"A Life in History" is an occasional series of professional memoirs by Canadian historians, running in the journal since I'm not sure when, but surely building a file substantial enough for a book publication by now. Taken together, they do testify that historians, like other people, do not follow one cookie-cutter career path, but carve out highly idiosyncratic pathways to whatever eminence caused the CHR editors to invite a contribution from them. And the latest, "The Unpredictable Gifts of Fortune" by Naomi E.S. Griffiths, professor, teacher, scholar of Acadian history and feminism, is no exception.
My “Life in History” took me from a childhood on the south coast of England, through an undergraduate university experience at Bedford College, University of London, and then to a lifetime of teaching, researching, and writing in Canada. At times, it was a chaotic process. When I look back more than eighty years later, I realize how often good fortune smoothed my way.
