Great West Collection

Historic Calgary Week - with Ernie Lakusta

2007-07-30T14:00:00.000-07:00

Find out more about The Intrepid Explorer: James Hector's Explorations in the Canadian Rockies at a talk presented by author Ernie Lakusta in conjunction with the annual Historic Calgary Week. (Check out their events schedule!)

Tuesday, Jul 31, 7:00 p.m., Memorial Park Library

No registration required

And, Ernie Lakusta is headed to Jasper in September. Event details to follow.

Stampede Week Reviews in ffwd

2007-07-13T16:42:00.001-07:00

I opened the ffwd weekly today to plan my Stampede weekend and was surprised and delighted to also see two glowing reviews of Fifth House Books: Spaghetti Western: How My Father Brought Italian Food to the West and How the West Was Written: The Life and Times of James H. Gray - both published last Fall.

Of Spaghetti Western they say, "Cioni's loving memoir captures a period in Calgary's history and tells the story of a warm, dynamic man who could be described as Calgary's first celebrity chef.

And of H ow the West Was Written, they say, "Brennan does a superb job of revealing Gray the man, and has uncovered much previously unknown material from archived correspondence, such as the story of how Canada's Bronfman family was displeased about Booze. Without a doubt, this will remain the definitive biography of a major Canadian popular historian.

Happy Stampede!

2007-07-09T09:08:00.000-07:00

Myrna Kostash, author of Reading the River will be in Winnipeg August 9-11 to give a Keynote to the Annual Conference of the Ukrainian Canadian Committee.
Reading the River: A Traveller's Companion to the North Saskatchewan River, won the 2006 Award for Publishing at the Saskatchewan Book Awards. "Kostash and Burton have woven their journey down the Saskatchewan with love and considerable insight. A joy to read."

GWC Goes to Congress

2007-05-29T13:33:00.000-07:00

If you are at Congress 2007 in Saskatoon this week, drop by the Fitzhenry & Whiteside booth 28 at in the PAC building – Physical Activity Complex at the University of Saskatchewan to find out more about the Great West Collection and peruse a few of our newest titles.

Everett Baker's Saskatchewan - in Saskatoon

2007-05-29T12:32:00.000-07:00

Join us in celebrating the launch of Everett Baker's Saskatchewan with award-winning author Bill Waiser

7 pm, Tuesday, July 3

McNally Robinson

3130 8TH ST E.

Saskatoon

"Everett Baker's dedication in documenting the breadth of Saskatchewan is eloquently expressed in this delightful volume. Baker's imagery reflects the obvious love and respect he held in his heart for the people and places of this prairie province." - Wes Lafortune, Photo Life

University of Saskatchewan historian Bill Waiser has selected and compiled photographs from Everett Baker's unique vision into the first ever book-form showcase of this exceptional photographer's work.

We Won!

2007-05-16T12:54:00.000-07:00

Red Deer Press wins the Best Trade Non-Fiction Award for The Unmentionable History of the West at the Alberta Book Publishing Association Awards gala this past week.
Fifth House Publishers won Best Alberta Book Publisher 2007 at the same event. Nice kudos for both Fitzhenry & Whiteside Alberta companies and for the Great West Collection.

Jump Into Spring Special

2007-05-09T14:19:00.000-07:00

Act Now!

Order two other books and receive the full-colour favourite Where the Meadowlark Sang: Cherished Scenes from an Artist's Childhood for just $13.95. In Where the Meadowlark Sang much-loved artist Hazel Litzgus's delightful folk art is accompanied by charming stories of rural life bringing to life cherished memories of her childhood on a mixed farm. Harvest and hard work, games, pastimes, and schooldays are all here in celebration of farm life. For anyone who has grown up on a prairie farm - or wonders what it was like.

Regular price $27.95, GWC price for this title alone $22.50, GWC price with two other titles $13.95

2007-05-03T09:54:00.000-07:00

With the May long weekend fast approaching, your road trip visions are probably beginning to come into focus. Here are a few tips to enhance your travels. As always, head for the Great West Collection website and on checkout enter GWC7 to claim your 10% discount.

