Champlain's Dream

The entralling biography of the visionary adventurer—explorer, master mariner, soldier, artist, spy—who has straddled our history for 400 years. David Hackett Fischer, one of North America’s most acclaimed historians, brings to life, with rare immediacy and drama, the story of Samuel de Champlain. A remarkable leader in his time, he dreamed of humanity and peace in a world riven by violence, built the first European settlement in Canada founded on a dream of harmony and respect, and played a role in starting the growth of three populations—Québécois, Acadian, and Métis—in the place he called Quebec. His legacy is with us today and helps define Canada. With consummate storytelling skill and comprehensive scholarship drawing on Champlain’s own diaries and accounts, Fischer has definitively recreated for us the life of a rare and fascinating man, and the result is inspiring and gripping.