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One Book, One Whonnock
by Fred Braches
Fifty-seven people signed up to read The Eternal Forest and of those 30 gathered at the Ruskin Hall on Tuesday, February 25 of 2014 to discuss the book.
Ruskin Hall was built in 1924 close to the time The Eternal Forest was published, not far from where the novel is set, so the discussions were surrounded by an authentic atmosphere. Readers also united on a wonderful and sunny Saturday afternoon to review the history of Whonnock in the years immediately before the First World War when the Godwins lived in Whonnock. The participants included Lucy Godwin, granddaughter of George and Dorothy Godwin.
This novel, first published in 1929 in London and New York, is set before the First World War. It focuses on a small community called Ferguson's Landing on the Fraser River. The author seems to reveal the true identity of the place by letting the chorus of frogs sing: "Wan-ik, Wan-ik.";
Whonnock is where in 1912 the author, young and starry-eyed George Godwin, and his wife Dorothy Purdon - just married and both fresh from England - settled on acreage off today's 268th Street. George Godwin was not cut out for life as a "bushranger,"; and Dorothy just hated the place. A year or so later, after the birth of their first child, the couple moved to a more urban home on Spilsbury Street, close to the railway station and other amenities, before returning for good to England in 1915.
The Newcomer, Godwin's double in the novel, is as naively enthusiastic as the author himself must have been. He wants to be together with his wife "...undisturbed, encircled by the bush, alone."; He does not give up, but keeps on trying to scratch a living from the soil until his health forces him to put the property up for sale.
The Newcomers - as the Godwins - see themselves a notch above the others in the settlement. She choses not to befriend the women of the community and prefers to get her practical knowledge from books. He judges his neighbours harshly but he shares local gossip and discusses news and ideas with them and learns from them how to develop his land and work in the woods.
Robert S. Thomson, the editor and publisher of the 1994 version of the book, stressed the historical significance of the book, but reading historical facts into these stories is perilous. This book after all is a novel where fiction is inspired by reality - not necessarily reality itself.
It is tempting, for instance, to take the story in the "prologue"; of the founding of the place in 1849 by a Scots master mariner called Captain Ferguson at face value. But the true first white settler in Whonnock was Robert Robertson, who started living here in 1860, and he does not figure in Godwin's book in any way.
Recognizing residents of Whonnock among those of Ferguson's Landing's is an interesting but rather disappointing exercise. Similarities between Godwin's creations and real people are only superficial and Godwin's portrayals, often unflattering and derogatory, even vindictive, are obviously coloured by imagination and sometimes downright untrue when compared with the historical record.
Godwin describes Ferguson's Landing as a rather gloomy and humourless male-centred place where women play a passive part and where there is nothing good said about assertive females.
However, Whonnock was, at the time the Godwins lived there, a vibrant place, proud of its new "Ladies Hall"; (later Whonnock Memorial Hall) that came about through the efforts of self-assured women who took care of the operation of their hall in the same way they had run the activities at the school, the churches, and social life in general. Nothing of that female initiative and energy is reflected in Godwin's Ferguson's Landing.
For those and other reasons The Eternal Forest should not be understood to be the story of Whonnock specifically. Ferguson's Landing is just too different. Actually it does represent any and every of the numerous small settlements in the Fraser Valley around the First World War (which is interestingly never mentioned in the book) with its people's fears and phobias, their hopes and illusions, their ambitions, their hard work, their failures, some successes, some happiness and a lot of misery.
The book shows the blatant racism and sexism so common at this time. Godwin tells us about swindlers and ruthless speculators ruining the lives of the common men. He admires and pays tribute to the true farmer, fisherman and woodsman, whose existence is threatened by the seemingly unstoppable flow of Japanese and Chinese immigrants,
Above all else Godwin glorifies the invincible eternal forest. He would go on dreaming of trees, the forest and Canada for the rest of his life.
Jean Davidson is the heart and soul of the One Book Whonnock program, which she started three years ago with the support of the Whonnock Community Association. Her efforts made neighbour talk to neighbour - not a small achievement in these rural parts of Maple Ridge.
[Fred Braches has written numerous articles about George Godwin and local literary matters.]
