Jeff Culbert's "Theatre Boom Town"

Jeff Culbert (the great-great-grandson of John Culbert and Mary Ward) is the author of the newly published Theatre Boom Town: London, Ontario at the Turn of the Millennium (2002-2015).

In this collection, Jeff has compiled his writings about London's vibrant theatre scene from the period 2002-2015.

Jeff, who grew up in Lucan, Ontario and now makes his home in London, is an accomplished theatre director, playwright, actor, musician, and more. 

You can purchase a copy of Theatre Boom Town for $19.99 + tax through Volumes Publishing. Click here to place your order. Delivery to anywhere in Canada is $10.00. 

Click here to watch an interview with Jeff on CBC Radio's London Morning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

JEFF CULBERT'S FAMILY TREE:

Ancestors:

John Culbert & Mary Ward (great-great-grandparents)

Richard Culbert & Jane Eleanor Fairhall (great-grandparents)

Myron Manford Culbert & Effie Pearl Taylor (grandparents)

Merton Manford Culbert & V. Muriel Hardy (parents)

Dick Culbert - Bestselling Author

Fifty years ago, Dick Culbert made the Best Seller list...

The Province, 24 July 1970, page 38.

Three titles on this list prove that sex sells: 

The Sensuous Woman by "J".

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask) by David Reuben.

Human Sexual Inadequecies [sic] by Masters and Johnson.

So how did a book about mountain climbing manage to attract the attention of a nation obsessed with sex?

Dick Culbert's A Climber's Guide to the Coastal Ranges of British Columbia is considered a mountaineering classic. The book covers the entire Canadian west coast between the States of Washington and Alaska, an distance of 500 miles. Considered to be the authoritative guide to coastal mountaineering, the book had a tremendous influence on mountaineers. 

If you missed my post about legendary mountaineer, explorer, geographer, geophysicist, Doctor of Philosophy, author, poet, and photographer Richard Revis "Dick" Culbert, click here.  

Richard Revis "Dick" Culbert's Family Tree:
Ancestors:
John Culbert & Mary Ward (great-great-grandparents)
Richard Culbert & Jane Fairhall (great-grandparents)
George Arthur Culbert & Jean McLeod Campbell (grandparents)
Frederick Campbell Culbert & Margaret Rachel Sanders (parents)

Cursed! Blood of the Donnellys

Winter's here in full force so it's time to curl up with a good book. 

Cursed! Blood of the Donnellys is a novel based on the true story of the Donnelly family. If you haven't already read about the Donnelly-Culbert connection, click here. 

Cursed! is written by Canadian author, Keith Ross Leckie (published by Douglas and McIntyre, 2019) It's a fictional account inspired by the lives of the Donnellys who once lived in Biddulph Township near Lucan, Ontario. Occasionally details including names, dates, events and locations have been changed or invented for the sake of the narrative. 

“What I wanted to do was show the Donnellys as individuals,” said Leckie. “Usually they’re portrayed as a gang of thugs, and they’re not individualized.”

Check your local book store for Cursed! Blood of the Donnellys or order it online. 

Carscallen Authors and Books

This blog post will be of interest primarily to the descendants of Hulda May Culbert and her husband, Reverend Charles Rupert Carscallen.
 

Hulda May Culbert & Rev. Charles Rupert Carscallen. Photo courtesy of Wendy (Gowland) Boole.

In the previous post, I wrote about a road trip taken by Hulda and Charles' daughters, Kay Carscallen and Alice Carscallen. Accompanying Kay and Alice were two of their cousins: Eula (Carscallen) Lapp and her sister, Beth Carscallen.  

Eula C. Lapp, author, and niece of Hulda May (Culbert) Carscallen

Eula (Carscallen) Lapp was the author of several books, a few of which I'll mention in this post, along with a book by Eula's niece, Suzanne Carscallen.

China Was My University: the Life of Hulda May Carscallen by Eula C. Lapp is a biography of Hulda May (Culbert) Carscallen, the daughter of Richard Culbert and Jane Fairhall, and the granddaughter of John Culbert and Mary Ward.
 

Hulda May (Culbert) Carscallen (1881-1972). Photo courtesy of Betty (Carscallen) Marmura.

The book covers Hulda May's early life growing up on Poplar Farm near Lucan, Ontario; becoming a school teacher at age 16; her marriage to Reverend Charles Rupert Carscallen; the many years they spent as educational missionaries in China where they raised their four children; Charles' appointment as Principal of Ontario Ladies College in Whitby, Ontario; her active social and cultural life in Whitby and her involvement with the College; and her busy retirement years. Although the book, published in 1980 by Agincourt Press is no longer in print, it might be available through used book outlets or through Interlibrary loan. 