Coquih all a Trips and Trails: A Guide to British Columbia's North Cascade Mountain & Nicola Valley
by Murphy Shewchuk

Revised and updated, and containing more than 50 maps, Coquihalla Trips & Trails is the definitive guide to southwestern British Columbia's spectacular Coquihalla Country.
With more than 70 trips and trails, as well as background information on the geography, wildlife and history of the region, this compact book covers the area from Hope to Kamloops, and from Spences Bridge to the Okanagan Valley in kilometre-by-kilometre detail.

Okanagan Trip & Trails
by Judie Steeves, Murphy Shewchuk

With in-depth text, some 40 maps and close to 100 photos, the book describes the many routes in kilometre-by-kilometre detail - the Centennial and Trans Canada Trails, as well as many lesser-known trails and routes in the Okanagan-Similkameen.

The Story Behind Manitoba Names:
How Cities, Towns, Villages and Whistle Stops got their Names
by Ted Stone

Get to know Manitoba with the stories of over 500 names, ranging from the humorous to the historic.

The Story Behind Alberta Names
by Harry Sanders

“Photographs, as well as Sanders’s natural talent as as storyteller, make this book much more than a list of names.” - Calgary Herald

“Excellent for curious minds on the road.” - Central Alberta Farmer

Snowbirds: Behind the Scenes with Canada’s Air Demonstration Team

2007-05-02T09:43:00.000-07:00

photographs and text by Mike Sroka

The Snowbirds are about to launch into a new season of airshows across the country. Check out the Snowbirds air show schedule for an appearance near you. For a behind the scenes look at the 'birds and for a beautiful momento of the airshows, take advantage of your online discount and purchase Snowbirds: Behind the Scenes with Canada’s Air Demonstration Team now.

“Mike Sroka’s photographs of the Canadian Forces Snowbirds give you that same chill-up-your-spine feeling of awe that you get while watching the Snowbirds perform their amazing feats of aerobatic magic. But more than that, his photographs tell the story behind the scenes—of all the devoted men and women who make up the team, making the Canadian Forces Snowbirds the pride of all Canadians. Mike Sroka’s attention to detail and unique approach to aviation photography makes this collection of photographs one of the finest you will ever come across.”—Anita Dammer, Editor in Chief, Photo Life

An air demonstration team revered worldwide, Canada’s aerial ambassadors have performed with precision and pride for over one hundred million spectators across North America. In breathtaking demonstrations of the courage, skill, and teamwork of the Canadian Armed Forces, the Snowbirds have thrilled audiences for thirty-five years.

Three years ago, action photographer Mike Sroka was granted unprecedented access to the dynamic Snowbirds team as one of their official photographers. From the beginning, he set out to capture the spirit, dedication, and hard work of the pilots, ground crew, and support staff. Sroka intended to tell the story of the Snowbirds as it has never been told before. As he travelled and flew with them across North America, Sroka found the heart and soul of the elite team, as is documented in the flawless digital photographs that soar from the pages of Snowbirds.

"A high-flight dream book that's very well done." - The Globe and Mail

Mike Sroka is a highly respected and creative commercial photographer, originally from the Chicago area, now living and working in Canada. For more than twenty years, he has produced striking photographs for clients such as Carewest, Bolens, Husky Oil, NOVA, Parks Canada, Harley-Davidson, Miller Beer, Firestone, Wrangler, and Diet Pepsi. Sroka’s portfolios of outstanding images taken at fast-paced Formula One races and at the Calgary Exhibition and Stampede have proven his exceptional skill as a high-energy, action photographer.

Snowbirds: Behind the Scenes with Canada’s Air Demonstration Team, photographs and text by Mike Sroka, Foreword by Lieutenant Colonel Steve Will, Snowbirds Squadron Commander (2002-2004), 1-894856-86-4, $39.95 (Can); $29.95 (U.S.), PHOTOGRAPHY / Photoessays and Documentaries, 10 x 9, 160 pages, hardcover, 150 plus colour photographs,12 illustrations, appendix of team members

2007-05-01T09:35:00.000-07:00

Fifth House and Red Deer Press shortlisted for Publisher of the Year AND The Unmentionable History of the West is shortlisted for the Alberta Trade Non-Fiction Book Award.

Alberta Book Publishing Awards Finalists Announced!

