'They should have called it Old Lost Land, not Newfoundland, but Old Lost Land.' So says Charlie Smallwood of the birthplace to which he had himself contributed thirteen children. 'Thirteen', he would say, 'A luckless number for a luckless brood.' But the eldest of the thirteen was Joseph, born on Christmas Eve 1900 and fated to lead the colony out of English rule and into the arms of its giant neighbour Canada. Grandson of a bootmaker, son of an impoverished drunk, wrongly expelled schoolboy, failed journalist, would-be ...
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'They should have called it Old Lost Land, not Newfoundland, but Old Lost Land.' So says Charlie Smallwood of the birthplace to which he had himself contributed thirteen children. 'Thirteen', he would say, 'A luckless number for a luckless brood.' But the eldest of the thirteen was Joseph, born on Christmas Eve 1900 and fated to lead the colony out of English rule and into the arms of its giant neighbour Canada. Grandson of a bootmaker, son of an impoverished drunk, wrongly expelled schoolboy, failed journalist, would-be socialist firebrand and trade-union pioneer, Joey Smallwood suffered chronically from bad luck and poor judgement. Yet his rise to power, seen through his own eyes and those of Sheilagh Fielding, satirical columnist and scourge of Newfoundland politicians of every hue, seems in retrospect to have been inevitable. THE COLONY OF UNREQUITED DREAMS uses the unlikely career of Newfoundland's first premier as its starting point to create a mystery, a love story and a tragi-comic elegy which is nothing less than the national history of an impossible country stranded on the brink of the world.
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Seller's Description:
Good. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 562 p. May show signs of wear, highlighting, writing, and previous use. This item may be a former library book with typical markings. No guarantee on products that contain supplements Your satisfaction is 100% guaranteed. Twenty-five year bookseller with shipments to over fifty million happy customers.
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Seller's Description:
Good. All pages and cover are intact. Possible slightly loose binding, minor highlighting and marginalia, cocked spine or torn dust jacket. Maybe an ex-library copy and not include the accompanying CDs, access codes or other supplemental materials.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Good. All pages and cover are intact. Possible slightly loose binding, minor highlighting and marginalia, cocked spine or torn dust jacket. Maybe an ex-library copy and not include the accompanying CDs, access codes or other supplemental materials.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Good. All pages and cover are intact. Possible slightly loose binding, minor highlighting and marginalia, cocked spine or torn dust jacket. Maybe an ex-library copy and not include the accompanying CDs, access codes or other supplemental materials.
Newfoundland is a Province of Canada, way out east, in the middle of the North Atlantic, a stone's throw from Ireland. Its people are eccentric and peculiar, its history similarly so. Joey Smallwood was the first Premier of Newfoundland when the rocky island joined Canada as a tenth province, rejecting independence from Britain or colonial status by popular referendum. This story should not be compelling reading, but it is. Most Americans know of Newfoundland only from Annie Proulx's "Shipping News," but here readers have an opportunity to read the "real stuff," actual Newfoundland characters put through actual historical events by a marvelous writer, in the form of a fictionalized autobiography of Joey Smallwood. Incidentally, for those interested in such things, it is also a great piece of neo- or post- colonial writing in the spirit of Naipaul, Keats, et al.
