Memoirs

Toronto: McClelland and Stewart Limited BOOK: Previous Owner Markings (Gift Inscription Neatly Inked to Half Title Page); Corners, Spine Bumped; Light Shelf Rub to Boards; Edges Lightly Soiled. DUST JACKET: Lightly Creased; Lightly Chipped; Moderate Yellowing Due to Age; In Archival Quality Jacket Cover. ALSO KNOWN AS: Issued also in French under title: Memoires. TRANSLATED BY: Philip Stratford. DESIGNED BY: Richard Miller. JACKET PHOTOGRAPH: Bernard Bohn. JACKET DESIGN: Richard Miller. CONTENTS: Translator's Note; Acknowledgements; Foreword; I Leavetaking; II Once Upon a Time...; III Times of Apocalypse; IV Our Far-Flung Correspondent; V The So-Called Quiet Revolution; VI Option Quebec; VII First Term of Office; VIII Winner Lose All. SYNOPSIS: One evening in the early spring of 1960 four men met in a Montreal hotel room at the request of Jean Lesage, then leader of the Quebec Liberal Party and soon to become Premier. Lesage wanted to know who among the four would join him in bringing Quebec out of the Duplessis era into the twentieth century. The four were: a union leader, an affable and easy-going man whose actions were instinctive; an esteemed journalist, who was reflective and careful in his thoughts and actions; an intellectual lawyer, who spent much of his time in dialectical political philosophizing; and another journalist, perhaps the most widely known of the four because of his popular TV current affairs program that had just gone off the air. After hours of talk only one remained, and that man, Rene Levesque, the television journalist, went to another hotel to inform a sleepy Lesage that he alone had chosen Quebec. The other others--Jean Marchand, Gerard Pelletier, and Pierre Elliott Trudeau--would become a part of the public consciousness several years later in the federal arena. It was an historic evening of decision at Montreal's Mount Royal Hotel. No individual has had a greater impact on the historical evolution of Quebec, and Canada, over the past quarter-century, than Rene Levesque. In his eagerly awaited Memoirs, the former Quebec Premier and founder and leader of the Parti Quebecois describes in telling detail the behind-the-scenes experiences of his time of influence and power in the Lesage government of 1960-66--as overseer of the nationalization of Hydro-Quebec, the symbolic cornerstone of change, as the "lefty" conscience and soul of the Quiet Revolution, and as a man moving inexorably toward a stance of independence for the country he had chosen--and as Premier from 1976 to 1985. More than a political memoir, this is also the story of Rene Levesque and his country, Quebec; it is an account, too, of the many small incidents and events in his life, at home and abroad, that led him, like many others of his generation, to aspire to become "master in his own house" during the Lesage years; and it tells of the longing for a separate, sovereign nation of Quebec that deeply affected so many Quebecers until the fateful referendum on May 20, 1980. That same longing remains a force in Quebec today. Rene Levesque's Memoirs is an important achievement, both for the insights it provides on Quebec, Canadian, and world leaders, and for the insider's view it offers of the events that have shaped our lives. Levesque tells his story with a humour, humility, and honesty that make this the political memoir. Born in Campbellton, New Brunswick, in 1922, and raised in New Carlisle, Quebec, Rene Levesque was Minister of Public Works and Hydraulic Resources in Quebec, 1960-66, was a founder and the leader of the Parti Quebecois, and Premier of Quebec 1976-85. He worked with the American Broadcasting System in Europe during World War II and was with the first Americans to reach the Dachau concentration camp; later, as a journalist with Radio-Canada, he covered events as diverse as the Korean War, Elizabeth II's coronation, Pearson's debate with Khrushchev, and U.S. political conventions. In the late 1950s he was the researcher, writer, and host of the acclaimed TV program "Point de Mire." As well as writing numerous magazine and newspaper articles from the early 1940s to the mid-1970s and being the principal author of many pieces of legislation and several manifestos, he is the author of An Option for Quebec (1968). Philip Stratford teaches at the Universite de Montreal. His latest translation is The Devil is Loose by Antonine Maillet. His latest critical book is a comparison of Canadian novels in French and English, All the Polarities.. Hard Cover. Very Good/Very Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.