Ken Cuthbertson

Fairly well-organized look at the state of Canada in the last months of World War II, looking at the various problems faced by the country. The author does have a slightly annoying tendency to be patronizing regarding the society of Canada as of '45, but there are some interesting insights. The author is NOT a fan of long-serving PM William King; on the other hand, he seems to be a fan of Rocket Richard, the hockey player whose spectacular 1945 season is covered in the book's most entertaining chapter. Also an interesting chapter on a V-E Day riot that took place in Halifax.… (més)

Originally published in 1998. I had no earthly idea who Emily Hahn was or why she even deserved a book written about her. I was sold on the title and the cover, which promised adventure. Then I realized it was a biography and I had already started reading it only to find out that Emily had written numerous books herself, fiction and nonfiction, 52 to be exact.

She has written a few memoirs I'm especially interested in reading: "Congo Solo: Misadventures Two Degrees North" (1933)...about her 2 years in Africa; "China to Me" (1944)...about her 8 years in China during the war; and "Times and Places" (1970)…which this author, Ken Cuthbertson, uses many quotes from. I'm sure reading her own memoirs would have been much more personal, capturing her real personality. But, this author did a great job in putting all the little snippets of her life together in one place. It almost reads like a novel. He used letters Emily had written back home to family, and he was even able to begin interviewing her in 1992, the last five years of her life, before her death in 1997, at age 92. But, Emily would not live to see this biography published. She died on February 18, 1997. This book was published the following year, in 1998.


Emily a.k.a "Mickey" Hahn (1905 - 1997) was an unconventional woman who, by today's standard, would be considered a feminist. But, she despised the term feminist because feminists belonged to clubs and they collected money for their causes. She “preferred to lead by example rather than by organized political involvement” (loc 7095).

She was just a free-spirit who grew up in a house with four sisters and one brother. They all attended college and were encouraged to defy the social norm by their mother, Hannah. She came of age in the 1920's just as a new breed of free-thinking women called "flappers" began flaunting their demands...smoking in public, drinking alcohol, wearing heavy lipstick and rouge, and displaying their sexuality. Emily fell into this women-of-power movement.

When she was told she could not major in Mining Geology because women aren't capable of learning such complicated material. She proved them wrong and became the first woman to graduate in mining engineering from the University of Wisconsin. They told her she would never get a job as Mining Geologist because she was a woman. She proved them wrong, but she ended up hating it. They put her behind a desk working 9-5, at a much lower pay than for men, and not out in the field where she wanted to be. So, she quit.

Her and a friend, financially supported by their parents, took off on an adventure in a brand-new Model-T Ford across America from Chicago to California and back. This sparked an unrest in Emily that would simmer for the rest of her life.

Her friend, who headed back to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where she worked as a horseback trail guide, pleaded for her to come. Emily, not knowing what to do with her educated life, headed west and farted around with work as one of the Harvey Girls...much like today's Hooter girls, and also worked the trails as a guide. She floated, and moved to Taos, a smaller quieter town that was beginning to attract artists and writers. There she piddled and wasted some more time away writing small poems on cards until her mom showed up unexpectedly at her front door to bring her home.

She returned home and attended more college. Still lost. She decided to sail overseas with her male "friend" and roommate, and to write. She focused more and more on her writing, but was so insecure of her abilities in her life. She rubbed elbows with so many people, other writers and soon to be high-ranking political figures, who were doing great things with their lives, eventually becoming at least well-known, some very famous. She was feeling stagnant, tired and drained, even though The New Yorker, a popular magazine of the time, had published a few of her stories, and her first book, "Seductio Ad Absurdum (1930), was accepted for publication.

At age 25, she was essentially a struggling writer. Her housekeeper offered her some sleeping pills to help her sleep, which she took. Depression was hitting hard, and she decided to commit suicide. When that failed, and she woke at one of her sister's homes, is when a fog seemed to suddenly lift from her. And as the Great Depression was going on, she quit her job, climbed aboard another ship and headed overseas to London to focus on research and writing. But, as luck would have it, she met up with another male friend who was leaving for The Congo in Africa, her dream destination. She asked to visit him once he got there, and that was all she could think about from then on.

She did make it to The Congo, but was so disappointed in how her friend began treating the natives after a couple of years living there. He took on three wives and became quite abusive to them. When she returned to camp one day, she saw that he had chained one of his wives up to a tree and was told she would stay there for a whole week in the sun as punishment for giving her daughter a short haircut, instead of shaving it completely off. When he started barking at her and trying to rule over her about making her cut her hair off, she immediately packed her bags and left early the next morning. She ended up hiking 800 miles over Africa, boarded a ship back to the states, and never looked back. Her memoir, “Congo Solo” (1933), would provide more details on this adventure.

Later, Emily would take a trip to China with her sister, in which her sister returned home after just a couple of weeks, but she ended up staying for five years and living in Shanghai during the cusp of the oncoming war between China and Japan, as a concubine to a Chinese poet and writer and hooked on opium, once again, wasting her life away. She was smoking up to 12 pipes a day and experiencing severe stomach cramps. After seeing a doctor and coming clean off the drugs, and at yet another stand-still in her life, she was talked into more serious writing of the Soong sisters. And since war was headed to Shanghai, in 1939 and 1940, she evacuated to Chungking with the Soong sisters, and began writing their story for China as the Japanese were bombing the crap out of the city. "The Soong Sisters" was published in 1941 and was her first huge success.

With war now closing in at Chungking, she flew to Hong Kong, then considered British territory and a much safer zone, where she would fall in love and have an affair with a married man, an officer in the British Army, also a writer of 24 scholarly books, Charles Boxer. Emily became pregnant and had his child, Carola Boxer, out of wedlock, in 1941. Nearly all the women and children had been evacuated from Hong Kong. She stayed and was there in Hong Kong when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, and began bombing Hong Kong. As anticipated, Charles told her, "It's come. War." The author gives a great personal, first-hand account of this war through Charles and Emily’s lives. Emily and Carola were trapped in Hong Kong and in the last place of refuge at War Memorial Hospital. Charles served his time as a POW.

After eight years in China, she was finally evacuated with her daughter in 1943 and returned to the states where she would work as an employee at The New Yorker over the next 40 years and continue to write books. Charles was released two years later and after making an honest woman of Emily and marrying her, they moved to his family home, “Conygar”, in London. Emily, still free spirited, would travel back and forth, a few months in the states working for The New Yorker, then a few months in London to see her two girls and Charles, and to concentrate on a new book. She typed and typed and typed until nearly the end. When she fell and broke her arm, and could no longer type, is when it all seemed to slowly end for her.

Emily, apparently, had a wonderful and unique style of writing. I’m anxious now to read further into her adventures in Africa and China, and her biography, which is supposedly a collection of her writings published over the years in The New Yorker Magazine.… (més)

Written in the style of Pierre Berton and Ted Barris, this a history of Canada following WW II and how events that occurred just before the war influenced what happened after the war. Events such as the riots in Halifax are covered but also more long rang events such as development of our social safety net, involvement in NATO and the UN, increased immigration, housing for returning veterans and its influence on the development of our cities Important influencers such as Agnes McPhail, first female MP, Tommy Douglas father of Medicare, Prime Minister Mackenzie King, and bank robbers such as the Boyd Gang.

Extremely readable with some photos.… (més)