Coal Miner’s Daughter: Elaine Spence Falconer

Author Reading: Wednesday November 10th 7-9 pm
Keshen Goodman Public Library. All are Welcome

Once Upon a Miracle: secrets of survival
by Elaine Spence Falconer

“On the surface, Once Upon A Miracle is a story of homespun heroes and miner miracles in Springhill, Nova Scotia. Riding the Rake to the coalface, it takes the reader deeper into the mystery of coal itself. Ultimately, Once Upon a Miracle is a universal message of hope and survival.

Highlighting the years from 1891 to the turn of the 20th Century, Once Upon a Miracle is a single chapter in the story of Springhill. Its secrets were meant to be shared. Elaine Spence Falconer is a retired teacher and a coal miner’s daughter…” – book jacket

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If coal mining is a topic of interest, also consider these recent titles:

Cold Black Heart: the story of coal and the lives it ruled, by John DeMont

“A major new work of history, told through the stories of a teeming cast of characters. The history of coal is the story of the last two centuries of the industrialized world. Coal has powered that world, and controlled the destinies of millions. And nowhere has that influence run more deeply than in Nova Scotia, where the industry’s rise and decline has transformed society twice.

Coal Black Heart is a global history that centres unapologetically on one province, and the generations of people whose lives there have been shaped by this dominating industry. There are the miners. There are the moonshiners and brooding social reformers and charismatic preachers who gave the mining towns their particular feel and flair. And there are the profiteers whose greed led to disaster. This is history as great storytelling – enthralling, involving, deeply moving, and it is a very personal narrative.

A brilliant reporter, journalist, and author who has spent most of his career examining Nova Scotia’s weave of land, people, and history – and who grew up listening to its stories – John DeMont was born to write this book.” ~ Publisher

Seven Miles Deep : mining faces from the Owen Fitzgerald collection, by Owen Fitzgerald.

“Beginning in the mid 1970s and continuing for about two decades, photographer Owen Fitzgerald documented the coal mining operations on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, Canada. His focus was on the miners themselves, especially their faces, and the this collection of his photographs is more a work of portraiture than it is an attempt to record the typical daily experience of the miners, although a fair number of pictures showing miners operating machinery, eating their lunches, riding in the “rake boxes” that carried the miners down into the mines, and the like are included as well. The captions are taken from interviews with the miners themselves.” – booknews.com