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Mike Filey’s "The Way We Were" column in the Toronto Sun continues to be one of the paper’s most popular features. In Toronto Sketches 3, the third volume in Dundurn Press’s Toronto Sketches series, Filey brings together some of the best of his columns.Each column looks at Toronto as it was, and contributes to our understanding of how Toronto became what it is. Illustrated with photographs of the city’s people and places of the past, Toronto Sketches is a nostalgic journey for the long-time Torontonian, and a voyage of discovery for the newcomer.

In 1873, Henry Scadding, former rector of Toronto’s Church of the Holy Trinity, wrote the definitive history of early Toronto. His detailed portrait of the streets, customs and prominent citizens is a goldmine of sights and insights into a Toronto long-since disappeared. Toronto of Old was first reprinted in 1966 and has been out of print since 1973. The later version, edited by Frederick H. Armstrong is shorter than the original, with Scadding’s references to outside cities and characters shortened or omitted to give the book a sharper focus on Toronto.

Winner of the 2013 Heritage Toronto Award of Merit A Toronto Album 2, companion edition to Mike Filey’s immensely popular original album, is a photographic journey through bustling Toronto from the late 1930s to the early 1970s. Among the 100-plus photographs is a quartet that shows the remarkable changes to Toronto’s skyline over a half-century. Others capture the 1939 royal visit, steam trains in their twilight years, the evolution of the Hospital for Sick Children, a look at Christmas past, and glimpses of a few landmark buildings we weren’t smart enough to keep.

Mike Filey's collection of pictures of Toronto from the earliest days of photography had gained a reputation as one of the most interesting visual archives of the city's history. This classic look at old Toronto portrays scenes of public life from 1860 to 1950, illustrating how dramatically the urban fabric and environment have changed. There are photographs of the beaches and the islands, of mud streets and gas lamps, of steam engines and trolley cars, amusement parks and the everchanging waterfront.

This is an intimate biography of an artist who became a legend after his death, but who in his private life stands revealed as a troubled man who was, in many ways, his own victim. Joan Murray's new biography is part detective work, too: she investigates his beliefs, and the origins of his great masterpieces, and provides a convincing description of the possible circumstances of his death. The art of Tom Thomson represents one of the high points of Canadian modernism, which flourished in the first two decades of this century.

Co-winner of the Canada-Japan Literary Awards 1997 By either folly or design, Gabrielle Bauer finds herself on a plane bound for Tokyo, leaving her career, home, and husband behind.

In 1812, a 67-year-old black United Empire Loyalist named Richard Pierpoint helped raise "a corps of Coloured Men to stand and fight together" against the Americans who were threatening to invade the tiny British colony of Upper Canada. Pierpoint’s unique fighting unit would not only see service throughout the War of 1812, it would also be the first colonial military unit reactiviated to quash the Rebellion of 1837. It would go on to serve as a police force, keeping the peace among the competing Irish immigrant gangs during the construction of the Welland Canal.

To Go Upon Discovery begins with Cook’s arrival in Canada in 1758 and ends with his appointment to take Endeavour to the South Pacific. In between these dates, we witness the siege of Louisbourg during the Seven Years’ War, where Cook made his almost accidental discovery of the surveying techniques that distinguished him and gave him a prominent place in history. We see the development of his abilities while based in Halifax (1759-62), a port he knew better than any but his home port of Whitby, England.

Canada's foremost cookbook author began her career, not as a cook, but as a journalist writing for Canadian magazines. She was 60 when she turned her attention to food. Food That Really Schmecks immediately became a best-seller, and continues to sell 35 years later. It's more than a book of wonderful recipes - it also describes the Mennonite way of life. The success of that book led to two more Schmecks books and many other cookbooks. Edna has received the Order of Canada among many other awards.

"In her portrayal of the life of Sister Catherine Donnelly, founder of the Sisters of Service, author Jeanne Beck has succeeded in weaving a tapestry rich in texture, broad in scope and deeply revealing of the character of a memorable Canadian woman."-Brian F.