Jacob Eric Stathers

When I was Very Young is a memoir and collection of stories that are connected to boyhood and growing up in the mountainous village of Lillooet, British Columbia in Canada. Some people call this literary genre a Bildungsroman, or a coming-of-age work that focuses on the psychological and moral growth of its main character from youth to adulthood. These stories took place between the 1950's and 1970's. Readers that grew up in small towns and moved to the city or traveled on the Hippie Trail during the 1970's campus protests and counterculture movement will relate to this book. You may also enjoy this book if you are interested in themes related to the history of Lillooet B.C., indigenous people, and the scouting movement.

Eric Stather's Memoirs of Fifty Years of Fly Fishing take us from the rainbow trout of British Columbia and Patagonia, to the brown trout of Ireland and New Zealand, to the bonefish of Belize and Mexico. Stories like Home Waters, Grandfather Yarns, and The Magic Words evoke memories of a more nostalgic era of shared family outdoor activities and values that revolved around fishing.

Jaap and Emmy is the life story of Jack and Emma Manten. It describes their family and lives in the Netherlands before immigrating to British Columbia, Canada in 1923. The struggles of Dutch immigrants raising three daughters and starting Manten's Nursery, a horticultural business that specialized in importing propagating, and selling trees and shrubs is documented based on their letters and business records. Manten's Nursery was instrumental in the restocking of the B.C. tree fruit industry with dwarf rootstock after the 1949-50 frost, growing the BC filbert nut industry, the development of the dwarf Jubilee apple variety, and for propagation of a new Daphne variety called Daphne mantensiana. Manten conducted experimental research and served as a mentor for University of BC academics and students as well as researchers from the Dominion Experimental Station in Summerland. Manten's Nursery supplied plants to local and international government and research stations as well as stock for many of the well known gardens, parks, and nurseries in B including the University of British Columbia, UBC Botanical Garden, Queen Elizabeth Park, Stanley Park, Queens Park, and Vancouver and Penticton street trees.

SAILOR BILL AND MARY, Tales of the Sea documents the voyages and stories of Sailor Bill as he grows from apprentice to master mariner during the transition from sailing ships to steamships during the 1880's to 1900. Sailor Bill & Mary describes their lives and family in England before immigrating to Canada in 1913. The challenges of adapting from a life on the sea to farming in rural Manitoba and earning a living during World War I and the Great Depression are described as Bill moves from farming, to the army, to the railroad, and bootlegging during the Prohibition. Through it all Mary provides steadfast support with a husband away from home for long periods of time, bouts of malaria, chronic alcoholism, and the loss and injury of their sons to the ravages of the Great War and the Great Flu. Sailor Bill and Mary move yet again to British Columbia where Sailor Bill has another go at working on the coastal ships before retiring and recounting his tales in local pubs and on CJOR radio. Sailor Bill & Mary is a historical account of their remarkable life.