DEDICATION

How very sad, and yet tender, is the thought of so many richly enchanted people described herein who have now left this earth. I sometimes wonder why I, rather than they, have been chosen to tell their story. How I wish I could bring them all back!

I write that they may live again, if only in our imaginations.

One of the privileges accruing to us who remain is that we are able to recount such glorious times, so frequently forgotten. To these “hale dead and deathless” as Dylan Thomas said — their lives once flaming across Canada’s cultural landscape — I dedicate this book.