Garrison Theatricals

Daniel J. Brock / Fragments From the Forks: London Ontario's Legacy (2011)

Dan Brock will shortly be launching his long-awaited chronology of London, Ontario—Fragments from the Forks: London Ontario’s Legacy.  The nearly 500 page volume is edited by Catherine B. McEwen (The Carty Chronicles of Landmarks and Londoners), and published by The London and Middlesex Historical Society. Fragments from the Forks documents events in London from the ice age through to 2010. Given the scrupulous care that Brock takes in documenting primary source information, this will undoubtedly become a standard reference work for London historians.

“Nothing on this scale,” says Brock, “has ever been attempted for the city of London before.”

Fragments From the Forks contains five parts:

1. the chronology (over 4,500 entries)
2. illustrations (maps and never before published photos)
3. tables (population statics, city mayors, county wardens, police and fire chiefs, Anglican and Roman Catholic bishops, MPPs, MPs, a consumer price index for the years 1761 through 2010)
4. two pages of abbreviations
5. an index (47 pages each with three columns)

The London and Middlesex Historical Society will be hosting a book launch on Saturday, October 15th, 2011, from 1PM to 4PM at Attic Books (240 Dundas St., London, ON). Copies will be available at $40 for softcover and $50 for the hardcover edition.

The cover (right), depicts the Walter J. Blackburn memorial fountain (which officially opened in May 2009) superimposed on a landscape that hearkens back to a forks prior to settlement: all of London’s history encapsulated. The arcs of the fountain itself can be seen as the Fragments of the title.