Description

The second edition of Mark Ableys acclaimed creative biography, revised and expanded with a new introduction by the author.

When he died in 1947, Duncan Campbell Scott was revered as one of his countrys finest poets and honoured as a devoted civil servant. Today, because of his work as head of the Department of Indian Affairs, hes widely considered one of historys worst Canadians. When word of this reaches Scotts ghost, he returns to the land of the living to ask poet and journalist Mark Abley to clear his name, and in the ensuing research, Abley learns of a man who could somehow write vibrant poems about Indigenous people in one moment, and in another institute policies designed to destroy Indigenous culture and force assimilation.

With intelligence, moral ferocity, and a hunger for truth, Abley delves into Scotts professional and personal lives while also exploring the hostile government policiesincluding the residential school systemthat damaged and continue to damage the lives of hundreds of thousands of Indigenous people. By mixing traditional non-fiction with an imagined debate between the author and Scotts ghost, Conversations with a Dead Man makes it clear that the villain was a man, and his nation is our nation. Ableys act of radical empathy makes it harder to turn the page on a chapter of our history we might otherwise slam shut (Andrew Stobo Sniderman, Macleans).

Author: Mark Abley
Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Stonehewer Books
Published: 02/13/2024
Pages: 368
Weight: 1.15lbs
Size: 8.10h x 5.20w x 1.10d
ISBN: 9781738993321
Language: English