The finalists for the 2007 Alberta Book Publishing Awards have been chosen! Juries have deliberated over 70 entries to select 34 finalists in 12 categories.

Award recipients will be named on Friday, May 11 at the Alberta Book Publishing Awards Gala at the Faculty Club in Edmonton. This celebration of our province's publishing community is hosted by the Book Publishers Association of Alberta.Trade Non-Fiction Book Award
• NeWest Press (Edmonton)—Ride the Rising Wind: One Woman's Journey Across Canadaby Barbara Kingscote• Red Deer Press (Calgary)—The Unmentionable History of the West by Nancy Millar• The University of Alberta Press (Edmonton)—I Was There: A Century of Alumni Stories About the University of Alberta, 1906–2006 by Ellen Schoeck• The University of Alberta Press (Edmonton) with The Hebrew University Magnes Press (Jerusalem)—Reading Writers Reading: Canadian Authors' Reflections by Danielle Schaub, photographs by Danielle Schaub

The Unmentionable History of the West is a fond romp through the underwear that men and women wore in days gone by. Think of corsets, navy blue bloomers, long underwear with its trap door and brassieres that could kill. Think also of the other unmentionables that came along with being sexual beings. Women had to hide their pregnancies, talk of birth control was illegal, seduction was a crime, prostitution likewise. There were so many silences, so many secrets about the private lives of men and women.

2007-04-30T10:49:00.000-07:00

Fifth House Publishers Prairie Gardening Series is the only line of gardening books written for Prairie Gardeners by Prairie Gardeners

If you are in Calgary next Saturday, May 5, come to the Greengate Garden Centre's Gardening Expo, 14111 MACLEOD TR. S, between 9 am and 5 pm to see all of our prairie gardening titles and Great West Collection titles. Pick up a Book of Bugs poster, enter to win a Great West Collection library, and bring us your suggestions for future gardening titles. Greengate will have lots of other gardening specials to get you growing. AND, be on hand at noon for an extraordinary lady bug release.

One of our bestselling titles in the series is Native Plants for Prairie Gardens. (To get 10% off this title now, go to www.greatwestcollection.com and enter code GWC7 at checkout)

Written especially for gardeners in the northern and central prairies of Canada and the United States, Native Plants for Prairie Gardens shows that a garden rich in native plants is beautiful in its diversity, relatively low maintenance, conserves water, is environmentally sustainable, and provides a natural habitat for birds, butterflies, and insects—all essential ingredients for a healthy garden.

Native plants—the plants that originate naturally in a region and have been living there for thousands of years—are a gardener’s best friend when it comes to creating a gorgeous, low-maintenance, environment-friendly landscape, because they thrive in our local climate. They are relatively unaffected by drought, wind, extremes in temperature, and the unpredictable early and late frosts that define the short prairie growing season.

Included in Native Plants for Prairie Gardens:

Advice on how to landscape using native prairie plants
Tips on how to acquire, grow, and propagate native prairie plants
Detailed plant descriptions of native prairie wildflowers, grasses, trees, and shrubs, illustrated with beautiful full-colour photographs
A native prairie plant bloom chart
Lists of native prairie seed and plant sources, native plant organizations, and public
gardens featuring native prairie plants

As part of our natural heritage, native plants define our region’s character. By gardening with them we not only bring the beauty of nature home to our backyards but we also keep alive the memory of what once covered our land.

June Flanagan holds a Master of Science in plant science and a Bachelor of Science in environmental and ornamental horticulture from the University of Arizona. She began working with native plants in 1978 while mapping vegetation in forests and grasslands, and has been active since 1980 in native plant organizations. June is co-author of The Prairie Gardener’s Sourcebook, has written and photographed for several publications on a wide variety of botanical topics, and serves on the Alberta Native Plant Council Board.

"solidly researched...Flanagan's Native Plants for Prairie Gardens fills a void among existing garden titles. It is truly unique." - Donna Balzer, Edmonton Journal

The Intrepid Explorer

2007-04-26T10:09:00.000-07:00

The Intrepid Explorer: James Hector’s Explorations in the Canadian Rockies
by Ernie Lakusta

LAUNCH
Wednesday, May 23, 2007, 7 pm
at McNally Robinson
120 - 8th Avenue S.W.
Calgary, AB
403-538-1794

Ernie Lakusta will be leading a 150th Anniversary Palliser Expedition commemorative hike in June. Film footage from the hike will be shown at events in Canmore, Jasper, and other locations throughout the summer, including a Historic Calgary Week presentation at the Memorial Park Library on July 31. For details, contact Lyn Cadence at promotions@fifthhousepublishers.ca or watch this blog for updates.

