Publisher's Synopsis
How the West Was Written is published to celebrate the centenary of James H. Gray's birth. He was born on 31 August 1906.
James H. Gray was the first Canadian social historian to tackle such previously taboo subjects as the sex lives and boozing habits of the early settlers. His books were on the national and Toronto Star bestseller lists before those of Pierre Berton and have since become classics of Canadian literature. Gray's Red Lights on the Prairies stunned readers with its straight-forward approach to prostitution on the prairies and was named one of the one hundred most important Canadian books of all time by the Literary Review of Canada.
In this first-ever biography of Gray, Brian Brennan covers aspects of the Gray story including:
Brennan draws on information gleaned from interviews with Gray family members and associates, from Gray's books, his newspaper articles, research papers, correspondence and diaries. Brennan covers the Gray story with engaging wit and impressive authority.
