Building on River

"This narrative in verse builds on known facts to imagine the life of John Rudolphus Booth, who arrived in roughhouse Bytown in the early 1850s with a wife, a child, and carpenter's tools bought on credit. In the growing new capital of Canada, he built a storied empire on the river power and forests of the Ottawa Valley. The poems speak in varied voices - of Booth himself, family members, business associates, employees, visiting royalty and tavern wags - collectively evoking the man, the place, and the times with drama, insight, and vivid sensory detail."--