David Beasley - Author


DAVID BEASLEY Born in Hamilton, Ontario, and is descended from its first settler. He has written novels, biographies and other non-fiction books, on topics from the definitive biography of Canada's first novelist to a political-economic study of the automobile. He has returned from living abroad for many years to live closer to his roots. He has a PhD in economics. Dr. Beasley's latest historical novel Sarah's Journey, about a slave who escaped from Virginia to Upper Canada in 1820, won the best novel award for 2004 presented by the Hamilton and Region Arts Council. Dr. Beasley will be releasing his new work, FROM BLOODY BEGINNINGS; RICHARD BEASLEY'S UPPER CANADA, an exciting creative non-fiction, in September 2008. For a brief synopsis please press SYNOPSIS. All Titles Listed Below	Site design by: rembrandt@kwic.com
Book Title Click the title to be taken to description and reviews ASPECTS OF LOVE BEASLEY'S GUIDE TO LIBRARY RESEARCH THE CANADIAN DON QUIXOTE; THE LIFE AND WORKS OF MAJOR JOHN RICHARDSON, CANADA’S FIRST NOVELIST CANOE TRIP CHOCOLATE FOR THE POOR; A STORY OF RAPE IN 1805 DOUGLAS MACAGY AND THE FOUNDATIONS OF MODERN ART CURATORSHIP ÉCARTÉ; or THE SALONS OF PARIS FRASCATI'S; OR SCENES IN PARIS THE GRAND CONSPIRACY: A NEW YORK LIBRARY MYSTERY HAMILTON ROMANCE: A HAMILTON-TORONTO NEXUS THE JENNY: A NEW YORK LIBRARY DETECTIVE NOVEL MAJOR JOHN RICHARDSON: SHORT STORIES MCKEE RANKIN AND THE HEYDAY OF THE AMERICAN THEATER THE MONK KNIGHT OF ST JOHN; A TALE OF THE CRUSADES PAGAN SUMMER Richard Beasley and Early Days on Burlington Heights & The Political Education of Richard Beasley RICHARD BEASLEY; THE CHARACTER OF THE MAN AND HIS TIMES RICHARD BEASLEY AND THE GERMAN COMPANIES SARAH’S JOURNEY THAT OTHER GOD THROUGH PAPHLAGONIA WITH A DONKEY: AN ADVENTURE IN THE TURKISH ISFENDYARS UNDERSTANDING MODERN ART: THE BOUNDLESS SPIRIT OF CLAY EDGAR SPOHN The Watercolours of Charlotte Hills Beasley WESTBROOK, THE OUTLAW; OR THE AVENGING WOLF WHO REALLY INVENTED THE AUTOMOBILE? SKULDUGGERY AT THE CROSSROADS SYNOPSIS OF FROM BLOODY BEGINNINGS; RICHARD BEASLEY'S UPPER CANADA 368 p. 60 B/W, 2 COLOR ILLUS. to be issued by Davus Publishing in Sept. 2008 Reserve now Richard Beasley narrates from when he is five years old in 1766 as witness to the tenant rebellions in New York State followed by the American Revolution when his father Henry Beasley and Uncle Richard Cartwright in Albany, New York, risk their lives through the horrors of the civil war for the loyalist forces. Richard Beasley becomes a commissary at Fort Niagara, from which he observes the war out of Niagara featuring his cousin Richard Cartwright Jr,, secretary to Major John Butler of Butler's Rangers, Chief Joseph Brant and Ensign Walter Butler while he continues his fur-trading at Toronto and the Head-of-the- Lake Ontario. After the war, his land dealings, merchant business and association in trade with Richard Cartwright Jr and Robert Hamilton, his arguments on the settlers' behalf in the legislature where he was speaker of the Assembly, and his involvement as agent in the German land companies in Markham and Waterloo Counties, particularly during the Aaron Burr conspiracy with the French to retake Canada, make him suspect to the oligarchy in York, later Toronto. As magistrate and organizer of the militia in West York he takes on several roles during the War of 1812. The battles in the Niagara Peninsula, which involve the 2nd York Regiment of which he is Colonel, he describes in detail. As his intellectual cousin Richard Cartwright becomes more conservative and prominent, Richard Beasley grows more liberal. His correspondence with the famous defender of civil liberties Lord Erskine, his work for a free press, his championing of the reforms of Robert Gourlay and his friendship as a moderate reformer with William Lyon Mackenzie continue the political themes introduced earlier in the book. He manages to overturn the judgment of a military tribunal set up to ruin him by his powerful enemies, including Reverend Strachan and Col. William Claus, for his political views. He relates the economic blights, the pastimes, the joys and sorrows of the settlers with particular emphasis on affairs at the Headof- the-Lake, which, with his help, becomes Hamilton, a county capital. He gives us interesting details of the Upper Canada Rebellion and shows that many among the Upper Canadian community sympathized with it. In his last stint in the Assembly he does much for the establishment of civil rights and works with his one-time conservative opponent John Beverley Robinson for the country's benefit before the uniting of the provinces in the Act of Union of 1841. RICHARD BEASLEY gives us a personal, continuous and dramatic picture of our history and the characters that made it. Richard died in 1842. ISBN: 978-0-915317-24-0 Price: between $15 and $20