Stanley Park's Secret
(Hardback)
Publishing Details
Stanley Park's Secret
By (Author) Jean Barman
Harbour Publishing
Harbour Publishing
9th January 2006
Canada
Classifications
General
Non Fiction
971.133
Physical Properties
Hardback
288
Width 160mm, Height 230mm, Spine 23mm
594g
Description
Officially opened in 1888, Stanley Park was born alongside the city of Vancouver, so it is easy to assume that the park was a pristine wilderness when it was first created. But, no, it was imposed on existing ways of life. Working in collaboration with descendants, Jean Barman skilfully weaves together family stories with archival documents, Vancouver Parks Board records and court proceedings to reveal a troubling, yet deeply important facet of BC's history.
Reviews
"Reading a book by local historian Jean Barman is like looking at the negative of a well-loved picture. By reversing the light and the dark, she forces us to tee the edges, the margins, the details pushed aside by the Technicolor myths of an accepted history."
--Geoff D'Auria, Vancouver Review
"Jean Barman reveals the 'secret' past of Vancouver's greatest park in this engaging and well-written story of the families who lived within Stanley Park's current boundaries. Barman shatters forever our idea of Stanley Park as a pristine wilderness carefully set aside for future generations."
--David Rahn, Western Mariner
"Stanley Park's Secret offers another history, another way of seeing people, land and how the two intersect when interests conflict. . . . Drawing on oral histories and hundreds of documents, she gives voice to those who have been silenced."
--Candace Fertile, The Vancouver Sun
Author Bio
Jean Barman, professor emeritus, has published more than twenty books, including On the Cusp of Contact: Gender, Space and Race in the Colonization of British Columbia (Harbour Publishing, 2020) and the winner of the 2006 City of Vancouver Book Award, Stanley Parks Secret (Harbour Publishing, 2005). Her lifelong pursuit to enrich the history of BC has earned her such honours as a Governor Generals Award, a George Woodcock Lifetime Achievement Award, a Lieutenant Governors Medal for Historical Writing and a position as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. She lives in Vancouver, BC.
