Summer 2007 Volume 21
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PEOPLE FIRST FAST RUNNER orld record holder Harry Jerome’s story is especially compelling because he over- came racial hurdles as the only black athlete in his North Vancouver high school. WDoctors predicted Jerome would never walk again after he suffered a severe injury at the Perth Commonwealth Games in 1962 but he set seven world records, becoming the first human to run 100 metres in ten seconds flat. Now film and television producer Fil Fraser has written the first full-length biography of one of Canada's greatest athletes, Running Uphill: The Short, Fast Life of Harry Jerome (Dragon Hill $18.95, distributed by Lone Pine). In the words of the World and Olympic champion sprinter Dono- van Bailey, “Harry Jerome is Canada’s Jessie Owens. He faced the same battles in his time as Jessie did. Frankly, Harry Jerome’s face should be on a dollar bill. He should be a national hero for what he went through.” Jerome won gold medals for Canada at the British Empire and Com- monwealth Games in 1966, and at the 1967 Pan American Games, but he “only” had one bronze medal to show for his appearances at three Olympic games, resulting in some unsympathetic press coverage. Homegrown heroes such as Just as Cassius Clay tossed his Olympic boxing medal off a bridge in disgust, Harry Jerome learned to distrust media and the whim- weightlifter Doug Hepburn, sical nature of public notoriety. swimmer Elaine Tanner, Upon his retirement from competition in 1969, Jerome accepted an invitation from Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau to work within skater Karen Magnusson Canada's new Ministry of Sport, but he resigned when a sponsorship deal he had helped to arrange with Kellogg’s to support amateur ath- and sprinter letics was kiboshed by the government. The grandson of John Armstrong Howard, a railway por- Harry Jerome ter who had competed for Canada in the 1912 and 1920 Olympics, —the first Canadian to officially Harry Jerome died of a brain tumour in 1982 and was buried in Mountainview Cemetery in North Vancouver. hold a world track record—all Prince Albert, Saskatchewan—where Jerome was born in 1940— named the Harry Jerome Track Complex in his honour and the Harry learned the hard way that Jerome Sports Centre opened in Burnaby in 1997. The Harry Jerome Awards annually recognize outstanding achieve- society only loves a winner. ments by members of Canada’s black community and there is a nine- foot-high bronze statue of Harry Jerome on the Stanley Park seawall. 1-896124-13-5 BC Summer Issue INDEX to Advertisers BOOKWORLD Vol. 21, No. 2 Anvil Press...30 Friesens Printers...42 Reckoning 07...5 Publisher/ Writer: Alan Twigg Editor/Production: David Lester Arsenal Pulp Press...30 Galiano Island Books...40 Ronsdale Press...18 Publication Mail Agreement #40010086 Banyen Books...40 Givner, Joan...41 Royal BC Museum...28 Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: BC BookWorld, 3516 W. 13th Ave., Vancouver, BC V6R 2S3 BC Book Prizes...28 Granville Island Publishing...42 Sandhill...10 Produced with the sponsorship of Pacific BookWorld News BCLA...34 Harbour Publishing...44 Save-On Foods...39 Society. Publications Mail Registration No. 7800. BC BookWorld ISSN: 1701-5405 Belshaw, Cyril...34 HarperCollins...16, 32 Secondhandbooks...42 Advertising & editorial: BC BookWorld, 3516 W. 13th Ave., Bolen Books...39 Heritage House...12 SFU Pubworks...18 Vancouver, B.C., V6R 2S3. Tel/Fax: 604-736-4011 • Email: available on request. Annual subscription: $19.08 Book Warehouse...37 Hignell Printing...42 SFU Writing & Publishing...20 Contributors: Grant Shilling, Mark Forsythe, Sheila Munro, Sidney Booktown...34 Joan Givner, Louise Donnelly, Hannah Main-van der Kamp, Caitlin Press...34 Lammar Printing...43 Heather Ramsay, Cherie Thiessen, Shane McCune. Cormorant Books...25 New Star Books...32, 40, 41 Sono Nis Press...14 Writing not otherwise credited is by staff. Photographers: Barry Peterson, Laura Sawchuk. Crown Publications...39 Nightwood Editions...35 Temeron...32 Proofreaders: Wendy Atkinson, Betty Twigg. Design: Get-to-the-Point Graphics. Deliveries: Ken Reid Douglas & McIntyre...2 Oolichan Books...20 Thomson, Ann...34 We acknowledge the assistance of Canada Douglas College/EVENT...42 Orca Books...24 Triple AAA Photography...34 Council and the Province of British Columbia, through the Douglas College...26 Penguin Books...9 UBC Press...27 Ministry of Community, Aboriginal, and Women’s Ekstasis Editions...8 People’s Co-Op Books...34 Vancouver Desktop...42 Services. Ellis, David...27 Playwrights Canada Press...41 Woewoda, James...42 Federation of BC Writers...34 Positive Connections...41 Wood Lake Publishing...28 Fernie Writers Conference...19 Printorium...42 Yoka’s Coffee...39 Festival of the Written Arts...4 Random House...6 All BC BookWorld reviews are