13 August 2010

The Boy in the Picture, and What He Can Teach us About Canada

Edward Mallandaine, highlighted here in this photo taken at the driving of Canadian Pacific Railway's Last Spike.

Revelstoke British Columbia - Part of Railway Days will be the official launch of Ray Argyle's book, "The Boy in the Picture". The book tells the story of Edward Mallandaine, the teenager who's youthful face is so prominent in the famous photo of the driving of the Last Spike in 1885. Argyle will be at the Revelstoke Railway Museum on 15 Aug 2010 at 7:30 p.m. to speak about the book and sign copies.
 
Q:  How long have you been working on this book and what has the process been like?
 
A:  "I carried this book around with me for years because I've been a journalist and a writer most of my life. Of course, I grew up in Creston when Edward Mallandaine was a very old man and I was a little kid. I knew him, but I guess I never really began to think about his story as a story until Pierre Berton published the "Last Spike" and made reference to Edward as the boy in the picture".
 
"I thought about that on-and-off for a number of years but the specific way to answer your question:  Three years ago I wrote an article for the Beaver magazine about Edward and in preparing for that article I went out to Victoria and the B.C. archives and went through very extensive files that Edward and his family and left".
 
"I did the article for The Beaver magazine and got terrific response to that and encouragement to convert that into a book. I got seriously to work on that two years ago. I had two options. I considered first writing a biography of his entire life because his entire life was really quite notable. But then, the alternative of focusing just on his period of the building of the railway and the Last Spike and presenting it, because he was a teenager at that time, presenting it as a young-adult book had a lot of appeal for me personally and certainly to the publisher [Dundrun Press]".
 
Q:  What makes Edward Mallandaine's story so interesting that its worthy of a book?
 
A:  "First of all, his role in a historic Canadian achievement, the building and completion of the railway, his presence at the Last Spike, and the fact that as a young boy... but his really quite incredible achievement, to be on his own, to survive up there under really rough circumstances, to get himself that job riding dispatches and mail back-and-forth through the Eagle Pass from Revelstoke to Sicamous".
 
"The whole story of a young man setting out for adventure, heading for the Riel Rebellion. When he was frustrated in that, he found another equally adventurous episode, took full advantage of it, made the most of it, had himself there for the historic moment, got himself in the history books. The combination of a young person who had a lot of drive, a lot of desire, who wanted to make his mark being associated with a historic Canadian event that still rings today as one of the great events of Canadian history".
 
"But more importantly, the Last Spike and the presence of a young man there is a symbol for young people today. We need young people with that same sense of adventure, and drive, and determination, to make their mark in the world we live in today".
 
Q:  You knew Edward growing up and he told you stories. How much more did you learn about him while researching this book?
 
A:  "I learned a great deal while I was researching because the stories that he told were very anecdotal. When I began serious work on the book, I found there wasn't really very much that had ever been published about Edward so it was an opportunity to delve into the primary research, into the archives. There's files that refer to Edward's work he did when he was land agent for the Canadian Pacific later on in his life and I also got his military record from the Department of National of Defence through Archives Canada".
 
"There's a family web site that contains some information too but it was essentially digging into the archives, reading the letters that he wrote, the articles that he wrote, and the family documents that really tell his story. He did a great job in recording his experiences and that's where the real authenticity of the book comes from".
 
Q:  How does his story fit in to the overall story of the building of the railroad?
 
A:  "The climax of the building of the railroad was the driving of the Last Spike. The happy circumstance of his presence there fits in very well. Also though the fact he was instrumental in the communication during the final gap between Farwell and Eagle Landing with his carrying dispatches back and forth. He's very much caught up in that phase of the Canadian Pacific. Plus, after he returned home to Victoria and was called back to the mountains, he took part in the founding of the village of Creston".
 
"When he and his partners laid out a townsite they wanted the CPR to come in, they very cleverly made a deal with the CPR where they gave the railway half the land in the townsite in return for coming in and setting up the station. Edward became the land agent for CPR for all of south-eastern BC. He looked after the sale of timber resources, he went to Europe and recruited immigrants to come settle on the CPR lands, he was instrumental in some of the early diking projects around Invermere in the Columbia Valley".
 
"He's very much part of the CPR history for the completion of the railroad to the settlement of that part of B.C. in later years".
 
Q:  Is there anything his story can teach us about the larger Canadian experience?
 
A:  "Yes there is, and I try to address that briefly in the book. I think that today, Canada's held together by forces that have long since replaced the railway. I think we still need young people who are up to the challenge of keeping Canada as a boisterous and confident country. In fact, I dedicated the book to all young people who yearn for adventure and I'm hoping they'll be inspired by Edward's story and be as determined and as successful".
 
"I think he set quite an example for young people that I think holds true today".
 
Alex Cooper.