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Great Cape Breton Shipwreck Stories
Editor: Ronald CaplanPublisher: Breton Books$18.95One lasting value of any shipwreck is the marvelous stories that come out of those terrible events. Ronald Caplan has collected a terrific batch of stories ranging from the gut-wrenching 1761 winter trek of survivors of the Auguste to John Angus Fraser’s hilarious 1955 adventures aboard the abandoned Kismet II. Walter Boudreau delivers his harrowing account adrift in a lifeboat while his companions died around him, and survivors of the Marine Atlantic Caribou ferry tell of being torpedoed by a Nazi submarine between Cape Breton and Newfoundland.
Filled with courage and humanity–stories of people determined to live, told by people determined to keep these stories alive.
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Great Cape Breton Storytelling
Editor: Ronald CaplanPublisher: Breton Books$21.95From a lifetime of collecting, Ron Caplan offers tales from the rare complex of Cape Breton Island. From a grim sealing trek to a mother’s courage in a windstorm, to memories of drunken hens, to a shark attack. Mackerel fishermen bag a huge tuna, and an itinerant butcher chases a wild cow. The book includes fables from the island’s Czech, Pakistani, and Lebanese heritage in among stories from the Gaelic, French and Mi’kmaq traditions. Good solid reading in one lasting collection!
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Folk Tale Journey Through the Maritimes
Editor: Michael Taft, Ronald CaplanPublisher: Breton Books$21.95These are the folk tales from Dr. Helen Creighton’s life journey through the Maritime Provinces, collecting songs and ghost stories and old cures–and folk tales. Helen serves as our guide, introducing us to storytellers, setting the scene of the telling–and then she lets the person tell the story just as it was told to her.
The feel of the kitchen and the fish shed still cling to these stories. Some are long, really miraculous folk tales–miraculous in detail and in that they have managed to survive. Others are the brief riddle or the tantalizing quick-telling that a folklorist can expect along the way. Helen kept it all. And taken as a whole, the reality and intensity of those rare smaller pieces reveal their value in among the more finished, well-told tales.
Both Helen Creighton and A Folk Tale Journey Through the Maritimes are Atlantic treasures. Edited with an Introduction and Notes by Michael Taft and Ronald Caplan, and a Motif Index by Michael Taft.
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Highland Settler The Classic Portrait of the Scottish Gael in Cape Breton and Eastern Nova Scotia
Publisher: Breton Books$18.95At the core of Charles W. Dunn’s pioneering work with the Canadian Gaelic-speaking community in the twentieth century, Highland Settler is the story of immigration, rural settlement, and the later dispersion to the industrial world–a thoughtful and entertaining history of an extraordinary people.
Dunn’s extensive interviews and the informed warmth of his approach make Highland Settler an essential book in the discovery of Cape Breton Island. Drawing on delightful storytelling, and local songs and poetry that settlers composed and loved, Dunn achieves a Gaelic settlers’ self-portrait as well as the historian and folklorist’s insight into the culture.
A fresh new edition of an elegant and accessible classic about folk ways vibrant in the 1940s and alive today in Cape Breton Island, with the details and historical perspective of this expert researcher.
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The Innocent And Other Stories
Publisher: Breton Books$14.95Including Sheldon Currie’s guide and thoughtful introduction, The Innocent and Other Writings is another in a series of Breton Books by and about Legendary Cape Bretoners. Tessie Gillis ranks as the Godmother of Cape Breton Fiction–the first woman to dare write about the darker side of rural Cape Breton and the challenges and strategies for surviving and creating a compassionate and enduring community. Tenderness and insight are fundamental threads through all her writings.
This new collection is an essential sampler of Tessie Gillis’s writing, including “The Innocentt”, “The Day the Men Went to Town,” a beautiful portion of “The Last Chapter But One,” and much more. These are lasting stories for today.
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Dignity, Democracy, Development A Citizen’s Reader
Publisher: Breton Books$19.95With these 61 readable essays, Cape Breton’s Tom Urbaniak brings a courageous, critical and constructive eye to problems of our time. Whether it’s revitalizing struggling communities, harnessing the power of small investors, reforming tired institutions or protecting parliamentary democracy, he is able to point to workable solutions. This is a practical and thought-provoking reader, challenging everyone to engage with their region and with the world.
