Solomon Gursky Was Here

Author’s Note

Years ago, following the publication of another novel, a television interviewer asked me, “Is this book based on fact, or did you just make it up out of your own head?”

I made the Gurskys up out of my own head, but I did not invent everything in Solomon Gursky Was Here. I dug deeply into Franklin, M’Clure, Back, Richardson and the rest on the doomed expedition to circumnavigate the globe through the Northwest Passage, putting my own spin on events. Frozen in Time: The Fate of the Franklin Expedition, by Owen Beattie and John Geiger, struck me as the most original of recent studies. I am indebted to The Raven Steals the Light, by Bill Reid and Robert Bringhurst, for the Haida myths. I found The Victorian Underworld, by Kellow Chesney, indispensable in my attempt to recreate nineteenth-century London. I have leaned heavily on James H. Gray’s Red Lights on the Prairie and Booze for western history, and on Bernard Epps’ More Tales of the Townships. I am also grateful to Christopher Dafoe, editor of The Beaver, for going through his files for me.

I should also come clean and admit that Captain Al Cohol is not my invention. He was conceived by Art Sorensen, then with the NWT Alcohol Education Program, and the radio scripts I have quoted from are by E.G. Perrault.

Finally, I would like to acknowledge the help of my wife. Over the years, Florence had to endure this novel in many drafts. Without her encouragement, not to mention crucial editorial suggestions, I would have given up on Solomon Gursky Was Here long ago.

Mordecai Richler