, trudging alone with his even younger brother along unmarked primitive roads to find their luckless father who, in 1875, had decided to make a new start for his beleaguered family on some "free land" in the bush east of the pioneer village of Huntsville, Ontario. The miracle is that Thomas lived to tell the tale.For the next five years Thomas endured starvation, falling through the ice and freezing, accidents wit...

Ghost Towns of Muskoka explores the tragic history of a collection of communities from across Muskoka whose stars have long since faded. Today, these ghost towns are merely a shadow -- or spectre -- of what they once were. Some have disappeared entirely, having been swallowed by regenerating forests, while others have been reduced to foundations, forlorn buildings, and silent ruins. A few support a handful of inhabitants, but even these towns are wrapped in a ghostly shroud.But thi...