About The Intrepid Explorer
Years before the railway, and with only a network of ramshackle forts to support them, James Hector and his colleagues braved harsh winters, hot summers, unpredictable wildlife, personal conflict, and Native war parties to scout routes through the Rocky Mountains, often with only their wits to keep them alive.

The Intrepid Explorer tells the story of the famous Palliser Expedition from the point-of-view of one of its most remarkable members as he looks back on his life during one final visit to Canada in 1903. By the end of his life Sir James Hector had become a world-renowned geologist and explorer, but it was for his exploration of the Rockies that Hector was best remembered.
Ernie Lakusta uses journals, newspaper articles, and the original Palliser reports to paint a vivid picture of a true hero of Canadian history, a man whose brush with death is commemorated to this day by the Kicking Horse Pass in British Columbia.

Ernie Lakusta was born in Hardisty, Alberta, in 1944, but was raised in Calgary. He attended the University of Calgary, where he received both B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees before becoming a high-school biology teacher and science department head in Calgary. An avid hiker and scrambler, Ernie’s passion for the outdoors has led him to explore, photograph, and write about many of the areas James Hector mapped for the Palliser Expedition. Ernie lives in Calgary with his wife of thirty-eight years, Jean, who shares his love of the outdoors.

Sir James Hector (1834–1907)
During the second week of February 1858, while we were experiencing a most unusual period of warm weather, I heard that Dr.Hector had passed through Edmonton on his way to Rocky Mountain House, and had left word with the factor that he wished to see me on his return and that he wanted me to go with him.…

Around the first of March Dr.Hector returned to Edmonton,and I had an opportunity to meet him. He was a man about my own age. I had expected to see a scholarly type, but his athletic appearance and brisk step impressed me very favourably. His handshake was firm and had a hint of strength that captured my interest immediately. He had an affable, easy manner of conversation with any person he was speaking to. A thoroughly pleasing personality that had nothing of that assumed superiority or condescending mannerism that I was beginning to associate with all Englishmen of my narrow acquaintance.

I liked the man at once and nothing in my experience on the expedition or elsewhere ever changed this good opinion.…

I was to learn later that Dr.Hector alone of all the men of my experience asked no quarter from any man among us, drivers or guides. He could walk, ride,or tramp on snowshoes with the best of our men, and never fell back on his position to soften his share of hardships, but in fact glorified in his physical ability after a hard day’s run to share in the work of preparing camp for the night, building shelters from the wind, cutting spruce boughs, or even helping
get up wood for an all-night fire. He was admired and talked about by every man that travelled with him,and his fame as traveller was a wonder and a byword among many a teepee that never saw the man.

—Peter Erasmus, special assistant and interpreter for the Palliser Expedition, describing James Hector in Buffalo Days and Nights

Preface
James Hector was a remarkable young man, the youngest member of the Palliser Expedition, a British government-sponsored mission that explored vast areas of western Canada between 1857 and 1860. A medical doctor by training,Hector’s exploits as an explorer, geologist, surveyor, and naturalist contributed to the success of this expedition. Four Parliamentary Papers published in 1859, 1860, 1863, and 1865—cited as Reports, Papers, Further Papers, aps—and the scholarly work of Irene Spry, The Papers of the Palliser Expedition, form the basis of his remarkable story. In order to avoid copious endnotes, all citations, unless otherwise noted, are from these sources and are not footnoted.

My aim is not only to provide an accurate, clear, and vivid account of Hector’s explorations as a member of this storied expedition, but also to reveal something of the character of this extraordinary young man. I have endeavoured to recount his story of triumph, failure, hardship, strength, and courage in his own words or in the words of his colleagues from daily records kept during their travels. Where events required, even demanded, a more thorough accounting, this narrative has been enhanced with accounts and even conversations he had with those who worked with him or met him later in life. In this respect, the memoirs of his loyal assistant, Peter Erasmus, and recollections by Mary Schäffer Warren,who met Hector during his final visit
to Canada in 1903, proved invaluable. Only as a last resort, and at considerable risk, have I dared to impose my own interpretations or thoughts on the events surrounding this story.

