NEW TOM THOMSON BOOKS OFFERS A GOOD SUMMER READ
Doug Mackey published a favorable review of the book in his column, Heritage
Perspectives, for the weekend Community Voices supplement to the North Bay
Nugget and sister newspapers.
"I read the book with interest recently and throughly enjoyed it in spite of a few
minor flaws," he wrote. "The main thrust of the book is a cold-case analysis of
the evidence from various sources and the harsh analysis of those sources.
"The has an added feature I enjoyed where Lehto introduces several chapter of
fiction interspersed with the scholarly analysis. It is like reading two books at
once and as enjoyable as it is it can be confusing where his fictional
intervention is juxtaposed with the scholarly lawyer approach."
Here is a link to the full review.
Doug Mackey published a favorable review of the book in his column, Heritage
Perspectives, for the weekend Community Voices supplement to the North Bay
Nugget and sister newspapers.
"I read the book with interest recently and throughly enjoyed it in spite of a few
minor flaws," he wrote. "The main thrust of the book is a cold-case analysis of
the evidence from various sources and the harsh analysis of those sources.
"The has an added feature I enjoyed where Lehto introduces several chapter of
fiction interspersed with the scholarly analysis. It is like reading two books at
once and as enjoyable as it is it can be confusing where his fictional
intervention is juxtaposed with the scholarly lawyer approach."
Here is a link to the full review.
LANCETTE JOURNAL PRAISES THE BOOK
Below is a link to a new review of Algonquin Elegy from a Canadian arts
journal. The reviewer is Alidë Kohlhaas of the Lancette - Journal of the Arts,
which is dedicated to the Canadian arts — theatre, music, opera, CDs, books,
painting and other art, film, TV programs, as well as general entertainment
news.
"Lehto is the latest in a long line-up of journalists, arts writers, historians and
novelists who have tangled with this tale," Ms. Kohlhaas writes about the book.
"His is most likely one of the most thoroughly researched books of them all; it
fits well into the historic fiction genre in which real events are combined with
fictional ones, real individuals with fictional characters."
" While Thomson made the park famous through his vivid colour depictions of
this huge wilderness park with its many lakes and rivers, waterfalls and white-
water runs, Lehto manages to capture the beauty of the place through his
words. One can sense the love he has for the place, for the sport of canoeing,
even for the strenuous portages that are needed to avoid dangerous rapids, or
to get from one lake or river to the next."
Read the full review here: Lancette Journal of the Arts.
Below is a link to a new review of Algonquin Elegy from a Canadian arts
journal. The reviewer is Alidë Kohlhaas of the Lancette - Journal of the Arts,
which is dedicated to the Canadian arts — theatre, music, opera, CDs, books,
painting and other art, film, TV programs, as well as general entertainment
news.
"Lehto is the latest in a long line-up of journalists, arts writers, historians and
novelists who have tangled with this tale," Ms. Kohlhaas writes about the book.
"His is most likely one of the most thoroughly researched books of them all; it
fits well into the historic fiction genre in which real events are combined with
fictional ones, real individuals with fictional characters."
" While Thomson made the park famous through his vivid colour depictions of
this huge wilderness park with its many lakes and rivers, waterfalls and white-
water runs, Lehto manages to capture the beauty of the place through his
words. One can sense the love he has for the place, for the sport of canoeing,
even for the strenuous portages that are needed to avoid dangerous rapids, or
to get from one lake or river to the next."
Read the full review here: Lancette Journal of the Arts.
BACK COVER BLURPS
The mystery of Canada’s artist Tom Thomson’s drowning in Ontario’s Algonquin
Park in 1917 has never before been so thoroughly investigated, documented and
reported. Here is what two Tom Thomson experts have to say about the book:
"Neil J. Lehto’s Algonquin Elegy Tom Thomson’s Last Spring is both a labor of
love and a labor of gargantuan effort to come to some understanding, nine
decades on, of exactly what happened that summer of 1917. Perhaps no one has
ever worked as hard to know the unknowable and, in doing so, he has
contributed invaluably to the greatest story in all of Canadian art. Neil’s passion
for Tom Thomson shines through as passionately on each page as Thomson’s
passion for Algonquin Park shines though on each painting he left behind that
last spring."
