Running Uphill: The Fast, Short Life of Canadian Champion Harry Jerome - Softcover

Fraser, Fil

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1896124135 ISBN 13: 9781896124131

Publisher: Dragon Hill Publishing, 2007

Synopsis

Harry Jerome was among the greatest runners the world has ever seen. He battled serious injuries, racism and periodically a hostile domestic press as he smashed numerous world records and represented Canada at the Olympic, Commonwealth and Pan-American Games through the 1960s. Running Uphill: The Short, Fast Life of Harry Jerome is the first biography ever published of this important Canadian, who stands as a genuine hero for Canada’s Black community. (http://www.lonepinepublishing.com/cat/9781896124131 2007-07-07)

About this title

About the Author:

FIL FRASER has made his mark in filmmaking, radio, television, as a writer, and as a human rights activist over a career spanning more than half a century. He is a former chairman of Telefilm Canada, the former CEO of Vision TV and the past Chief Commissioner of the Alberta Human Rights Commission. He was born and educated in Montreal before moving out west, where he became one of the pioneers in building a western Canadian film industry, releasing such award-winning feature films as Why Shoot the Teacher (1976), Marie Anne (1977) and The Hounds of Notre Dame (1980). For his long years of public service and accomplishment, Fraser was awarded the Order of Canada in 1991. (Lone Pine Publishing Lone Pine Publishing website 2007-07-07)

Review:

CM - Volume XIII Number 22 - June 22, 2007 - Published by: The Manitoba Library Association
http://umanitoba.ca/outreach/cm/vol13/no22/runninguphill.html

Running Uphill: The Fast, Short Life of Canadian Champion Harry Jerome, by Fil Fraser.
Edmonton, AB: Dragon Hill Publishing/Lone Pine Publishing, 2006.
240 pp., pbk., $18.95.
ISBN 978-1-896124-13-1.

Subject Headings:
Jerome, Harry, 1940-1982.
Runners (Sports)-Canada-Biography.
Black Canadians-Biography.
Grades 8 and up / Ages 13 and up.
***½ /4
"One of the marvelous characteristics of Running Uphill is that it will appeal to a wide spectrum of readers and not just sporting enthusiasts. It documents the racial discrimination that was still quite open in Canadian and American societies in the 1950s and 1960s, demonstrated by the petition, when Harry was eleven, by North Vancouver homeowners to have the Jerome family leave their newly purchased home (they settled in another part of North Vancouver where opposition to a Black family was muted), and by opposition to Harry’s courtship and marriage to Wendy Foster, a white woman from Edmonton who was a fellow student at the University of Oregon. The book also delves into the worlds of sport psychology, the history of sports training and (lack of) funding in Canada, sports journalism, and it includes a curious hypothetical evaluation of how Jerome would fare if he had competed with the improved sporting equipment, training and sporting facilities that more recent record holders have enjoyed.
This book deserves a wide readership. Numerous b&w photographs show Jerome at all stages of life. Appendices include one on Jerome’s sporting records. There is no index and no bibliography."
Review by Val Ken Lem.
Highly Recommended.
Val Ken Lem is a Catalogue Librarian and subject liaison for English, history, and Caribbean Studies at Ryerson University in Toronto, ON.
To comment on this title or this review, send mail to cm@umanitoba.ca.
Copyright © the Manitoba Library Association.

About this edition

• Publisher: Dragon Hill Publishing
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 1896124135
• ISBN 13: 9781896124131
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240