Description: Regarding life at Battleford, escorting a prisoner to Turtle Lake, Cochrane Ranche, his plans to marry the Métis woman Margaret Calder, breaking off of his engagement, visit of the Governor General, the Marquis of Lorne, the chase and capture of Stoney horse thieves, and buying lots in Prince Albert.

The Colcord children spent most of their youth on their father's ships, and the family's detailed letters, logbooks, and photographs give us a splendid window into the life of a seafaring family.

The Malcolm Letter was written by Melville in 1849 on the birth of his son. This letter is one of thirty-six to be retrieved since the publication of The Letters of Herman Melville (1960) and has earned a place in the New York Public Library's Gansevoort-Lansing Collection. Addressed to Melville's brother, the letter entices critics to read it on several levels. It reveals Melville's serious consideration of his own father's influence on his upbringing as he anticipates undertaking the role of father himself. It is not a literary work, but a deeply personal outpouring distinguished by dark underpinnings barely hidden by his light-hearted tone. In a bit of dramatic irony, Melville reflects on the responsibility looming ahead of him as the reader notes the tragedy that Melville cannot possibly foresee - his son Malcolm's suicide eighteen years later. Cohen's and Yannella's careful study relives for the reader this and other events which shaped the clannish Melville family history. They also show how the author's struggle with these pressures are manifested in his writing. This volume is published in cooperation with the New York Public Library.