Another of Eula C. Lapp's books is Seven Generations of Carscallens: a history of one branch of the Carscallen family: the descendants of Edward Carscallen U.E.L., his sons, Luke and George, U.E.L., his grandson, Isaac, and great grandson, Isaac Newton, as well as descendants of George's daughter, Catherine Hill Wilde through her daughter, Ann Jane Carscallen.  

This small book is essential for Carscallen family historians. Published in 1956, it's no longer in print but a free, online edition is available through the HathiTrust Digital Library.

Eula (Carscallen) Lapp and her sister, Beth Carsallen had a brother, Alan Newton Carscallen (1907-1995). 

Left to right: Siblings Beth (Carscallen) Fowler, Alan Carscallen, and Eula (Carscallen) Lapp, 1940. Photo via the Red Deer Archives.

During the Second World War, Alan Carscallen was a Squadron Leader with the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) in Tunisia. When the RCAF headquarters moved to Rome, Alan Carscallen met his future bride there, Helen Shirkoff (1923-2005). 

Helen (Shirkoff) Carscallen was from a family of displaced Russian aristocrats. Her mother's sister, Countess Olga (Zweguintzoff) Hendrikoff aka "Lala" (1892-1987) was born in Voronezh, Russia. Olga also lived in Constantinople, Rome, Paris, and Philadelphia. She was an eyewitness to the Russian Revolution, and to the occupation and liberation of Paris during the Second World War. Olga spent the last 20 years of her life in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Suzanne Carscallen, the daughter of Alan Carscallen and Helen Shirkoff found Olga's diaries hidden in a trunk in Olga's Calgary home. Included was a Russian longhand manuscript detailing her escape from Russia, as well as a typed manuscript in French recalling life in France during WWII. Suzanne compiled and edited the remembrances of her great-aunt, Countess Olga Hendrikoff into a book, A Countess in Limbo: Diaries in War and Revolution. The book was published in 2012 by SF Classic, and again in 2016 by Archway Publishing.

The book relates how Countess Olga lost her brother in the Russian Gulag, her sister-in-law was murdered with the Russian Imperial family, and Olga herself was robbed at gunpoint and accused of being a spy by the Nazis. You can read more about Olga and the book on Suzanne's website, A Countess in Limbo.

Returning now to the Carscallen family...

The Carscallens are descended from United Empire Loyalists. The United Empire Loyalists were generally those who had been settled in the thirteen colonies at the outbreak of the American Revolution, who remained loyal to and took up the Royal Standard, and who settled in what is now Canada at the end of the war. For more on the history of this group, we turn again to Eula C. Lapp who wrote, To Their Heirs Forever: United Empire Loyalists, Camden Valley, New York to Upper Canada.  

This story focuses on the families (including the Carscallens) who were forced to seek a new life in Canada after the American Revolutionary War. First published in 1970, the book's latest edition was printed in 2000 by Global Heritage Press.

With the cold weather upon us, it's the perfect time to settle in with one of these books.

World War One in Other Words

You’ve been reading my posts about the First World War so let’s turn now to the words of others. The following is a list of books written about WW1, recommended by The Culbert Family History blog. All summaries are written by the publishers. Check to see if a bookstore near you or your local library carries these titles.

Canada’s Great War Album
By Canada’s National History Society
Toronto: HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd., ©2014. 

Published to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War, Canada's Great War Album is an unprecedented and remarkable collection of Canadian photographs, memorabilia, and stories of the war. Two years ago, Canada's History Society invited Canadians to tell their family stories from the First World War. The response was overwhelming and assembled for the first time are their personal stories and photographs that together form a compelling and moving account of the war. Canada's Great War Album also includes contributions from Peter Mansbridge, Charlotte Gray, J.L. Granatstein, Christopher Moore, Jonathan Vance, and Tim Cook. In the spirit of the bestselling 100 Photos That Changed Canada, the war that changed Canada forever is reflected here in words and pictures.

Firing Lines: Three Canadian Women Write the First World War

By Debbie Marshall
Toronto, Ontario: Dundurn, 2017.

Europe: 1914–18. Mary MacLeod Moore, a writer for Saturday Night Magazine, covered the war’s impact on women, from the munitions factories to the kitchens of London’s tenements. Beatrice Nasmyth, a writer for the Vancouver Province, managed the successful wartime political campaign of Canadian Roberta MacAdams and attended the Versailles Peace Conference as Premier Arthur Sifton’s press secretary. Elizabeth Montizambert was in France during the war and witnessed the suffering of its people first-hand. She was often near the fighting, serving as a canteen worker and writing about her experiences for the Montreal Gazette.

The reportage from these three women presents an insightful, moving, funny, and compelling body of observations of a devastating conflict, from underrepresented points of view. Firing Lines is based on the letters, articles, and books they wrote, as well as the records of those who knew them. The book offers a fresh perspective on a war that touched nearly every Canadian family and changed our sense of ourselves as a nation.

The Secret History of Soldiers: How Canadians Survived the Great War

By Tim Cook
Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Allen Lane, an imprint of Penguin Canada Books, Inc., 2018.