For the sake of authenticity, the spelling, punctuation, and diction found in the original sources have been retained. Since all units of measure in these documents were in imperial units, those measures have also been retained.

Unless otherwise noted, all sketches featured in this book are by Hector himself. I am indebted to Sean Doyle for his own wonderful sketches depicting major events in this story.

This is James Hector’s story of the brief time he spent wandering in the Canadian Rockies.From this work emerges an insight not only into the characters of Hector and his colleagues but also the character and social fabric of the people of Canada’s First Nations.

—Ernie Lakusta, Calgary, Alberta, 2006

Waterton: Brush & Pen

2007-04-24T11:18:00.000-07:00

If you missed the opening and reception of “Life Forms” by Brent Laycock, RCA, don't worry, you will still have an opportunity to see the exhibition to May 8, 2007 at the

Wallace Galleries
500 - 5th Avenue SW
Calgary, Alberta
403.262.8050

And, if you can't afford to purchase one of Laycock's wild, opulent floral paintings from this exhibit, you can still have a collection of Laycock's art by purchasing Waterton: Brush & Pen, on which he collaborated with well-known writer Fred Stenson.

More than an art book, a travel book, or a history book, Waterton: Brush and Pen takes readers on an inspiring journey to a hidden paradise.

In Waterton Lakes National Park, where prairie meets mountain and lake mirrors sky, visual artist Brent Laycock and author Fred Stenson have found a lifetime of subject and inspiration. Waterton: Brush and Pen brings their work together in celebration of this magical place.
Ninety-one of these splendid and evocative paintings are reproduced here in full colour: from the quiet coulees and prairie panoramas of the foothills to the forest havens, alpine meadows, soaring peaks, and wind-whipped water of Waterton Lakes National Park. His introductory essay and comments on each painting give further insight into the creative process and the artist's deep attachment to his subject.

Accompanying Laycock's paintings are fourteen essays by Stenson, recounting his personal experience of the Waterton area along with reflections on the history and geography of this spectacular, out-of-the-way place. The central theme of his essays is the inescapable influence Waterton exerts on the life and dreams of the people who dwell in its shadow.

Laycock and Stenson are mature, recognized, and award-winning artists in their respective disciplines - and both grew up on farms where the Waterton Rockies beckoned from the western horizon. Waterton is a touchstone for their lives and art, a place of refuge, fun, awe, and adventure to which they have always returned.

"lovely little volume" - The Globe and Mail

Brent Laycock was born in Lethbridge, in 1947. He received an M.F.A. at Brigham Young University in Utah. In 1993, he was elected a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Art, and was awarded the Tony Stephenson Award for acrylic painting in 2000, 2004, and 2005 and the Haworth Award for watercolour in 2002. Laycock lives in Calgary with his wife, Kathy.

Fred Stenson was raised on a farm and cattle ranch between Pincher Creek and Waterton Lakes National Park. Stenson has written thirteen books, the most recent, Lightning (2003), won the Grant MacEwan Author's Ward. His novel, The Trade, won the inaugural Grant MacEwan Author's Award and was nominated for the 2000 Giller Prize, as well as many more awards. He lives in Calgary with his wife, author and educator Pamela Banting.

Today's Feature: People of the Blood

2007-04-23T14:53:00.000-07:00

Calgary photographer George Webber has been nominated for a National Magazine Award for his photo essay The Last Days of the St. Louis which was published in SWERVE.

The mandate of the National Magazine Awards is "to recognize excellence in content and creation of Canadian magazines" The award winners will be announced in Toronto on June 15.

In the May, 2007 edition of PhotoLife, you will find a profile on internationally acclaimed photographer, George Webber, with photos from his books People of the Blood and A World Within which says " "like compressed coal slowly turning into diamonds, Webber's photographs are increasingly precious because they record the people and places that otherwise continue to be erased by the merciless march of time."

