Here are a few of the books I mentioned on my Historic Calgary Week walk — plus a few other literary treasures.
Memorial Park Library
Inspiring Life Stories: The Calgary Public Library since 1912 (2012) – Brian Brennan
Letters from America (1916) – Rupert Brooke
“Fool of the New West” (2013) – Kris Demeanor
“Timothy Findley: The Calgary Connection” (2004) – William Whitehead
“Horseman of the Plains” Central Memorial Park
The Great Karoo (2008) – Fred Stenson
Colonel Belcher Hospital (now Chumir Centre)
The I Chong: Meditations from the Joint (2006) – Tommy Chong
Hester Apartments & Calgary’s Leacock Connections
My Discovery of the West (1937) – Stephen Leacock
The Figgs (2018) – Ali Bryan
R. H. Williams Block
“Eva Reid: Girl Reporter”(2004) – Jennifer Hamblin
“Calgary: Gateway to the Woman’s West” (1913) — Calgary Branch, Canadian Women’s Press Club
Al Azhar Temple (once located at 4th Street & 17th Ave)
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s visit to Calgary, June 1923
Agatha Christie (nothing to do with Beltline)
The Grand Tour: Letters and Photographs from the British Empire Expedition (2012) – Agatha Christie
Ordeal by Innocence (1958) – Agatha Christie
The Social Credit connection
Mavericks: An Incorrigible History of Alberta (2001) – Aritha van Herk
The Words of My Roaring (1966) – Robert Kroetsch
The Aberhart Summer (1983) – Bruce Allen Powe
Aberhart Summer (1999) - Conni Massing’s play adaptation
15th Avenue
The Judas Conspiracy (aka Alberta Alone) (1976; 1981) – John Ballem
The Oil Patch Quartet – John Ballem
Nellie McClung House
The Stream Runs Fast (1945) – Nellie McClung
Lougheed House & area
The Magpie’s Nest (1917) - Isabel Paterson
The Cow Puncher (1918) - Robert J. C. Stead
Fold Home (1950) – Flos Jewell Williams
Journey with No Maps: A Life of P. K. Page (2012) – Sandra Djwa
“Max and My Mother: A Memoir,” Border Crossings (1988) – P. K. Page
Our Past Matters: Stories of Gay Calgary (2018) – Kevin Allen
Country Music Country (1996; 2019) – Bruce Hunter
Bending at the Bow (1995) – Marion Douglas
“Been Caught Stealing: Life Inside The Lorraine” (2020) – Heidi Klaassen
Electric Avenue
“Electric Avenue: An Infamous Chapter in Calgary’s Partying History,” Avenue Magazine (2013)-- Shelley Arnusch
Salvage King, Ya! (1997) – Mark Anthony Jarman
Cash Corner, The Beltline Y & More
The Crash Palace (2021) – Andrew Wedderburn