"Keepers of the Light: A History of British Columbia's Lighthouses and their Keepers" (used book)

Keepers of the Light: A History of British Columbia's Lighthouses and their Keepers

by Donald Graham

About the Book

Used Book. Hardcover. Dust jacket included. Like New. Signed

-- from the dust jacket

As eternal symbols of hope, romance and civilized good, lighthouses fascinate almost everyone. But what goes on inside them? And what would it really be like to keep one? These are questions which never seem to get answered, especially in the case of Canada’s West Coast, where a great network of Manned lights has for 125 years watched over some of the earth’s most magnificent and desolate places.

Keepers of the Light: A History of British Columbia’s Lighthouses and Their Keepers, written during long night watches by a keeper of Vancouver’s famous Point Atkinson Light, is a definitive answer to the lighthouse question.

Sifting through a centuy’s accumulation of files, diaries, and reminiscences, author Donald Graham – a professional historian before he went on the lights – unearthed a story so remarkable his greatest problem was to make it beleiveable to readers “in the real world”.

Winds at storm-torn Triangle Island blew the lightkeeper’s cow into the sea – and took the lives of 25 people. At Estevan Point, keeper Robert Lally was lighting the beacon one evening in 1942 when he discovered a cruiser firing 5.5-inch shells at the station. But official reports turned the cruiser into a Japanese submarine, and the falsified account changed Canada’s history. On page after page Graham weaves stories of heroism, heartbreak, insanity, suicide, starvation, scandal, and occasionally, happiness.

Packed with astounding revelations, brilliantly written, and richly illustrated, Keepers of the Light (the first of two volumes on BC lights) is the most entertaining book about the West Coast since Raincoast Chronicles.