In the Spring, 2007 issue of Prairie Books Now, under "A Legacy of Aboriginal Books" you will see an interview with Webber in which he explains how his motivation springs from a place of respect and authenticity, "That whole notion of entering into another life and that person allowing you to enter - it's not an intimacy based on a history, it's based on someone's intuitive take on you. That's very powerful."

People of the Blood
George Webber
The Blood Reserve is a land of wind, prairie, mountains, and rivers, a land of dramatic physical beauty. It is the setting for George Webber's stunning collection of black-and-white photographs, People of the Blood. From the spring of 1992 until the late summer of 2005,Webber journeyed to the reserve from his home in Calgary, documenting his experiences on film and with pen and paper. People of the Blood is an intimate and compelling story of the reserve's people and stark, sweeping landscape told in black and white.

In his quest to photograph and document hope and darkness in the western Canadian landscape, Webber has ceaselessly photographed the people, small communities, and the land for a quarter century. People of the Blood documents a photographic journey spanning over a decade, one that put Webber in contact with the strong people of the Blood, their spiritual practices, their hopes, their challenges, wins and losses.

http://www.fitzhenry.ca/detail.aspx?ID=9586

Click here to see People of the Blood – An Animated Presentation.

Reviews: "A profound, challenging book that follows in the footsteps of his previous documentary masterpiece, A World Within: An Intimate Portrait of the Little Bow Hutterite Community. There is no one who brings a calmer eye, a more respectful gaze or a more open heart to his subject matter than Calgary's Webber." - Swerve magazine, Calgary Herald

George Webber is an award winning Albertan photographer. His work reveals his deep fascination and affection for the people and the landscape of the Canadian West. Webber was born in the western Canadian town of Drumheller, Alberta, in 1952. Since the early 1980s he has photographed this region extensively. His photographs are included in museum collections the world over and have been published in numerous prestigious books and magazines. George lives in Calgary where he works as a freelance photographer and photgraphy instructor at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology. In 2005 George was the only North American photographer to win an award for documentary photography in Seoul, South Korea.

To find out more about George visit his website at http://www.georgewebber.ca/.

We've got the Prairies Covered: Groundcovers and Vines for the Prairies

2007-02-16T22:31:00.000-08:00

Just released - the latest in the Fifth House Prairie Gardening Series is

Best Groundcovers & Vines For The Prairies

"This is a long-needed reference book and it couldn't have come from a more knowledgeable and reliable source. Everyone involved in creating gardens in this climate should have this book in their collection." - Wendy Mackie, former Director of Assiniboine Park Conservatory in Winnipeg

Groundcovers and vines are among the most useful hardy plants for the challenging prairie region, but until now gardeners have lacked a prairie-specific source of information about these versatile plants. Sara Williams and Hugh Skinner draw on their years of prairie gardening experience to provide landscaping and cultivation advice, along with comprehensive descriptions and photographs of the very best groundcovers and vines for the area.

Hugh Skinner has a B.S.A. in horticulture from the University of Manitoba and has been active in the nursery industry for thirty years. He grows a wide variety of hardy plants and maintains a large collection of trees in the Frank Skinner Arboretum near Roblin, Manitoba, the result of ninety years of plant collecting, testing, and breeding, first started by his father, Frank Skinner. His garden is home to a wide variety of vines and groundcover plants.

Sara Williams has retired as the horticultural specialist at the University of Saskatchewan. She is the co-author of Perennials for the Plains and Prairies and author of the award-winning Creating the Prairie Xeriscape and In a Cold Land: Saskatchewan's Horticultural Pioneers. She holds a B.Sc. and M.Sc. in horticulture from the University of Saskatchewan.

