Something to Celebrate

Spring in Vancouver.

Resuming an Ancient Hunt

December 24, 2013

Santa Claus (aka Canada Post) brought a wonderful Christmas present to my door this morning: a copy of Arvik! In Pursuit of the Bowhead Whale, hot off the presses. Arvik! is a new book from the Avataq Cultural Institute, a Montreal-based...

My Bookselling Career

August 26, 2013

On the west side of Granville Street in downtown Vancouver, near the corner of Smythe next door to the McDonald’s, there is a storefront which for many years has been occupied by a camera shop. In the 1960s, however, it was home to The Book Barrel, the...

My Newest Purchase

October 25, 2013

This is the only purchase I made during my recent trip to Europe. I bought it in Old Town Prague at the official Spartak outlet store which happens to be located on Husova Street directly beneath the hanging sculpture of Sigmund Freud. The...

Geist at 35

February 6, 2026

It's been 35 years since Steve Osborne and Mary Schendlinger, partners in life and in literature, launched Geist onto the stormy seas of the Canadian magazine world. I doubt they gave much thought to the distant future -- just paying the printer for...

Whale Tale

January 13, 2026

When Gil Hewlett and I were writing our history of the orphan orcas Springer and Luna, Operation Orca, I first heard about the capture of the so-called Pedder Bay Five. These were five orcas held in a net pen by the aspiring whale entrepreneur Bob Wright...

Birth of an Art School

January 7, 2026

Last year marked the centenary of Emily Carr University of Art and Design. It opened its doors in 1925 as the Vancouver School of Decorative and Applied Arts and immediately became a key force shaping the cultural life of the city. The British...

Monthly archive

Daniel Francis

Reading the National Narrative

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Becoming Vancouver

A History