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291
THE LAIRD OF FORT WILLIAM
TERNIER GORDON, IRENE
High finance, wilderness adventures, violence, and questionable legal tactics all played important roles
in the history of the North West Company. William McGillivray, head of the company from 1804 until
1821, was arguably the most powerful businessman in Canada in the early nineteenth century. William
McGillivray emigrated from the Scottish Highlands to work for his uncle Simon McTavish when he was
twenty years old and became head of the NWC in 1804 upon McTavish’s death. The period from 1805
to 1814 was a time of quick expansion and great prosperity for the company; however, its decline was
even more rapid. It could be argued that the NWC did not merge with the Hudson’s Bay Company in
1821 but rather was swallowed up by it. By the time William died in 1825, the McGillivray family had
been forced into bankruptcy. Set against the background of the history and legacy of the NWC, this
engaging biography tells McGillivray’s complete story, from his early years in Scotland, immigration to
Canada, and fur-trading successes to his eventual downfall.
HISTORY
HERITAGE HOUSE
9781927051726
$19.95 TP Original
OCTOBER 2013
224 PAGES
LAST NIGHT AT THE VIPER ROOM: RIVER PHOENIX AND THE HOLLYWOOD HE LEFT BEHIND
EDWARDS, GAVIN
For a moment in the early 1990s, it felt like the future of American culture was up for grabs. Bill Clinton,
just 47 years old when he moved into the White House, represented a new generation. In music, Nirvana
was selling millions of copies of Nevermind, blowing out the nation’s eardrums in a way not heard since
70s punk rock. In the world of movies, indie film was busting out of art house theaters and into mall
multiplexes. A new generation of leading men was on the rise, many of them with boyish features and
bohemian attitudes: Johnny Depp, Keanu Reeves, Brad Pitt, Christian Slater, Robert Downey Jr., Nicolas
Cage, and Leonardo DiCaprio. Of all of them, perhaps the one with the brightest future was River
Phoenix. Raised in Venezuela under the aegis of the cultish Children of God, 18-year-old River Phoenix
took Hollywood by storm when he starred in Stand By Me, and soon won an Oscar nomination for
Running on Empty. Praised by his peers as the most talented actor of his generation, River came of age
in the spotlight—a teen idol on the fast-track to Hollywood royalty. Yet, on October 31, 1993, at the age of
23, River Phoenix died of a drug overdose in front of West Hollywood’s storied club, the Viper Room, a
tragic ending to a brilliant life, and career, the world had only just begun to grasp.
BIOGRAPHY 1ST PRINTING 50,000
IT! BOOKS
288 PAGES
9780062273154
$32.99 HC
OCTOBER 2013