Beneath My Feet: The Memoirs of George Mercer Dawson

Although subtitled "The Memoirs of George Mercer Dawson", Dawson (1849-1901) did not write his memoirs. Dawson was a geologist, author, teacher, civil servant, geographer, anthropologist, and palaeontologist, and the man who led the Geological Survey during its exploration of the Canadian West. This was a remarkable feat for a man who had been crippled with Pott's disease (tuberculosis of the spine) that left him hunchbacked, stunted his growth (he never grew taller than a young boy) and in constant pain. The eldest son of Sir John William Dawson (1820-1899), also a noted scientist and Principal of McGill University, the younger Dawson was educated at the High School of Montreal, McGill University and London's Royal School of Mines. Dawson wrote constantly: poetry, journals, reports, notes, and more than five thousand letters, his first at the age of six and his last just two days before he died in 1901. But he never wrote his memoirs. Using Dawson's own words, and filling in the gaps in "Dawson's voice", the author crafted Dawson's "memoirs" that were never actually written.

Toronto, ON

McClelland and Stewart

2007

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