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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Retired U of M historian Bumsted wins national book prize for Lord Selkirk biography

By: Staff Writer

2/04/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

WINNIPEG scholar Jack Bumsted has won the national J.W. Dafoe Book Prize for his biography of Red River Settlement pioneer Lord Selkirk.

The $10,000 cash prize for Lord Selkirk: A Life, published in the fall of 2008 by the University of Manitoba Press, will be formally presented to Bumsted May 20 by the Dafoe Foundation.

"He led a fascinating life," said Bumsted, 70, a retired U of M historian and a second-time Dafoe Prize winner.

"He started out his life as a scientist and a rationalist, and in his struggles with the North-West Company, he became a romantic adventurer."

Bumsted's biography, one of more than 30 titled he has written or edited, topped a shortlist of four books from across Canada and was one of 77 titles submitted for consideration.

The Dafoe Prize, named after editor of the Winnipeg Free Press from 1901-1944, honours non-fiction excellence on the topic of Canada and its place in the world.

The Winnipeg-based Dafoe Foundation, which administers the prize, issued a statement Wednesday calling Bumsted's book "exhaustively researched and masterfully written."

Lord Selkirk, born Thomas Douglas in Scotland in 1771, brought the Selkirk settlers to the Red River Settlement (now Winnipeg).

This led to the eventual end of the fur trade and began the social transformation of Western Canada.

An American by birth, Bumsted immigrated to Canada in 1964 and enrolled at the U of M in 1980. Two years ago, he and his wife purchased the Whodunit Mystery Bookstore on Lilac Street.

In 1988, he won the Dafoe prize for his academic tome Land Settlement and Politics in 18th Century Prince Edward Island, published by McGill-Queen's University Press.

He is currently researching a new history of Manitoba.

"I think this new book will be my farewell."

-- Staff

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition April 2, 2009 D2

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