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Cape Breton’s Christmas, Book 5 A Treasury of Stories and Memories
Editor: Ronald CaplanPublisher: Breton Books$19.95Now an annual holiday tradition, this fifth collection of Cape Breton’s Christmas delivers a batch of memories and rich holiday stories rooted in a beloved island. Here are the moments that take you back, the stories that encourage us to be all we can be. From family gatherings to loneliness to the joy of getting home in time—from parents who give even when they seem to have nothing—this is a generous book that will last.
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A Stone for Andrew Dunphy Narrative Obituary Verse and Song in Northern Cape Breton Island
Publisher: Breton Books$17.95This rare book is about community, caring and pioneer survival. It brings to life Andrew Dunphy— a man who roamed northern Cape Breton, carried the news, nursed his neighbours—and wrote magnificent obituary poems that told their stories, comforted them in disaster, and helped their communities survive. Over one hundred years later, Ronald Caplan captured this story in its final hours. Told with the words of those who knew Andrew Dunphy — A Stone for Andrew Dunphy reveals the robust rural life that flourished as the 20th century dawned.
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Buddy MacMaster The Judique Fiddler
Publisher: Breton Books$18.95The renowned Cape Breton fiddler Buddy MacMaster grew up in Judique, Inverness County, influenced by musical giants including Bill Lamey, “Little Jack” MacDonald, Angus Chisholm and Mary MacDonald. By 1949, Buddy performed for local square dances, and by the 1960s he played across Canada, the U.S. and Scotland, sustaining old-time music and the dance tradition. A master fiddler, his awards include the Order of Canada, the Order of Nova Scotia, and honorary degrees from ST.F.X.University and Cape Breton University. Buddy adhered to the Gaelic fiddle tradition that he cherished as much as life itself.
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Sterling Silver The 25th Anniversary Edition Rants, Raves and Revelations
Publisher: Breton Books$18.95This 25th Anniversary Edition of Sterling Silver celebrates a marvellous collection of classic essays and stories by Silver Donald Cameron. Like visits with an entertaining and deeply committed friend, Sterling Silver takes on love and suicide, fear and community and craftsmanship—and a Canada in which a good life should still be possible. Cameron opened his archives of published and unpublished work—turning Sterling Silver into a rare opportunity for his fans and an extraordinary introduction for new readers. Editor Ronald Caplan has mined for treasure—and he’s brought it back alive!
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Watchman Against the World
Publisher: Breton Books$18.95The story of Reverend Norman McLeod and his people.
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In the Pit A Cape Breton Coal Miner
Publisher: Breton Books$17.95A RARE, EXCITING INSIDER STORY of coal mine life in Cape Breton, filled with humour, pride, terror, and humanity.
From shoveling at the coal face and hand-lifting tons of shaker pans, to hurtling through low narrow tunnels testing a diesel during early mechanization—you are not spared the details—or the laughs!
Here are the gripping drama and rich good humour of one man’s daily work underground—a rare, personal account that opens up the culture of coal, from a man who worked 15 years in Number 12 and 18 Collieries, New Waterford.
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Lifeline The Story of the Atlantic Ferries and Coastal Boats
Publisher: Breton Books$24.95Lifeline is an all-new edition of Harry Bruce’s classic telling of the roots of today’s Marine Atlantic—a history of the courage and determination that maintain the water-links of Atlantic Canada. From Newfoundland to Cape Breton, along the coast of Labrador—from Nova Scotia to Maine and New Brunswick, and across to PEI—through wind and ice, Harry Bruce brings to life a bold, brave, sometimes hilarious and often tragic history. With 40 historic photographs.
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The Mystery Ships of Nova Scotia in the First World War
Publisher: Breton Books$16.95THEY SAILED INTO HARM’S WAY dressed as ordinary fishermen, seeking to be attacked by German submarines. This armed team faced danger, frayed nerves, and boredom. Because their mission was secret, they could not explain their service to Canada in the First World War. In this brisk, readable and respectful history, John N. Grant tells the long-buried story of Canada’s Mystery Fleet. He names men who tried to lure U-boats into range, and then sailed into anonymity—until now. Many historic photographs.