18948568059 x 6, 240 pages, Trade PaperRegional Gardening / Horticulture

$24.99 CAD http://www.fitzhenry.ca/detail.aspx?ID=10003

tip from
Best Groundcovers & Vines For The Prairies

Unifying Shrub Beds
Groundcovers unify shrub beds and borders, especially when these beds are newly planted and the shrubs are still small and seemingly very far apart. Select a groundcover that ties the permanent plantings together and visually complements rather than competes with them. If the shrub bed or border contains dwarf evergreen shrubs, consider a groundcover with a very delicate, airy appearance, such as lady’s mantle, or one with neutral silver or green foliage, such as thyme, speedwells such as Veronica whitleyii and V. pectinata, pussytoes, snow-in-summer, or ‘Silver Brocade’ artemisia.
Deciduous shrubs are more variable than evergreens and it may take more care to select an appropriate groundcover that complements both foliage and flowers. Gray pussytoes or snow-in-summer are neutral and work well with most shrubs. For deciduous shrubs with gray foliage, consider bright green dwarf phlox or blue-purple ‘Chocolate Chip’ bugleweed.
If the bed is small, you may wish to use only one species of groundcover for the entire bed. In a larger bed or border, think about using several different groundcovers, each within its own grouping.

Groundcovers for Unifying Shrub Beds
Ajuga reptans (carpet bugle, bugleweed)
Alchemilla spp. (lady’s mantle)
Antennaria spp. (pussytoes)
Bergenia cordifolia (heart-leaved bergenia, pigsqueak)
Campanula cochlearifolia (dwarf bellflower, fairy thimble)
Cerastium tomentosum (snow-in-summer)
Dianthus spp. (pinks)
Fragaria x ‘Pink Panda’ (‘Pink Panda’ strawberry)
Lamiastrum galeobdolon (yellow archangel)
Lamium maculatum (spotted dead nettle)
Lysimachia nummularia (creeping Jenny, moneywort)
Nepeta spp. (catmint)
Omphalodes verna alba (creeping forget-me-not)
Sedum spp. (stonecrop)
Thymus spp. (thyme)
Veronica spp. (speedwell)
Junipers on public walkway
FH Groundcovers book.indb 12 10/16/06 12:01:10 PM
Vinca herbacea (herbaceous periwinkle)
Viola canadensis (Western Canada violet, wood violet)
Waldsteinia ternata (Siberian barren strawberry)

Contents of

Best Groundcovers & Vines For The Prairies

Acknowledgements ii

Chapter One
INTRODUCTION 1

Chapter Two
GROUNDCOVERS AND VINES IN THE LANDSCAPE

Designing by Habitat 3
Designing by Function 6
Groundcovers 6
Vines 11

Chapter Three
PURCHASE, ESTABLISHMENT, AND MAINTENANCE OF GROUNDCOVERS AND VINES 27

Getting Ready 27
How Do Groundcovers Cover Ground? 27
Preparing the Planting Site 28
Spacing 29
Purchase and Planting 30
Groundcovers 30
Vines 32
Propagating Groundcovers and Vines 32
Seed 33
Suckers, Divisions, and Layers 33
Hardwood and Softwood Cuttings 35
Maintaining Groundcovers and Vines 36
Mulching 37
Pruning 37
Fertilizing 38
Pest and Disease Control 39

Chapter Four
GROUNDCOVERS AND VINES FOR PRAIRIE GARDENS 41

Groundcovers 44
Vines 195

Glossary 213

Index 221

Also by Hugh Skinner and Sara Williams
Best Trees and Shrubs for the Prairies
http://www.fitzhenry.ca/detail.aspx?ID=7866

How the West Was Written: The Life and Times of James H. Gray

2007-02-16T22:27:00.000-08:00

In a Times Colonist review last Sunday, April 22, 2007, Dave Obee states, "Brennan's work might help to bring Gray into the national limelight, something that is long overdue. After that, who knows? Some easterners might decide to read Red Lights on the Prairies. They could do much worse."

The sentiment running through Obee's piece is reflective of Christopher Moore's analysis in the February 07 issue of The Beaver, in a feature entitled REREADING JAMES GRAY. Moore states, "Pierre Berton lived in Toronto. James Gray lived in Calgary. When it comes to a national reputation, is geography destiny?" Good question, Christopher Moore.

Brian Brennan is a writer of books and periodical articles about the history and the colourful personalities of Western Canada.
His latest is
How The West Was Written
The Life and Times of James H. Gray
James H. Gray was the first Canadian social historian to tackle such previously taboo subjects as the sex lives and boozing habits of the early settlers. His books were on the national and Toronto Star bestseller lists before those of Pierre Berton and have since become classics of Canadian literature. Gray's Red Lights on the Prairies stunned readers with its straight-forward approach to prostitution on the prairies and was named one of the one hundred most important Canadian books of all time by the Literary Review of Canada.

