Six Years in the Bush: Or, Extracts from the Journal of a Settler in Upper Canada 1832-1838
Place Published: London
Publisher: Simpkin, Marshall, & Co.
Date Published: 1838
Edition: 1st Edition
Binding: Hard Cover
INSCRIBED TO AUTHOR'S DAUGHTER FROM THE BOOK'S EDITOR
First edition. Scarce. 6-1/4 x 3-3/4 inches vii, 126 p. contemporary half-morocco covers on marbled paper. Cover edges worn especially front. Internally scattered spotting, previous owner's ink signature to front free endpaper, cutting on Thomas Need pasted to final endpapers, contemporary half-morocco, a little rubbed. Insides generally clean with some spotting. Presentation copy inscribed to the author's daughter, “Mary [Elizabeth] Need from her father’s old friend the Editor April 1866”.
Mary Elizabeth Need (née Chambers) was born 6 July 1823 in Kilmarsh, Derbyshire, England making her 43 years old when this book was given to her by her father's friend, the editor. The editor, is likely the writer of the two page preface in this book and selected and edited the copy from Thomas Need’s personal diary to incorporate in content this book). Mary Elizabeth died 1902 at about age 79 in Exmoor, Somerset, England, UK. Contains sketches of Indian life, early Settlers, Government Lands, Tables etc. Ex-library with p.25, 50 & 100 having red 1 inch circle Nottinghamshire County Council Leisure Services Libraries stamp. "Colonization is not only a manifest expedient ..."--Coleridge.' Tremaine 2195; Sabin 10607
Published anonymously. Originally attributed erroneously to Susanna Moodie but later corrected when John Langton’s letters were published, in 1926, that Thomas Need’s authorship and contribution to Canadian literature were revealed. Also authorship confirmed in “A bibliography of Canadiana no. 2195” Toronto Public Library.
Englishman Thomas Need (1808-1895) immigrated to Upper Canada, arriving at York (Toronto) in late May 1832 and settling in Verulam Township, near Peterborough, the following April. Need was an important member of the government commission which supervised the building of the first lock on the Trent waterway at what became Bobcaygeon in 1833-34. In 1834 he founded the village of Bobcaygeon itself and established the foundations of any pioneer community - sawmill, gristmill, and general store.
Six years in the bush (1838) is a brief and enthusiastic glimpse of an educated man’s successful adjustment to the wilderness. Written in an economical style, the book balances frequent observations of Need’s first years in Upper Canada with fewer entries in later years, when his responsibilities increased. The book was initially advertised as a sequel to The Backwoods of Canada (1836) by Catharine Parr Traill [Strickland], and, even though it was one of many that had been written about the pioneering experience, it received respectable coverage in British periodicals. One review observed that “this plain volume is one of the most valuable of its kind that we have seen”; another found “the day-by-day account of his employments and amusements . . . very interesting, partly in itself and partly from the character of the writer.” The book naturally aroused curiosity among Need’s cultured near neighbours in Upper Canada, including John and Anne Langton. Anne was not concerned about its “deviations from the undeniable” but she felt it was “a slight affair to have attracted so much notice, as from its mention in the periodicals.” Although it was among the earliest works written by the Sturgeon Lake group, fuller accounts of backwoods life by other immigrants, including Frances Stewart [Browne], Susanna Moodie [Strickland], and Samuel Strickland, would eclipse Need’s concise book. Quoted from DCB online.
Good. Item #9003
$1,500.00 USD
$2,029.47 CAD