Book Review: Bush Runner

The Adventures of Pierre-Esprit Radisson

Author

Steve's Book Stuff
October 21, 2023

In the Introduction to his 2019 book Bush Runner, author Mark Bourrie tells us that Pierre-Esprit Radisson was “the Forrest Gump of his time.” Radisson’s time was the 1600s, and his life story spans countries and continents.

Born in France Radisson’s parents shipped him off to the New World while civil war raged at home. Arriving in Trois'-Rivieres, New France (modern Quebec) he lived with his sister for a short time before being kidnapped by Mohawks, one of the five nations of the Iroquois Confederacy. His captors took him deep into Iroquois territory into what is now upstate New York where he was tortured for a time but then adopted into a Mohawk family.

Paperback cover for Bush Runner

His time among the Mohawk began a series of adventures that took Radisson from Iroquois territory back to New France (present day Quebec). From there he joined his brother-in-law venturing deep into the Great Lakes region opening up fur trading with native peoples as far west as what is now Wisconsin and Minnesota, and south into what is now Illinois.

His desire to open fur trading in Canada’s North led him to England where he convinced aristocratic investors to fund what became the Hudson Bay Company. He became of favorite of King Charles II and was in London at time of the Great Fire in 1666. He He left London with the newly-formed Company and traded furs in Hudson Bay. He returned to France, and helped the French take Carribean islands from the Dutch.

He had three wives (perhaps more - we don’t know if he took a Mohawk wife or married into any tribes on any of his fur trading ventures which placed him among Indigenous peoples for years at a time). He fathered several children in both the New World and the Old.

Author Mark Bourrie

He was a rapscallion with loose loyalties who lived large and died mostly penniless. He was a thief and a murderer, a cannibal and cheat. He was also a handsome fellow with a charming personality.

Radisson had a gift for language and spoke at least six languages fluently. He wrote detailed accounts of his adventures that were never published. These accounts were meant for private audiences (King Charles and the investors of the Hudson Bay Company) and were likely slanted to tell the stories that Radisson thought these powerful people wanted to hear.

Pierre-Esprit Radisson (National Archives of Canada)

Because these stories were never published Radisson’s role was lost to history for two hundred years, only being rediscovered in the late 1800s.

Bourrie does a great job with this book, combining serious research with a conversational writing style that draws you into the story.

RATING: Four Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating Comment: Great biography of the real life Forrest Gump of the 1600s. Compelling story. Best for folks who enjoy history of Canada and the Great Lakes region. (The author won the 2020 RBC Taylor prize for best nonfiction with this book.)

NOTE: I picked this book up last year on a trip to Toronto to visit family.

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Title: Bush Runner: The Adventures of Pierre-Esprit Radisson

Author: Mark Bourrie

Publisher: Biblioasis

Publish Date: October 3, 2023

ISBN-13: 9781771962377

Publisher’s List Price: $22.95 (US hardcover)

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