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N U M B E R 3 7 ■ Spring 2013 ■ $ 2 . 0 0 ■ IMAGINATION ■ EVERYDAY PEOPLE COLLOQUIUM ■ HOSTAGES ALONG THE BORDER The Morrin Centre is managed by the Literary & Historical Society of Quebec. Society Pages are published with the assistance of Canada Post. SOCIETY PAGES Quebec Heritage News Subscribe Now! Quebec’s English-language heritage magazine. Popular history – Profiles of remarkable people and events – Con- temporary issues in heritage conservation – Book reviews – In- sightful commentary – and much more. Individual: $30 for 1 year; $75 for 3 years; $120 for 5 years Institutional: $40 for 1 year; $100 for 3 years; $160 for 5 years To pay by cheque, please mail payment to: QAHN, 400-257 rue Queen, Sherbrooke QC J1M 1K7. Or pay by Paypal to: [email protected]. For more information, call (819) 564-9595 Toll free: 1-877-964-0409. STUDY IN ENGLISH AT UNIVERSITÉ LAVAL We offer: B.A. in English (Baccalauréat en études anglaises) M.A. in English (Maîtrise en littératures d’expression anglaise) AIDE FINANCIÈRE With specialists2e et 3 ine Canadian,cycles American, FONDSBritish, D’ASS andISTAN IrishAT ÀLiterature LA MAÎTR ISE FONDS D’ASSISTANAT AU DOCTORAT PRIMES À LA PROGRESSION Contact: BOURSES D’EXCELLENCE Dr. Brad Kent, Graduate Program Director Département des littératures FacultéIN desF OlettresRMA TION EN LIGNE [email protected] SECTION AIDE FINANCIÈRE Département des littératures SPRING 2013 EDITOR Bethann G. Merkle ■ PUBLISHER NUMBER 37 ■ SPRING 2013 Literary & Historical Society of Quebec 44 chaussée des Écossais Quebec, Quebec G1R 4H3 PHONE CONTENTS 418-694-9147 FAX 418-694-0754 Letter from the President 4 Sovita Chander GENERAL INQUIRIES [email protected] WEBSITE From the Executive Director 5 Barry McCullough www.morrin.org ■ TRANSACTIONS Jack Bryden & Britta LHSQ COUNCIL 6 Hostages Along the Border Gundersen-Bryden [email protected] Sovita Chander, President Once Upon a President 8 Maxime Chouinard Ladd Johnson, Vice-President Gina Farnell, Treasurer Shauneen Furlong, Secretary Donald Fyson, Honorary Librarian ImagiNation 10 Elizabeth Perreault Barry Holleman, Member at Large Peter Black EVENTS & ACTIVITIES William GK Boden 12 Bethann G. Merkle Katherine Burgess Everyday People Diana Cline James Haberlin Bruce Lawrie Lumocité 14 Barry McCullough Hélène Thibault David F. Blair, Ex-Officio LIBRARY PAGES 15 Britta Gundersen-Bryden ■ On the Shelf DIRECTOR Barry McCullough Executive Director Meet the New Librarian 17 Jessica Kelly-Rhéaume [email protected] ■ Book Reviews 18 Mary Linklater FULL-TIME STAFF Special Thank You Maxime Chouinard 19 Conservation and Interpretation Advisor to volunteers & sponsors [email protected] Rosemarie Fischer Administrative Assistant [email protected] Stefanie Johnston Guided Tours Coordinator LIBRARY HOURS [email protected] Jessica Kelly-Rhéaume Sunday 12:00PM-4:00PM Library Manager Monday CLOSED [email protected] Elizabeth Perreault Tuesday 12:00PM-8:00PM Program and Communications Director Wednesday 12:00PM-4:00PM [email protected] ■ Thursday 12:00PM-8:00PM The mission of the Morrin Centre Friday 12:00PM-4:00PM is to share and foster English-language Saturday 10:00AM-4:00PM culture in the Quebec City region. The Morrin Centre is administered by the Literary & Historical Society of Quebec. Front cover: The Morrin Centre, lit up during Lumocité. Photo by Julien Auger. See article on ISSN 1913-0732 page 14 for details about the event. SOCIETY PAGES LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT Dear Members and Friends, As I write these words in mid-March, the Society is in the thick of preparations for our Annual General Meeting. The invitations are being sent to members. The financial audit is underway. And the Nominations Committee is confirming Council candidates. Sadly, we are saying au revoir (but thankfully, not goodbye) to several Council members: Louisa Blair, Taylor Ireland, Barbara Salomon de Friedburg, and Elspeth Tulloch. On behalf of our members, I would like to thank them all for their work on Council. Louisa has seen us through years of transformation as the Morrin Centre has grown, and we will miss her wise counsel on history and the “content” side of things. Most recently, Louisa very generously served as interim Honorary Librarian and as a member of the Executive Committee. Taylor brought a business perspective to Council that contributed to the effective management of the Centre. Barbara fulfilled her role as Honorary Librarian admirably, even in the face of diminishing health. We wish her the best in her recovery. And Elspeth has been instrumental in shaping the ImagiNation Writers’ Festival. It wouldn’t be the success it is today without her work. We have a promising year ahead of us, full of wonderful events and opportunities to build and share in our culture. We also have a solid group of candidates for Council – all people who are deeply committed to making