Overview

Born in 1861 to a Methodist family, William Henry Jackson grew up in Ontario before moving to Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, where he sympathised with the Metis and their struggle for land rights. Jackson became personal secretary to Louis Riel. After the Metis defeat, a Regina court committed the young English Canadian idealist, who had become a Catholic in the Metis camp, and who had later accepted Louis Riel as the prophet of a reformed Christian church, to the lunatic asylum at Lower Fort Garry. He eventually escaped to the United States, joined the labour union movement, and renounced his race. Self-identifying as Metis, he changed his name to the French-sounding ""Honore Jaxon"" and devoted the remainder of his life to fighting for the working class and the Indigenous peoples of North America. In Honore Jaxon, Donald B. Smith draws on extensive archival research and interviews with family members to present a definitive biography of this complex political man. The book follows Jaxon into the 1940s, where his life mission became the establishment of a library for the First Nations in Saskatchewan, collecting as many books, newspapers, and pamphlets relating to the Metis people as possible. In 1951, at age ninety, he was evicted from his apartment and his library was discarded to the New York City dump. In poor health and broken in spirit, he died one month later. Heavily illustrated, Honore Jaxon recounts the complicated story of a young English Canadian who imagined a society in which English and French, Indigenous and Metis would be equals.

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9781487550141

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Reviews

Honore Jaxon: Prairie Visionary reminds us that behind every eccentric who lives next door lies a sometimes-fascinating story. -- Sam Roberts * <em>The New York Times </em> * It is Smith's careful attention to detail that allows us to contemplate the shape and consequences of Jaxon's appropriation of an essential Metis identity. It would have been easy for Smith to slip towards simple condemnation of Jaxon's conceits, but in this work we also get a truly humane representation of a final prairie imposter. This work is a fine wrap-up to an intriguing series. -- Mike Evans * <em>Literary Review of Canada </em> * In clearly written prose, and in a dynamic storytelling ability lost to most Canadian historians, Smith writes a highly entertaining account of Jaxon's life. -- Darren R. Prefontaine * <em>New Breed Magazine </em> * Donald B. Smith's Honore Jaxon: Prairie Visionary is a lively page-turner, an engaging narrative of the life of an intriguing chameleon. -- Barbara J. Messamore * <em>Journal of Historical Biography </em> * Smith treats this story with sympathy and understanding. His use of Jaxon's own letters and interviews enables him to tell it very much as Jaxon saw it, treating all his schemes, ambitions, and pretensions as seriously as possible. It's a sad but entertaining tale of a talented but unfocused imposter on the margin of history. -- A.I. Silver * <em>University of Toronto Quarterly </em> *

""Honoré Jaxon: Prairie Visionary reminds us that behind every eccentric who lives next door lies a sometimes-fascinating story."" -- Sam Roberts * <em>The New York Times </em> * ""It is Smith’s careful attention to detail that allows us to contemplate the shape and consequences of Jaxon’s appropriation of an essential Métis identity. It would have been easy for Smith to slip towards simple condemnation of Jaxon’s conceits, but in this work we also get a truly humane representation of a final prairie imposter. This work is a fine wrap-up to an intriguing series."" -- Mike Evans * <em>Literary Review of Canada </em> * ""In clearly written prose, and in a dynamic storytelling ability lost to most Canadian historians, Smith writes a highly entertaining account of Jaxon’s life."" -- Darren R. Préfontaine * <em>New Breed Magazine </em> * ""Donald B. Smith’s Honoré Jaxon: Prairie Visionary is a lively page-turner, an engaging narrative of the life of an intriguing chameleon."" -- Barbara J. Messamore * <em>Journal of Historical Biography </em> * ""Smith treats this story with sympathy and understanding. His use of Jaxon’s own letters and interviews enables him to tell it very much as Jaxon saw it, treating all his schemes, ambitions, and pretensions as seriously as possible. It’s a sad but entertaining tale of a talented but unfocused imposter on the margin of history."" -- A.I. Silver * <em>University of Toronto Quarterly </em> * “Smith has taken the time to write — and now update — fascinating biographies that humanize the past, in order to explore its complexities.” -- Charlotte Gray * <em>The Literary Review of Canada</em> *

Author Information

Donald B. Smith is a professor emeritus of History at the University of Calgary.

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