Fifty-seven people signed up to read The Eternal Forest and of those 30 gathered at the Ruskin Hall on Tuesday, February 25 of 2014 to discuss the book.
Ruskin Hall was built in 1924 close to the time The Eternal Forest was published, not far from where the novel is set, so the discussions were surrounded by an authentic atmosphere. Readers also united on a wonderful and sunny Saturday afternoon to review the history of Whonnock in the years immediately before the First World War when the Godwins lived in Whonnock. The participants included Lucy Godwin, granddaughter of George and Dorothy Godwin.
This novel, first published in 1929 in London and New York, is set before the First World War. It focuses on a small community called Ferguson's Landing on the Fraser River. The author seems to reveal the true identity of the place by letting the chorus of frogs sing: "Wan-ik, Wan-ik.";
Whonnock is where in 1912 the author, young and starry-eyed George Godwin, and his wife Dorothy Purdon - just married and both fresh from England - settled on acreage off today's 268th Street. George Godwin was not cut out for life as a "bushranger,"; and Dorothy just hated the place. A year or so later, after the birth of their first child, the couple moved to a more urban home on Spilsbury Street, close to the railway station and other amenities, before returning for good to England in 1915.
The Newcomer, Godwin's double in the novel, is as naively enthusiastic as the author himself must have been. He wants to be together with his wife "...undisturbed, encircled by the bush, alone."; He does not give up, but keeps on trying to scratch a living from the soil until his health forces him to put the property up for sale.
The Newcomers - as the Godwins - see themselves a notch above the others in the settlement. She choses not to befriend the women of the community and prefers to get her practical knowledge from books. He judges his neighbours harshly but he shares local gossip and discusses news and ideas with them and learns from them how to develop his land and work in the woods.
Robert S. Thomson, the editor and publisher of the 1994 version of the book, stressed the historical significance of the book, but reading historical facts into these stories is perilous. This book after all is a novel where fiction is inspired by reality - not necessarily reality itself.
It is tempting, for instance, to take the story in the "prologue"; of the founding of the place in 1849 by a Scots master mariner called Captain Ferguson at face value. But the true first white settler in Whonnock was Robert Robertson, who started living here in 1860, and he does not figure in Godwin's book in any way.
Recognizing residents of Whonnock among those of Ferguson's Landing's is an interesting but rather disappointing exercise. Similarities between Godwin's creations and real people are only superficial and Godwin's portrayals, often unflattering and derogatory, even vindictive, are obviously coloured by imagination and sometimes downright untrue when compared with the historical record.
Godwin describes Ferguson's Landing as a rather gloomy and humourless male-centred place where women play a passive part and where there is nothing good said about assertive females.
However, Whonnock was, at the time the Godwins lived there, a vibrant place, proud of its new "Ladies Hall"; (later Whonnock Memorial Hall) that came about through the efforts of self-assured women who took care of the operation of their hall in the same way they had run the activities at the school, the churches, and social life in general. Nothing of that female initiative and energy is reflected in Godwin's Ferguson's Landing.
For those and other reasons The Eternal Forest should not be understood to be the story of Whonnock specifically. Ferguson's Landing is just too different. Actually it does represent any and every of the numerous small settlements in the Fraser Valley around the First World War (which is interestingly never mentioned in the book) with its people's fears and phobias, their hopes and illusions, their ambitions, their hard work, their failures, some successes, some happiness and a lot of misery.
The book shows the blatant racism and sexism so common at this time. Godwin tells us about swindlers and ruthless speculators ruining the lives of the common men. He admires and pays tribute to the true farmer, fisherman and woodsman, whose existence is threatened by the seemingly unstoppable flow of Japanese and Chinese immigrants,
Above all else Godwin glorifies the invincible eternal forest. He would go on dreaming of trees, the forest and Canada for the rest of his life.
Jean Davidson is the heart and soul of the One Book Whonnock program, which she started three years ago with the support of the Whonnock Community Association. Her efforts made neighbour talk to neighbour - not a small achievement in these rural parts of Maple Ridge.
[Fred Braches has written numerous articles about George Godwin and local literary matters.]
Submitted on January 7, 2015 in By David.
