Preface - A Tentative Beginning
The following pages about WH Collison are not intended to be strictly factual. Although the account will be based on a framework that will be as factual as my research can uncover, the day-to-day actions and the words spoken which will often be based on conjecture, are presented as events and words that might possibly have occurred, based on what I can learn from the factual materials that remains from those days. In other words, this method of writing is termed "Creative Non-fiction" - the main events and dates used as scrupulously as possible, but the characters and many details invented, based on the author's conscientious logic.
I have been researching for a biography of William Henry Collison off and on for many years. Too often the other details of life have interceded so that my progress has been all too slow. I still intend to finish the work, as I feel this man made a significant contribution to the history of British Columbia. I have published the following selection, the only part written to date, more to satisfy myself that the work will get done, but also to demonstrate to my skeptics, that something is being done.
Many persons and events have been invented. Any resemblance between persons living or dead, or events in which historical persons may have been involved, is accidental and strictly coincidental. Where needed, characters and their names have been invented. Any resemblance between such characters and persons living or dead is also strictly coincidental.
A last word for the present: Although considerable evidence is available on which to base a work such as my book, there are still areas of missing information, or periods and events in his life which have eluded my efforts in trying to learn about him. If anyone has any information about his life, or about any of his family, possibly in letters, documents, or descriptions written by others about Collison or his family, or even about persons with whom he came in contact, I would appreciate getting copies of them. Anything to be returned, will be carefully treated, copied, and returned forthwith.
Peter Botham (email address given in "Contact Me")
The following pages about WH Collison are not intended to be strictly factual. Although the account will be based on a framework that will be as factual as my research can uncover, the day-to-day actions and the words spoken which will often be based on conjecture, are presented as events and words that might possibly have occurred, based on what I can learn from the factual materials that remains from those days. In other words, this method of writing is termed "Creative Non-fiction" - the main events and dates used as scrupulously as possible, but the characters and many details invented, based on the author's conscientious logic.
I have been researching for a biography of William Henry Collison off and on for many years. Too often the other details of life have interceded so that my progress has been all too slow. I still intend to finish the work, as I feel this man made a significant contribution to the history of British Columbia. I have published the following selection, the only part written to date, more to satisfy myself that the work will get done, but also to demonstrate to my skeptics, that something is being done.
Many persons and events have been invented. Any resemblance between persons living or dead, or events in which historical persons may have been involved, is accidental and strictly coincidental. Where needed, characters and their names have been invented. Any resemblance between such characters and persons living or dead is also strictly coincidental.
A last word for the present: Although considerable evidence is available on which to base a work such as my book, there are still areas of missing information, or periods and events in his life which have eluded my efforts in trying to learn about him. If anyone has any information about his life, or about any of his family, possibly in letters, documents, or descriptions written by others about Collison or his family, or even about persons with whom he came in contact, I would appreciate getting copies of them. Anything to be returned, will be carefully treated, copied, and returned forthwith.
Peter Botham (email address given in "Contact Me")
