The Canadian Don Quixote: The Life and World of Major John Richardson, Canada's First Novelist. 2nd ed.

Naomi Brun is a freelance writer and a book reviewer for The Hamilton
Spectator.

David Beasley was born in Hamilton, Ontario. Following his undergraduate
studies in English and history, he spent five years in Europe, and then
moved to New York, where he worked as a research librarian and union
leader. He now resides in southern Ontario, where he writes and
publishes. In 1977, Beasley first published The Canadian Don Quixote to
fundamentally positive reviews, and he has now brought out a second
edition of this seminal work.

The Canadian Don Quixote recounts the varied and remarkable life of
Major John Richardson. Richardson was born in 1796 in Newark (now
Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario) and spent a fractured childhood in Detroit
and Amherstburg before joining the army at the age of 15. He fought in
the War of 1812 and the Spanish War, spent some time in the colonial
West Indies, travelled throughout Europe, and eventually returned to the
land of his birth. Richardson then left his military life behind,
serving instead as a journalist in Canada before going on to edit
several newspapers. He also played an instrumental role in
pre-Confederation politics in Upper Canada and wrote several novels,
largely based on his own life experiences. Beasley’s Richardson was an
idealist above all else; he sought to make the world a better place
wherever he happened to be.

Beasley’s biography stands as a definitive account of the life of
Major John Richardson. Scrupulously researched and very well written,
this literary biography will undoubtedly remain a classic for some time
to come.