The Gilded Beaver: An Introduction to the Life and Work of James De Mille

Thomas M.F. Gerry is an English professor at Laurentian University.

Monk’s biography is a readable, scholarly work that fulfills its claim
not only to bring to light an interesting literary person, but also to
direct the illumination of De Mille further, onto his historical and
literary contexts. The Gilded Beaver was the name of the ship on which
De Mille’s Dutch ancestors came to the New World in the 1600s. Monk
finds it appropriate for De Mille himself: he was a stalwart Canadian
over whom has been laid so much misinformation that the figure as he was
has been almost completely obscured. The introductory nature of Monk’s
work is in its opening up of many dimensions of Canada’s Victorian
literary history, revealing better-known figures, such as the
Confederation poets, from fresh angles. With her keen eye for details
and her ability to bring characters to life from archival documents,
Monk has created a fascinating and useful book. The opening chapter on
the family’s history reads almost as a series of begats; while there
are certain respectable precedents for such inventories, a more
captivating beginning to this book would have done it justice. The
bibliography is extensive, providing the reader with numerous starting
points and ideas for further research.