Canadian Studies Lecture April 15 to Feature Champlain Scholar
Contact: Robin Parady, 581-4220; George Manlove, 581-3756
ORONO — Pulitzer prize-winning author David Hackett Fischer, an expert on the life of explorer and cartographer Samuel de Champlain, and author of “Champlain’s Dream,” will discuss insights on the man termed the Father of New France in a lecture April 15 at 6 p.m. at the University of Maine Buchanan Alumni Center.
Champlain founded Quebec four centuries ago, and was the most important leader in New France for more than 30 years.
Fischer is the 2009 UMaine Canadian Studies Distinguished Lecturer. The talk is free and open to the public. Buchanan Alumni Center doors open at 5:30 p.m. The evening also will include book signings and light refreshments. For more information, contact Robin Parady at (207) 581-4220.
Fischer’s book is the first full-scale biography of Champlain in 20 years. Publisher’s Weekly calls it “the definitive biography of Samuel de Champlain.” Publisher Simon & Schuster describes it as “a vivid, groundbreaking account of the life of one of the most important and vibrant figures in American history…”
Fischer, a popular author, professor of history at Brandeis University and part time Mt. Desert Island resident, says he first became interested in Champlain after researching Mt. Desert Island’s French connection with the man who named the island.
In addition to teaching history at Brandeis, Fischer also is a Harmsworth Professor at Oxford University and a trustee of the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, where he and his family spend time. He is a graduate of Princeton and Johns Hopkins universities, taught at the University of Washington and Harvard, and he has won many prizes and awards for teaching, scholarship and literature. Among his books are “Albion’s Seed,” ” Bound Away,” “The Great Wave,” “Liberty and Freedom,” “Paul Revere’s Ride” and “Washington’s Crossing,” for which he won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for History.
Since Champlain’s personal papers were lost over time and little is known about his early life or personal life, including what he looked like, Fischer’s biography of Champlain resulted from exhaustive research in several countries through archives and archaeological records, in addition to traveling to major sites Champlain lived in or visited. Fischer’s sources included narratives from the oral history and the inherited traditions of several First Nations who knew Champlain and retold stories of his character and deeds.
Champlain’s relationship with Native populations differed from most other explorers of the time. Rather than seeking to enslave Natives, Champlain befriended them. In September 1604, for instance, Champlain, guided by a party of Natives, sailed up the Penobscot River to what is now Bangor, where he met with the Sagamore Chief Bessabez and as many as 60 other Native Americans. He joined them in a ritual tobacco feast, according to Fischer. His approach resulted in an alliance based on reciprocal trust that endured for generations.
Champlain also interacted similarly with Natives as he explored other Maine rivers, studying and mapping the Kennebec, Androscoggin and Saco rivers.
The Canadian-American Center recently commissioned cartographers Michael J. Hermann and Margaret W. Pearce to design an award-winning, explanatory map, published late last fall, about Samuel de Champlain in North America, titled “They Would Not Take Me There: People, Places and Stories from Champlain’s Travels in Canada, 1603-1616.”
“We are delighted to follow the publication of our Champlain map by presenting a public event with historian and scholar David Hackett Fischer, whose research and book, Champlain’s Dream, reveals an enormous amount about the fascinating and important Samuel de Champlain,” says Stephen Hornsby, Canadian-American Center director and professor of geography and Canadian studies.
The Canadian-American Center, established in 1967, is one of the leading institutes for studying Canada in the United States. Designated a National Resource Center on Canada by the U.S. Department of Education in 1979, the center coordinates an extensive program of undergraduate and graduate education; supports a major research library collection on Canada; promotes cross-border research in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and professions; and directs outreach programs to state, regional and national audiences.