There have been thousands of books on the Great War, but most have focused on commanders, battles, strategy, and tactics. Less attention has been paid to the daily lives of the combatants, how they endured the unimaginable conditions of industrial warfare: the rain of shells, bullets, and chemical agents. In The Secret History of Soldiers, Tim Cook, Canada’s foremost military historian, examines how those who survived trench warfare on the Western Front found entertainment, solace, relief, and distraction from the relentless slaughter.

These tales come from the soldiers themselves, mined from the letters, diaries, memoirs, and oral accounts of more than five hundred combatants. Rare examples of trench art, postcards, and even song sheets offer insight into a hidden society that was often irreverent, raunchy, and anti-authoritarian. Believing in supernatural stories was another way soldiers shielded themselves from the horror. While novels and poetry often depict the soldiers of the Great War as mere victims, this new history shows how the soldiers pushed back against the grim war, refusing to be broken in the mincing machine of the Western Front.

The violence of war is always present, but Cook reveals the gallows humour the soldiers employed to get through it. Over the years, both writers and historians have overlooked this aspect of the men’s lives. The fighting at the front was devastating, but behind the battle lines, another layer of life existed, one that included songs, skits, art, and soldier-produced newspapers.

With his trademark narrative abilities and an unerring eye for the telling human detail, Cook has created another landmark history of Canadian military life as he reveals the secrets of how soldiers survived the carnage of the Western Front.

The War That Ended Peace: The Road to 1914

By Margaret MacMillan
New York: Random House, 2014.

From the bestselling and award-winning author of Paris 1919 comes a masterpiece of narrative nonfiction, a fascinating portrait of Europe from 1900 up to the outbreak of World War I.

The century since the end of the Napoleonic wars had been the most peaceful era Europe had known since the fall of the Roman Empire. In the first years of the twentieth century, Europe believed it was marching to a golden, happy, and prosperous future. But instead, complex personalities and rivalries, colonialism and ethnic nationalisms, and shifting alliances helped to bring about the failure of the long peace and the outbreak of a war that transformed Europe and the world.
 
The War That Ended Peace brings vividly to life the military leaders, politicians, diplomats, bankers, and the extended, interrelated family of crowned heads across Europe who failed to stop the descent into war: in Germany, the mercurial Kaiser Wilhelm II and the chief of the German general staff, Von Moltke the Younger; in Austria-Hungary, Emperor Franz Joseph, a man who tried, through sheer hard work, to stave off the coming chaos in his empire; in Russia, Tsar Nicholas II and his wife; in Britain, King Edward VII, Prime Minister Herbert Asquith, and British admiral Jacky Fisher, the fierce advocate of naval reform who entered into the arms race with Germany that pushed the continent toward confrontation on land and sea.

There are the would-be peacemakers as well, among them prophets of the horrors of future wars whose warnings went unheeded: Alfred Nobel, who donated his fortune to the cause of international understanding, and Bertha von Suttner, a writer and activist who was the first woman awarded Nobel’s new Peace Prize. Here too we meet the urbane and cosmopolitan Count Harry Kessler, who noticed many of the early signs that something was stirring in Europe; the young Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty and a rising figure in British politics; Madame Caillaux, who shot a man who might have been a force for peace; and more. With indelible portraits, MacMillan shows how the fateful decisions of a few powerful people changed the course of history.

Taut, suspenseful, and impossible to put down, The War That Ended Peace is also a wise cautionary reminder of how wars happen in spite of the near-universal desire to keep the peace. Destined to become a classic in the tradition of Barbara Tuchman’s The Guns of August, The War That Ended Peace enriches our understanding of one of the defining periods and events of the twentieth century.

And finally, an illustrated book written for children age 8 and up...

In Flanders Fields: The Story of the Poem by John McCrae

By Linda Granfield and illustrated by Janet Wilson
Markham, ON: Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 2014. ©1995

In May 2015, "In Flanders Fields," one of the most popular poems ever written on the subject of war, marked 100 years since it was written. This special edition celebrates that emotional anniversary.

John McCrae's poem has been recited by many generations who have embraced and continue to cherish its underlying message of respect for the fallen, longing for peace and its call to action.

In this award-winning book, the lines of the celebrated poem are interwoven with fascinating information about the First World War (1914-1918) and details of daily life in the trenches in Europe. Also included are accounts of McCrae's experience in his field hospital and the circumstances that led to the writing of "In Flanders Fields."

• New introduction by noted historian Dr. Tim Cook of the Canadian War Museum.
• Vibrant new painting by Janet Wilson on the cover.
• Original text, maps, and evocative paintings of the acclaimed, now classic, 1995 edition.
• An invaluable reference for classroom studies of war and remembrance.
• A lasting gift for history buffs, veterans, and families determined never to forget the sacrifices of war.