Dictionary of Canadian Biography, Vol. 13: 1901-1910

Trevor S. Raymond is a teacher and librarian with the Peel Board of Education and editor of Canadian Holmes.

In the words of editor Ramsay Cook, 648 people who died between 1901 and
1910 “are assured of survival” by this latest volume of what surely
must be the most ambitious undertaking in Canadian historiography. One
of its great features is its broad inclusiveness. Another is its
impeccable scholarship, rigorous enough to meet the highest standards.
The 438 biographers who contributed to this work use primary sources;
each entry is accompanied by a bibliography and notes; a general
bibliography covers 26 pages. Going to primary sources has led some of
these biographers to conclusions that differ from other published work.
For example, the biography of Gabriel Dumont, a key Métis figure in the
Northwest Rebellion, specifically takes issue with George Woodcock’s
full-length biography.

Names are cross-referenced within this book and to past and future
volumes. Subjects are indexed by their place of birth, by career, by the
geographical area in which their floruit years were spent, and in some
cases by race or gender. John T. Wood, for instance, a Confederate naval
hero who sought coal in Halifax after capturing or destroying some 25
Union craft, is listed in “Index of Identifications” under the
“Armed Forces” subentries “American,” and “Navy: Officers,”
as well as under the “Business” subentries “Commerce” and
“Financial Institutions.” In the “Geographical Index,” he
appears under “USA” (birth, career) and “Nova Scotia” (career).

Perhaps the greatest value of the book is the cumulative picture it
gives us of the last half of the 19th century, when most of the events
herein took place. Of a report Hector Langevin wrote as a cabinet
minister in 1882, his biographer says, “To read it is to watch the
creation of a nation.” There can be no better words to describe this
book.