the Morrin Centre thrive and flourish. I hope to meet many of you, our members, in the coming weeks at the Annual General Meeting and at upcoming events. One event I am personally proud to support and attend is the ImagiNation Writers’ Festival, which showcases some terrific writers. Isn’t it wonderful that we, the Morrin Centre and the Lit and His, are the ones bringing them to Quebec City? Your support over the past years has made this possible. I hope you’ll be there for the Centre in the years to come. Yours Sincerely, Sovita Chander LHSQ President PAGE 4 SPRING 2013 FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Dear members, Spring is now here and the ImagiNation Writers’ Festival is just around the corner. From April 6 to 16 the Festival celebrates its fourth year with 12 renowned authors from all across Canada. You can check out their biographies in the centrefold of this issue of Society Pages. On a less happy note, Library Manager Virginie Haustrate left us in January. Her expertise and sunny disposition will be greatly missed by everyone. I would like to thank her for over two years of exemplary work and wish her the all the best in Vienna. Our loss is Austria’s gain. However, with loss comes opportunity and I am pleased to officially welcome Jessica Kelly-Rhéaume to the Morrin team. She has just relocated to Quebec City from Montreal and has already made a positive impact on the Centre. She is very enthusiastic about the library and is eager to further its development. We all look forward to working with her. On a frigid night in January our volunteers demonstrated their terrific enthusiasm by braving the -40 degrees weather to attend the annual Volunteer Appreciation Night. The evening featured a cocktail, a dinner as well as the first-ever Morrin trivia game. The volunteers were divided into four teams and vied for Morrin knowledge supremacy. Even though the Lit-n-Hissers took home the top prize, nobody went home empty-handed. Door prizes were generously provided by our sponsors, all of whom are members of the Association des gens d’affaires du Vieux-Québec. You can find their logos on the inside of the back cover. This was our way of saying thanks to our invaluable volunteers, who generously donate their time to us throughout the year. We have hosted several stimulating events and talks so far in 2013, including our Everyday People colloquium, an exploration of the history and culture of Quebec City’s English-speaking communities. The event was at full capacity, as was a recent talk by noted member and volunteer Jack Bryden. With the increasing popularity of these events, we request that you reserve your place in advance. We are already busy planning the rest of the year’s programming and there are some wonderful events and activities in store. I hope to see you at one (or several) of them. Sincerely, Barry McCullough Executive Director Follow us on Facebook. Check out pictures of our events and more! PAGE 5 SOCIETY PAGES TRANSACTIONS HOSTAGES ALONG THE BORDER Jack Bryden and Britta Gundersen-Bryden Life in Nouvelle France and New England was difficult during the eighteen century. Harsh winters, disease and accidents took their toll on settlers and First Nations alike. European conflicts quickly spread to the North American colonies and often involved First Nations that became allied with France or England, the global superpowers of that period. North American history tends to focus on the major Franco-Anglo battles that took place during the 1700s. But coastal privateering, small-scale skirmishes and frontier raids were more common and served to Bay Colony (which included much of present-day terrorize civilian populations. In many cases, the Massachusetts, Maine, Vermont and New objective was not only to kill and create mayhem but Hampshire). Hostages were quickly marched north also to take hostages. towards Mohawk and Abenaki settlements in the French colony. The route followed established trade The French and English forces both took hostages, routes such as the route across Lake Champlain or the usually to exchange for prisoners who had been route along the Chaudière River. The pace was captured in earlier encounters. First Nations, gruelling in order to out-distance the search and principally the Abenaki and Mohawk, had various rescue parties that often followed. Those who were motives for taking hostages. In some cases they aimed weak and could not keep up (the elderly, young to strengthen their links with their European allies. In children and often their mothers) were quickly other cases, they profited from the ransom fees paid dispatched. The highest survival rates was among by families and communities for the release of healthy teenagers and young adults under 25. hostages. In still other situations, Once the hostages and their capturers were safely in their goal was to French territory, delicate negotiations usually replenish their began.