Includes reproductions of original paintings by the Group of Seven and contemporary photographs of the locations where the original works were created.

A celebration of one hundred years of Canada's most famous group of painters, expertly blending visual artistry with evocative works of short fiction. Founded in 1920, the Group of Seven has been capturing the imaginations of Canadians for nearly a century, helping to shape our national identity with their stunning landscape paintings representing every region of the country. In honour of the one-hundred-year anniversary of the Group's formation, The Group of Seven Reimaginedtakes a fresh look at twenty-one paintings from the Group's vast oeuvre, extracting narrative from landscape and uniting Canada's most beloved works of art with some of its most distinguished names in contemporary literary fiction. This gorgeous full-colour art book includes works by the original Group of Seven--Franklin Carmichael, Lawren Harris, A.Y. Jackson, Frank Johnston, Arthur Lismer, J.E.H. MacDonald, and Frederick H. Varley--as well as later members A.J. Casson, L.L. FitzGerald, and Edwin Holgate, plus their contemporaries Tom Thomson and Emily Carr. Each painting is accompanied by a short narrative--or "flash fiction" piece--written by critically acclaimed, award-winning authors, including Carol Bruneau, Waubgeshig Rice, Tamas Dobozy, and JJ Lee. Rather than analyze or interpret the art, these literary masters look deep inside each painting, crafting new layers of plot, setting, and emotion that feel at once entirely fresh and completely at home alongside these early-twentieth-century works. With a foreword by Sue and Jim Waddington, authors of the popular In the Footsteps of the Group of Seven,this innovative take on the Group of Seven is sure to inspire and delight Canadians from coast to coast.

Did Marco Polo reach China? This richly illustrated companion volume to the public television film chronicles the remarkable two-year expedition of explorers Denis Belliveau and Francis O'Donnell as they sought the answer to this controversial 700-year-old question. With Polo's book, The Travels of Marco Polo, as their guide, they journeyed over 25,000 miles becoming the first to retrace his entire path by land and sea without resorting to helicopters or airplanes. Surviving deadly skirmishes and capture in Afghanistan, they were the first Westerners in a generation to cross its ancient forgotten passageway to China, the Wakhan Corridor. Their camel caravan on the southern Silk Road encountered the deadly singing sands of the Taklamakan and Gobi deserts. In Sumatra, where Polo was stranded waiting for trade winds, they lived with the Mentawai tribes, whose culture has remained unchanged since the Bronze Age. They became among the first Americans granted visas to enter Iran, where Polo fulfilled an important mission for Kublai Khan. Accompanied by 200 stunning full-color photographs, the text provides a fascinating account of the lands and peoples the two hardy adventurers encountered during their perilous journey. The authors' experiences are remarkably similar to descriptions from Polo's account of his own travels and life. Laden with adventure, humor, diplomacy, history, and art, this book is compelling proof that travel is the enemy of bigotry—a truth that resonates from Marco Polo's time to our own.

A beautiful introduction to Canada’s famous artists. In 1920, a group of Toronto artists exhibited their work together for the first time. They called themselves the Group of Seven. Their paintings were very different from the art of the time. Some people were excited by their unique styles, and some were horrified. It took years for their work to be fully appreciated. But today, the Group of Seven are some of Canada’s best-loved artists. Here’s a must-have reference to the artists who changed the landscape of Canadian art forever.

Beginning in 1912, Defiant Spirits traces the artistic development of Tom Thomson and the future members of the Group of Seven, Franklin Carmichael, Lawren Harris, A. Y. Jackson, Franz Johnston, Arthur Lismer, J. E. H. MacDonald, and Frederick Varley, over a dozen years in Canadian history. Working in an eclectic and sometimes controversial blend of modernist styles, they produced what an English critic celebrated in the 1920s as the “most vital group of paintings” of the 20th century. Inspired by Cézanne, Van Gogh and other modernist artists, they tried to interpret the Ontario landscape in light of the strategies of the international avant-garde. Based after 1914 in the purpose-built Studio Building for Canadian Art, the young artists embarked on what Lawren Harris called “an all-engrossing adventure”: travelling north into the anadian Shield and forging a style of painting appropriate to what they regarded as the unique features of Canada’s northern landscape. Rigorously researched and drawn from archival documents and letters, Defiant Spirits constitutes a “group biography,” reconstructing the men’s aspirations, frustrations and achievements. It details not only the lives of Tom Thomson and the members of the Group of Seven but also the political and social history of Canada

On October 29, 1908, a party of four men, led by Ernest Shackleton, set out to be the first to reach the South Pole. Three months later, their mission was in ruins and they faced certain death if they carried on. Just ninety-seven miles from the South Pole, Shackleton turned back. One hundred years later, in October 2008, a team that included descendants of that original party, led by Henry Worsley, set out from Shackleton’s hut to celebrate the centenary of his expedition by retracing the exact 870-mile route and going on to finish the last ninety-seven miles. This captivating book explores the history of the original expedition and reasons behind its failure, while capturing the meticulous planning, fundraising, and training for the new expedition. It includes riveting accounts of the team’s first days on the ice, Christmas on the polar plateau, the brutal reality of crossing the Beardmore Glacier, and the final miles to the South Pole. In Shackleton's Footsteps is a unique story of adventure, pioneering spirit, settling old family business, and man’s triumph over nature.

Every year, 30–40 young Amish men descend on the cozy little town of West Kootenai, Montana, arriving in the spring to live there for six months and receive “resident” status for the hunting season in the fall. They arrive as bachelors, but go home with brides! Sarah Shelter has lived in West Kootenai for the last ten years and wonders if she will ever fall in love. Since the tragic death of her best friend, she carries her memories in a jar along with the small items connected to them. For just as long, she’s also been carrying around her emotions instead of allowing them to penetrate deep into her heart. Now she’s met a kind and gentle man who may be able to break down the wall. But can Sarah risk her heart to finally achieve her dreams?

This monograph demonstrates why humanism began in Italy in the mid-thirteenth century. It considers Petrarch a third generation humanist, who christianized a secular movement. The analysis traces the beginning of humanism in poetry and its gradual penetration of other Latin literary genres, and, through stylistic analyses of texts, the extent to which imitation of the ancients produced changes in cognition and visual perception. The volume traces the link between vernacular translations and the emergence of Florence as the leader of Latin humanism by 1400 and why, limited to an elite in the fourteenth century, humanism became a major educational movement in the first decades of the fifteenth. It revises our conception of the relationship of Italian humanism to French twelfth-century humanism and of the character of early Italian humanism itself. This publication has also been published in hardback, please click here for details.

When 14-year-old Ruby Carson takes a tumble through the ice she nearly drowns. Coming to, she has a vision of her town under water that she shares with the assembled crowd. Already something of an oddity, the vision solidifies her status as an outcast. But as it turns out she was right ...