More History with a Twist: True Stories from Mr. Nova Scotia Know-It-All

Richard Wilbur is the author of The Rise of French New Brunswick and
co-author of Silver Harvest: The Fundy Weirmen’s Story.

This is one book I could and did put aside frequently, not because of
the content, but the author’s style—a golly-gee-whizz, nudge-nudge,
pun-littered approach that undoubtedly pleased his original targets,
regular CBC’s Nova Scotia radio listeners, but not this reviewer. This
is Nunn’s second volume of stories he first aired on radio. Throughout
this version, I was impressed with his ability and determination to
track down living sources, usually relatives of the person behind the
event. Whether they lived in North America or the Far East, Nunn’s
long and presumably recorded telephone conversations are deftly woven
into the main story. He also makes excellent use of existing archival
and other written material. The 60 items are of varying lengths and
almost all have illustrations (either photographs of the subject or
sketches).

The subject matter includes the more familiar (the designer of the
Bluenose, Joseph Howe’s role in Confederation, the ponies of Sable
Island, and the endless search for the Oak Island treasure), but the
great majority of the stories are about little-known but fascinating
events and personalities. Walter D’Arcy Ryan worked closely with
Thomas Edison and pioneered the field of outdoor lighting; Dr. Kenneth
MacKinnon, 80 when interviewed by Nunn, was the first person in the
British Commonwealth to successfully conduct a kidney transplant;
Brother Matthias introduced Babe Ruth to a baseball bat; the geological
knowledge of Dr. Donald F. MacDonald was used in construction of the
Panama Canal; Eliza Ruggles applied her deep Methodist convictions to
assist African slaves to return to their homeland and even stayed there
with them for two years. Nunn has made great use of listeners’
suggestions, and the results, first in the form of weekly radio talks
and later in this published form, add up to pure gold for Nova
Scotia’s image and especially its tourist promotion.