Book launch: Where Mountains Meet the Sea by Daniel Francis, Wednesday, June 22 at 7 p.m. at North Vancouver District Public Library’s Lynn Valley branch. Free. nvdpl.ca
Working on his latest book, Where Mountains Meet the Sea: An Illustrated History of the District of North Vancouver, afforded North Shore historian and writer Daniel Francis countless opportunities to view his neighbourhood in a whole new light.
“Every day seemed to reveal something new about the community. … That’s what made it such a different project for me, everything was so close by,” says the District of North Vancouver resident and author of more than 20 books of non-fiction chronicling Canadian, B.C., and Vancouver area histories. His last book, Closing Time: Prohibition, Rum-runners and Border Wars, was released in 2014.
“As (Where Mountains Meet the Sea) developed I saw that it was kind of unique from all of my other books because it was about a place that I lived in myself. I was always discovering things about my own community that surprised me and that I learned for the first time and so that gave it an extra little something,” he says.
For example, Francis, 69, discovered that just up the street from his home, St. Georges Avenue had been used as a road to transport lumber down off the local mountains, the last farm in the municipality had been located two blocks from his residence, and Edgemont Village was created following the Second World War, and was an enclave of West Coast modernism led by late architect Fred Hollingsworth.
“Every day almost I was learning something interesting about the community that I’ve called home now for 30 years,” he says.
Francis was invited to take on the book project, commemorating the 125th anniversary of the District of North Vancouver’s incorporation as a municipality on Aug. 10, through his long-standing relationship with the North Vancouver Museum & Archives. Having served on its commission for six years and in anticipation of his term coming to an end, he approached director Nancy Kirkpatrick, expressing an interest in wanting to continue on as a volunteer in some capacity.
“They were slightly more ambitious. They had been kicking around the idea of a book to celebrate the 125th anniversary. So we talked about it a bit and I signed on,” says Francis.
Francis spent the next year and a half combing through the museum and archives’ collections of photographs, maps, interviews and documents to compile the highly illustrated book. While the vast majority of materials come from the North Vancouver Museum & Archives’ collection, Francis also sourced a few images from the Vancouver Public Library and the City of Vancouver Archives. A number of the final images have never been published before.
According to Francis, the book’s organization is slightly unorthodox, as its content is not arranged chronologically like most histories.
“We decided we’d try dealing with the waterfront first and the development of the community and the waterfront industries that developed there and then we’d move geographically. The first section is about the waterfront, the second section moves up the slope to the community as a whole and the political and social development of the community and the third is emphasis on parks and wilderness and that special element that defines North Vancouver,” he says.
Where Mountains Meet the Sea is intended to be of interest to locals and visitors alike.
“That was the idea, to make it for the general reader, someone who lives here, but also someone who might be visiting the community,” says Francis.
The book will be released next week by Harbour Publishing and copies will be available at a free book launch event, Wednesday, June 22 at North Vancouver District Public Library’s Lynn Valley branch at 7 p.m.
“I’ll be talking about the history of the district, showing the book and showing slides of historical images,” says Francis.
“It’s going to be a general survey of the history of people’s own community, so if they’re interested in finding out stuff about early days and not so early days in North Vancouver, I’m sure they’ll find out some interesting stories from the past, because I sure did writing the book,” he adds.
Francis will also be celebrated at a second private event later on in the week at the same location, similarly marking the launch of the book and the anniversary of the District of North Vancouver.
In addition to penning non-fiction works about history, Francis writes a regular books column for Geist magazine and serves as a member of its editorial board.
When asked where his passion for the past comes from, he says it’s hard to tell.
“Certainly I didn’t develop it young. I never took any history classes at school. I never thought too much about history until I got to graduate school at university in Ottawa and by then I was in my mid-20s before I even took my first history class. I think I was always interested in being a writer. So when I took my first history class I recognized that history was the subject that I could write about. Here were the stories and I didn’t have to make them up, they were there and I could figure out interesting ways of telling them.”
As for his next book project, Francis is considering penning a history of Vancouver.
“But it’s early days,” he says, so only time will tell.
