Items related to The Vancouver Island Letters of Edmund Hope Verney:...
The Vancouver Island Letters of Edmund Hope Verney: 1862-65 (The Pioneers of British Columbia) - Hardcover
Synopsis
In this previously unknown collection of letters, we see colonial British Columbia through the eyes of a young naval officer who spent three years on Vancouver Island commanding a Royal Navy gunboat during the Cariboo gold rush. A keen observer of life in the new world, Edmund Hope Verney corresponded on a regular basis with his father, a prominent British MP. The letters are highly engaging and provide an interesting record of many aspects of colonial life, including political and social history, civic and eccleciastical affairs, the impact of the gold rush, the establishment of European settlements, relations with Natives, and comments on the personalities and activities of leading figures in colonial British Columbia.
The letters are especially interesting because Verney often chose to write about matters that nobody else thought worth recording. Actively involved in the social and legal affairs of the colony, he took part in the settlement of Comox and Cowichan. He was a magistrate and he was involved with the establishment of a free school as well as being on the immigration board. His opinions on who constituted the ideal British immigrant and his reactions to women from the bride ships are particularly revealing.
His letters, filled with lively narration and description, candid commentary, and fascinating personal detail, were clearly written to be preserved, and Verney's comments about the events and people he observed still provide fascinating reading. The excellent introduction by Allan Pritchard provides the biographical and historical contexts and identifies the individuals mentioned in the letters.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Author
Allan Pritchard is Professor Emeritus of English, University of Toronto. He was born and grew up in Comox and now divides his time between Victoria and Galiano Island.
Review
Trivial or traumatic, everything went into the letters home ... Allan Pritchard's satisfying introduction and notes brief us on who-was-who and what-happened-next in both historical and human contexts. (Phyllis Reeve British Columbia Historical News, Vol 31, No. 2)
Allan Pritchard has discovered a remarkably revealing source and used it to create a book that is both useful and interesting ... Vancouver Island Letters makes accessible an archival source that is valuable not only for historians of British Columbia but also for scholars of nineteenth-century colonialism ... The sizeable introduction ... is well documented, thoughtful, and articulate ... A rare and fine book. It makes a revealing primary source easily accessible to anyone interested in British Columbia and colonial life ... Verney’s letters are an important reflection of British Columbia in the 1860s, and a telling testament to the peculiar perspectives and inner life of one foot-soldier of nineteenth-century colonialism. (The Canadian Historical Review 1998-06-01)
Allan Pritchard ... Has made an excellent job of preserving and editing them for posterity ... A very useful and entertaining source for researchers into the maritime history of the Northwest Coast of America during a crucial phase of its political and economic evolution. (The Mariner’s Mirror)
This previously unknown collection of letters lets us experience colonial British Columbia through the eyes of a young British naval officer who spent three years on Vancouver Island commanding a Royal Navy gunboat during the Cariboo gold rush.
A keen observer of life in the new world, Edmund Hope Verney corresponded on a regular basis with his father, a prominent British MP. In his letters, which are filled with lively narration and description, candid commentary, and fascinating personal detail, he talks about having 'the opportunity to observe a colony in [its first] stage of existence' and to 'watch the development of a community.'
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherUBC Press
- Publication date1996
- ISBN 10 0774805544
- ISBN 13 9780774805544
- BindingHardcover
- LanguageEnglish
- Number of pages323
- EditorPritchard Allan
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