posted online at www.abcbookworld.com TO ADVERTISE CALL 604-736-4011 3 BOOKWORLD SUMMER 2007 SPORTS SHORT LIST Kicking & dreaming In 1973, there were only HOCKEY = RELIGION? three girls’ soc- in A Ca- does include road cer clubs in ndrew Podnieks British Colum- hockey, backyard bia. By 1980, nadian Saturday Night rinks, hockey cards, Shania Twain there 317 the Sutter brothers, teams playing (Greystone $26.95) states, hosting the 2003 the Niedermayer under the BC A“It is quintessentially Canadian that Juno Awards Girls Soccer brothers, the Hanson brothers Association. In the more successful our hockey play- from the Paul 2004, there Charmaine Hooper were more than movie ers are, the more humble they are Newman 347,000 Slapshot, the Lucky about their accomplishments.” women and girls playing nationally on reg- Loonie and the istered teams—42 percent of Canada’s Montreal riot at the 825,000 players. Highlighting Sidney Crosby as Forum in 1955 after With profiles of Canada’s top female an example, Podnieks suggests hockey Clarence players such as Charmaine Hooper greats invariably store their trophies Campbell suspended and Kara Lang, Goals and Dreams (Nightwood $14.95), by goalkeeping downstairs “on the basement wall or Rocket Richard. coach Shel Brodsgaard and journal- cheap metal shelving, far out of sight.” ✍ ✍ ist Bob Mackin, recalls and celebrates One can easily excuse Podnieks the evolution of Canadian women’s soc- Like Douglas Coupland’s books that for not including any Vancouver cer highlighting the Under-19 Women’s have collected iconic imagery pertain- Canucks, but no Trail Smoke Eaters? World Championships in Edmonton and ing to Terry Fox, Vancouver and B.C.’s most remarkable amateur team the Women’s World Cup, in which Canada, Podnieks’ A Canadian Satur- won the 1939 world championship by Canada beat Argentina, Japan and China day Night provides some surprising back- outscoring their opposition 42-1. They to clinch fourth place. 0-88971-205-0 ground information. also won the 1961 world championship, • The selection of three stars at the end beating Russia 5-1, winning Canada’s “Burnaby Ryan” of each Hockey Night In Canada broad- last international title for 35 years. Cliff Ronning and “Burnaby cast was generated as an adjunct to Im- As Silas White recalls in the Encyclo- Joe” Sakic aren’t the only successful perial Oil commercials (folks older than pedia of B.C., “The name came during hockey players from Burnaby. Drafted fifty will recall Murray Westgate the 1928-29 season when a fan in Van- second overall in 1978 by the Washing- and the Happy Motoring song—“always couver threw a pipe onto the ice to ton Capitals, a franchise that made him the youngest captain in NHL history, look to Imperial for the best”). Back in protest a referee’s call in favour of the Ryan Walter played nine seasons with the the 1950s, the main HNIC sponsor, Esso, visiting Trail Senior Hockey Club. Montreal Canadiens, winning a Stanley had a gasoline called “Three Stars” so the Trail playing coach Craig Cup in 1986, learning French and once tradition of picking the three outstand- Kendall picked it up and smoked being selected to play in the all-star game. ing players began as a marketing scheme. it on his way to the bench, and next During more than one thousand • Hockey cards were invented by the morning The Province newspaper games in the NHL, during which he was St. Lawrence Starch Company in order christened the team.” We await A elected vice-president of the NHL Play- ers’ Association, Ryan Walter played his to promote Bee Hive Corn Syrup. The Canadian Saturday Night II, surely last two years with the Vancouver company would mail one hockey card at in the works. 1-55365-201-0 Canucks, serving as an assistant cap- a time—for free—in exchange for tain. every three box tops from St. Law- Upon retirement from hockey in rence products that were sent to them. 1993, Walter, an ardent Christian, In the days before television, this was has morphed into a play-by-play the only way fans across Canada could sidekick for hockey broadcasts, cre- see what the 120 players in the NHL ated a hockey board game called Trade Deadline and appeared as the looked like. referee in the movie Miracle. His “The players back then always motivational book is Off the Bench looked much older than their age,” and into the Game: Eight Suc- writes Podnieks. “They had stern ex- cess Strategies from Profes- pressions, even when they were smil- sional Sport (Heritage $19.95). ing. They seemed suspicious of what 1-894974-23-9 they were being asked to do—pose— as if by doing so they revealed some- Sheepshanks’ thing about themselves that they didn’t want to, like tribesmen from discovery the Brazilian rain forest who feared A high school annual approach their souls would be stolen if they to history won’t gain much critical re- were photographed.” nown, but Craig H.