In this unusual book Joan Finnigan brings to life some of the giants, real and metaphoric, larger-than -life and legendary, who lived their colourful lives and performed their daring deeds in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the Ottawa Valley. The result of several years of research, fact and legend are fascinatingly interwoven in these tales of Joseph Montferrand, the Giant of the Ottawa River; Laird Archibald MacNab, the Giant of MacNab Township; Alexander MacDonnell, King of the Four Rivers; Rory MacLennan, the Giant of Glengarry; Mountain Jack Thomson, the Giant of Portage-du-Fort; and Harry McLean, the Giant Builder from Merrickville. Some of theses stories of the giants, like that of Joseph Montferrand, have passed through all the stages in the evolution of legend and are firmly embedded now in the imagination of Canadians of both English and French descent on both sides of the Ottawa River; others, like the stories of Alexander MacDonnell, Mountain Jack Thomson, Rory MacLennan, and Harry McLean, for the first time in a cohesive manner make their transition from the oral to the written tradition. Illustrated with rare archival and contempory photographs, The Giants of Canada's Ottawa Valley adds grist to the mill of our folklorists and historians, and will delight young readers and surely captivate the adults.

Giants of Canada's Ottawa Valley

History

Joan Finnigan

Americas

General Store Pub. House

Down the Unmarked Roads

Literature & Fiction

Award winning storyteller, Joan Finnigan, once again travels up the line to record more tales of the Ottawa Valley. Told with humour and warmth by the people who lived them, these stories celebrate many of the colourful characters and goings-on that are found in every concession in the region. Like the Lady of the Castle who eloped to Canada with her Irish constable, the family who kept the Stanley Cup on their dinning room table, and the magistrate who administered justice --Ottawa Valley style. Storytelling has a rich tradition in the Ottawa Valley and Joan Finnigan has a gift for finding those who do it best, in this, her fifth collection of social/oral histories.

Tallying the tales of the oldtimers

General Store Publishing House

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Books by Joan Finnigan