Biography of fur trader Pierre-Esprit Radisson receives RBC Taylor Prize

Posted on March 3, 2020 by Gail Dever

The Hudson’s Bay Company celebrates its 350th anniversary this year, so it seems apropos that the winner of the 2020 RBC Taylor Prize is Ottawa lawyer, journalist and historian Mark Bourrie for his book, Bush Runner: The Adventures of Pierre-Esprit Radisson.

Published by Biblioasis, the biography follows the swashbuckling escapes of fur trader Pierre-Esprit Radisson, who helped found what is now Canada’s oldest corporation, the Hudson’s Bay Company.

The $30,000 award was announced yesterday by prize founder and chair Noreen Taylor in Toronto.

About the book —

Known to some as the first European to explore the upper Mississippi, and widely as the namesake of ships and hotel chains, Pierre-Esprit Radisson is perhaps best described, writes Mark Bourrie, as “an eager hustler with no known scruples.” Kidnapped by Mohawk warriors at the age of fifteen, Radisson assimilated and was adopted by a powerful family, only to escape to New York City after less than a year. After being recaptured, he defected from a raiding party to the Dutch and crossed the Atlantic to the Netherlands — thus beginning a lifetime of seized opportunities and frustrated ambitions.

A guest among First Nations communities, French fur traders, and royal courts; witness to London’s Great Plague and Great Fire; and unwitting agent of the Jesuits’ corporate espionage, Radisson double-crossed the English, French, Dutch, and his adoptive Mohawk family alike, found himself marooned by pirates in Spain, and lived through shipwreck on the reefs of Venezuela. His most lasting venture as an Artic fur trader led to the founding of the Hudson’s Bay Company, which operates today, 350 years later, as North America’s oldest corporation.
 
Sourced from Radisson’s journals, which are the best first-hand accounts of 17th century Canada, Bush Runner tells the extraordinary true story of this protean 17th-century figure, a man more trading partner than colonizer, a peddler of goods and not worldview — and with it offers a fresh perspective on the world in which he lived.

You can look inside the book on Amazon.ca where a timeline of Radisson’s life is provided.

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One Response to Biography of fur trader Pierre-Esprit Radisson receives RBC Taylor Prize

  1. Brenda Glover says:
    March 3, 2020 at 8:34 am

    I saw a great interview done by Steve Paikin on TVO with all the authors for the prize including Mark Bourrie, author of “Runner”. He discussed his research for the book which included reading all of Radisson’s journals. I immediately bought the book and have just started reading it.

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