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Father Greg – A Life The Cabbage Patch Priest
Publisher: Breton Books$21.95Cape Breton’s renowned social activist and priest comes alive in this warm, personal biography. Crafted from Greg MacLeod’s diaries and letters, plus Doucet’s years as his traveling companion, Father Greg displays the incredible range and vigour of MacLeod’s ideas and their down-to-earth application. Through his daring range of proposals, Fr. Greg relentlessly advocated for the public good. Includes a terrific batch of photographs.
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Cape Breton’s Christmas, Book 6 A Treasury of Stories and Memories
Editor: Ronald CaplanPublisher: Breton Books$19.95A CHRISTMAS TRADITION IN BOOK FORM, Book 6 of Cape Breton’s Christmas is a fresh annual gathering of warmth, joy, and family love—50 well-told memories and stories shot through with sparks of humour, tears of longing, and small flames of faith. Good reading year-round, this Christmas tradition brings together Cape Breton writers—both well-known and lately inspired—presenting sparkling seasonal gems for readers of all ages. A rare collection that preserves some of the best of what it is to be human. This generous book will last.
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The Birth and the Babyhood of the Telephone A Talk to Telephone Pioneers by The Other Man on the Line
Publisher: Breton Books$16.95While Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, Thomas A. Watson was the craftsman who gave the telephone life. Model after model, night and day, together they battled disappointment, and were spurred on by hints of success. Then in 1875, Watson’s hands created the first telephone that actually carried the human voice.
Yet the world barely remembers Thomas Watson beyond the first sentence transmitted over the telephone: “Mr. Watson—come here—I want you.”
In this classic book, restored and expanded, The Birth and Babyhood of the Telephone delivers both a detailed record of the development of the first telephone as it also reveals the very human story of the relationship between Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Watson. We see the younger Watson grow up through the guidance of the better educated and more sophisticated A. G. Bell, as Watson receives books, and lessons in elocution and even table manners.
This moving first-person account keeps alive the story of a relationship between two brilliant, impassioned men who changed the world.
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I’m Just Sayin’ My Shorter Writings
Publisher: Breton Books$17.00I’m Just Sayin’ is a collection of short essays about Cape Breton life and David Muise’s own childhood in Cape Breton—a book that keeps alive the joy of growing up in this rare world that once was Industrial Cape Breton. A generous river of good humour and empathy flows through this book.
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Cape Breton’s Christmas, Book 7 A 7th Treasury of Stories and Memories
Publisher: Breton Books$19.95Here are 50 Christmas stories from the heart of Cape Breton. Now a genuine holiday tradition, this seventh book of lasting memories and terrific storytelling will continue to delight young and old throughout the year. Preserving priceless moments, this is a book of intimate adventures, indoors and out—of the kind usually remembered only briefly at Christmastime, and then gone. Gathered to be read again and savoured, Cape Breton’s Christmas is an all-new and lasting book to enjoy and to share.
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Pearleen Oliver Canada’s Black Crusader for Civil Rights
Editor: Ronald CaplanPublisher: Breton Books$18.00In a winning new book, Pearleen Oliver: Canada’s Black Crusader for Civil Rights brings to life a compassionate and passionate African Nova Scotian, the story of her growth and activism—a book that shows how one woman’s voice changed the course of Nova Scotia’s history.
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Cape Breton’s Christmas, Book * A Treasury of Stories and Memories
Publisher: Breton Books$19.95“We sit under the tree on Christmas morning and read these stories aloud..”
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Cape Breton’s Christmas Book 9 A Treasury of Stories and Memories
Editor: Ronald CaplanPublisher: Breton Books$19.95 -
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St. Paul Island The Story of Lighthouses, Shipwrecks, and Lives on "The Graveyard of the Gulf"
Publisher: Breton Books$19.95History of life-saving and lighthouse keeping on a noted hazard to shipping—a rock with over 300 known shipwrecks on its shores.
