Since 1905 the Champlain Society has been publishing one volume a year, always (or at least for many years) hardbound in handsome red covers, of documents on a Canadian historical subject.
Yesterday, I got one in the mail. This year's book is A Hotly Contested Affair: Hockey in Canada: The National Game in Documents, edited and introduced and commented on by Andrew C. Holman. It's maybe a livelier read than some Champlain volumes. Holman has selected widely from literature and journalism as well as more official hockey documents.
The Champlain Society, having understood not everyone who supports Canadian history wants a long line of redbound hardcovers gradually filling their precious shelf space, has started opening other membership options. As well, it offers for purchase a handsome paperback version of A Hotly Contested Affair. Read all about it here, and consider being a member, avec ou sans book.
I've been working on the papers of B.C judge, collector, and controversialist Archer Martin (1865-1941) for the DCB recently. His correspondence for 1905, I recently was amused to see, includes an invitation to become one of the 200 founding members of the Champlain Society, along with the great and the good of Canadian historico-literary society. He declined, writing, "At present I cannot, to speak frankly, afford to do so…. Anything I can do other than financially…"
They have probably heard that a few times since.
