Books on Beaverbrook, Mormons vie for non-fiction prize

A book by CBC reporter Jacques Poitras about the dispute overLord Beaverbrook'scollection of arthas been nominated for the British Columbia Award for Canadian Non-Fiction.

Beaverbrook: A Shattered Legacy is one of three finalists announced Thursday for the $40,000 prize, Canada's largest prize for non-fiction. The prize, created in 2003 by the British Columbia Achievement Foundation, is open to all Canadian writers.

The other finalists are Lorna Goodison, for her memoir of a Jamaican family, From Harvey River: A Memoir of My Mother and her People, and Donald Harman Akenson for Some Family: The Mormons and How Humanity Keeps Track of Itself, an examination of the role of genealogy.

Poitras, a CBC provincial affairs reporter based in Fredericton, has followedthe story of the fight between Beaverbrook's heirs and the Beaverbrook Art Gallery over ownership ofthe press baron'svaluable collection of art.

In Beaverbrook:A Shattered Legacy, he examines the carefully crafted image of Max Aitken, the divisions within his family and the legal fight that pitted two charitable foundations named after Beaverbrook against an art gallery that also bears his name.

Poitras began writing the book earlier this year when the legal decisions in the court battle had not yet been made.

"The story about the paintings and the dispute over their ownership was a window into something bigger — the way the perception of Beaverbrook changed in New Brunswick," Poitras told CBC News.

"There was a deferential attitude toward him when he was building his galleries, but now that's not the case," he said.

Now not only the heirs whopursued the legal case, but also Beaverbrook's reputation is "taking a beating," said Poitras.

Goodison, a poet, turns memoirist with her book tracing old family stories from her ancestral home in Jamaica and drawing a strong mother character who raised nine children.

Akenson, a professor at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont., explores the massive genealogical database created by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints —the Mormons — and uses it to reflect on how genealogy is a tool in tracing social and economic history.

His previous works include If the Irish Ran the World and Surpassing Wonder: The Invention of the Bible and the Talmuds.

The winner will be named on Feb. 7.