—Roy MacGregor, National Columnist for the Globe & Mail and writer of a novel
based on the mystery of painter Tom Thomson’s final days, Canoe Lake.
"This ambitious work refers to Ontario’s huge provincial park, Algonquin Park and
to the death under mysterious circumstances, of one of Canada’s greatest
artists, Tom Thomson (1877–1917). Lehto intertwines his story with fact so that it
has the tone of a memoir but he exuberantly adorns his account, painting in gaps
with invented scenarios and developing bare-bones motifs into well-designed
adventures. The result has rich color and offers a welcome respite from the
dryness of art history."
—Joan Murray, Former Executive Director and CEO, McMichael Canadian Art
Collection, Kleinberg, Ontario, distinguished author of numerous books about
Canada’s Group of Seven artists, Tom Thomson’s paintings and his life. She is
working on a catalogue raisonné of Thomson paintings.
The mystery of Canada’s artist Tom Thomson’s drowning in Ontario’s Algonquin
Park in 1917 has never before been so thoroughly investigated, documented and
reported. Here is what two Tom Thomson experts have to say about the book:
"Neil J. Lehto’s Algonquin Elegy Tom Thomson’s Last Spring is both a labor of
love and a labor of gargantuan effort to come to some understanding, nine
decades on, of exactly what happened that summer of 1917. Perhaps no one has
ever worked as hard to know the unknowable and, in doing so, he has
contributed invaluably to the greatest story in all of Canadian art. Neil’s passion
for Tom Thomson shines through as passionately on each page as Thomson’s
passion for Algonquin Park shines though on each painting he left behind that
last spring."
—Roy MacGregor, National Columnist for the Globe & Mail and writer of a novel
based on the mystery of painter Tom Thomson’s final days, Canoe Lake.
"This ambitious work refers to Ontario’s huge provincial park, Algonquin Park and
to the death under mysterious circumstances, of one of Canada’s greatest
artists, Tom Thomson (1877–1917). Lehto intertwines his story with fact so that it
has the tone of a memoir but he exuberantly adorns his account, painting in gaps
with invented scenarios and developing bare-bones motifs into well-designed
adventures. The result has rich color and offers a welcome respite from the
dryness of art history."
—Joan Murray, Former Executive Director and CEO, McMichael Canadian Art
Collection, Kleinberg, Ontario, distinguished author of numerous books about
Canada’s Group of Seven artists, Tom Thomson’s paintings and his life. She is
working on a catalogue raisonné of Thomson paintings.
Reviews
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
SKAGIT RIVER JOURNAL OF HISTORY & FOLKLORE REVIEW
The Skagit River Journal of History & Folklore of Sedro-Wooley, Washington,
published a very positive review of Algonquin Elegy: Tom Thomson's Last Spring,
in its September 2006 issue. It said: "Lehto's exploration of Thomson the artist
and the outdoorsman will fascinate anyone who admires Thomson's work and
has been curious about his death, but the book also spends more time on
Thomson's relationship with Alice Elinor Lambert than any Thomson biographer
has in the past. He includes two chapters about Alice, one covering the bare
bones of their relationship and the other an imagined encounter between the
two, with speculation about their brief affair and what it meant to Thomson's life
while he lived in Seattle for about four years before returning to his home area of
Leith, Ontario. " Get the full review here.
The Skagit River Journal of History & Folklore of Sedro-Wooley, Washington,
published a very positive review of Algonquin Elegy: Tom Thomson's Last Spring,
in its September 2006 issue. It said: "Lehto's exploration of Thomson the artist
and the outdoorsman will fascinate anyone who admires Thomson's work and
has been curious about his death, but the book also spends more time on
Thomson's relationship with Alice Elinor Lambert than any Thomson biographer
has in the past. He includes two chapters about Alice, one covering the bare
bones of their relationship and the other an imagined encounter between the
two, with speculation about their brief affair and what it meant to Thomson's life
while he lived in Seattle for about four years before returning to his home area of
Leith, Ontario. " Get the full review here.