Gervais-Laurence Book Project
Thanks for your interest in my forthcoming book!
This joint biography of Red River and Minnesota settlers Benjamin Gervais and Genevieve Laurence is an epic tale of harrowing journeys, untimely deaths, failed business ventures, unlikely love affairs, calamitous natural disasters, political intrigue, and corruption that spans the North American continent. It is a true story of the American West that challenges historical scholarship but reads like a novel.
Explore this website to learn more about the story, get updates on my research and writing progress, and (if you choose) help get the book across the finish line.
Saint Paul, about 1848, by Henry Lewis
A Team Effort
All works of scholarship build on generations of prior research and interpretation. They depend on the unheralded labor of hundreds of archivists and librarians. They benefit greatly from review and critique by contemporary scholars. And they require significant time and financial resources to come to fruition.
As I dedicate my time to completing the research and tackling the thousands of words of writing that lay ahead of me, I appreciate the financial support, intellectual assistance, and/or all-around enthusiasm I've received from the following organizations and individuals:
The Little Canada Historical Society
The French-American Heritage Foundation
Gervais and Laurence family descendants
Dr. Carolyn Podruchny, Professor of History at York University; author of Making the Voyageur World: Travelers and Traders in the North American Fur Trade
Dr. Jane Lamm Carroll, Professor of History at St. Catherine University; author of Daybreak Woman: An Anglo-Dakota Life
Dr. Mary Anne Poutanen, Professor of History at McGill University; author of Beyond Brutal Passions: Prostitution in Early Nineteenth-Century Montreal
David Vermette, independent historian; author of A Distinct Alien Race: The Untold Story of Franco-Americans
Dr. Patrick Lacroix, Director of the Acadian Archives, University of Maine - Fort Kent; author of "Prelude to the 'Great Hemorrhage': French Canadians in the United States, 1775-1840"; "Franco-Americans and Racial Discourse in Historical Perspective"; and "French-Canadian Settlement and Community Formation in Pre-Civil War New York State"
Dr. Jay Gitlin, Professor of History at Yale University; author of The Bourgeois Frontier: French Towns, French Traders, and American Expansion
Dr. Jeremy Kingsbury, Teaching Assistant Professor of History and American Indian Studies at the University of North Dakota; author of PhD diss. Ozaawindib’s World: Ojibwe Family, Gender, Warfare and Politics: 1748-1826
MaryEllen Weller-Smith, independent scholar, Fulbright Teacher Exchange alumna (St. Denis, France); author of Frances Anne Hopkins: Hudson's Bay Company Wife, Voyageur's Artist
Dr. Remi Roy, Emeritus Professor of Political Science at Montmorency College, Laval, Quebec
