A Cyclopaedia of Canadian Biography.

Every nation, at some point, sets about recording the lives of those it counts as notable. This cyclopaedia belongs to that impulse, assembling biographical accounts of Canadians of standing into a single work of reference and remembrance.

What it's about

The volume collects biographies of prominent Canadian figures — statesmen, professionals, churchmen, and men of business among them — setting out their careers, accomplishments, and public service. Reference works of this kind aim to be both a record for their own time and a resource for those who come after.

Themes

Achievement, public life, and national self-portraiture run through the collection. In choosing whom to include and how to describe them, such a book reveals the values and aspirations of the society that produced it.

Why it still matters

Biographical cyclopaedias are treasure troves for historians and genealogists, preserving detail about individuals who might otherwise vanish from the record. As a portrait of who a nation once honoured, this volume has value beyond the facts it stores.

Who it's for

Genealogists, historians of Canada, and readers interested in the making of the nation and the lives of those who built it.