For more about the book and to purchase, see
http://www.fitzhenry.ca/detail.aspx?ID=9912

Foreword
I met James Gray in the spring of 1995. I had just written new introductions to several of his books that were being republished and he wanted to treat me to lunch at Calgary’s Petroleum Club. He was legally blind by then, and I found him holding court at the club entrance, recognizing old friends by their voices and getting caught up on the latest gossip.

Twenty years earlier, as a fresh history student embarking on graduate studies, I would have sniffed at Gray and his work for not being scholarly, not being theoretical enough. After all, academic writing was serious stuff. But, as I gradually learned during my university career, that’s exactly why Gray enjoyed such a popular following. Unlike the monographs produced by most professional historians, his books were deliberately pitched at the general reader. It really was not a fair contest.

Gray turned to writing out of desperation. In a letter in December 1994, prepared on an old typewriter that had become a challenge for him to operate because of his eyesight, he confided to me, “The most important fact to be understood about me is I am a product totally of the Great Depression.” He then went on to explain that in 1931, after “a five-month detour through a T.B. sanatorium,” he and his young family found themselves “utterly destitute on unemployment relief living, eating, sleeping, and cooking in a single room in a slum boarding house.”

It was at this low point that Gray decided to become a journalist. Through sheer persistence, he landed a job as a reporter with the Winnipeg Free Press in 1935. Soon, he was recruited as an editorial writer. But the Depression still haunted him, so in 1946, while working as a member of the Ottawa press gallery, he wrote The Winter Years, a personal account of the dirty thirties in the urban West.

For a number of reasons, the manuscript would not appear in print for another twenty years. But when The Winter Years was finally published in 1966, it was an instant national best-seller. It also marked the beginning—at age sixty when most people start to contemplate retirement—of Gray’s prolific writing career. Over the next twenty-six years, he produced twelve books, many of which have become classics.

Gray’s trademark was an accessible and lucid style, peppered with wit and sarcasm. In Red Lights on the Prairies, he quipped that if Western Canadian historians were to be believed, the West had been settled by “monks, eunuchs, and vestal virgins.” In a similar vein in Men Against the Desert, he observed, “More lies have probably been told about the weather of the Dirty Thirties than any other subject except sex; yet most of the lies could have been true.”

Gray’s other great strength was his ability to tell a good anecdote, to put a human face on events and issues. During the 1960s, at the same time that Gray had become a full-time writer, Canadian historians began to place greater emphasis on social history and the experience of everyday people, including those on the margins of society. Gray was already tilling this ground in his writing. Even though his books may not have been based on some new methodology, or were not heavily documented, he did the necessary primary research and then communicated his findings in clear, compelling prose.

In How the West Was Written, Brian Brennan skilfully examines James Gray’s contribution to Western Canadian history against the larger backdrop of his life, family, and career. The reader not only gains an intimate understanding of Gray—his character and personality, warts and all—but also comes to readily appreciate how and why he became one of Western Canada’s most successful social historians. It is an engaging biography, rich in personal detail and insight. Gray would have liked this book. ---Bill Waiser, August 2006

Contents

Foreword
Introduction

Prologue: Canada’s Highest Honour
Early Years—1906–1922
Down and Out in Winnipeg—1930–1931
Reading and Writing—1931–1934
On to Ottawa—1935
Playing Oliver Twist—1937
Sitting out the Second World War—1939–1945
Ottawa Correspondent—1946–1947
A “Prairie Cassandra”—1947–1955
Adventures in the Oil Patch—1955–1964
The Winter Years—1962–1965
A Prairie Historian Emerges—1966
Men Against the Desert—1965–1969
The Boy from Winnipeg—1969
Red Lights on the Prairies—1971
Booze—1972
Cracking the American Market—1973–1979
The Roar of the Twenties—1975
History in the Schools—1975–1977
Selling the Farm—1977
Troublemaker!—1977–1978
Boomtime—1978–1980
Bacchanalia Revisited—1982
Cowboys and Counsels—1982–1986
The Bennett Project—1986–1991
Final Years—1991–1998

A Note on Sources
Acknowledgements

About Brian Brennan
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