Undelivered Letters to Hudson's Bay Company Men on the Northwest Coast of America, 1830-57

In the early nineteenth century, when the Hudson's Bay Company sent men to its posts along the coast of North America's Pacific Northwest, letters from loved ones followed in the Company's supply ships.

The messages from a mother or father, a wife or sweetheart travelled for many months from London, around the southernmost tip of South America, and north to isolated trading posts.

By the time a letter carrying the news and gossip from home reached its destination, it might well miss the man meant to read it.

The Company returned these letters to its London office, and over the years an "undelivered letters" file built up.

Many remained sealed for 150 years. Beattie and Buss invite us into the lives of the letter writers, threading together their words with contemporary explanations.

This unique collection of letters will be compelling reading for social historians, literary scholars, genealogists, students of the fur trade, and anyone interested in British and North American culture of the period.

The news of everyday life -- from parents on farms and in towns, sisters in domestic service, brothers and friends in trade -- reaches out across two centuries to speak to us with startling immediacy.