THE LAST SPIKE

McClelland and Stewart, Toronto, 1971, BOMC.  ISBN 0-7710-1327-2.  Hard cover, 478 pages including Chronology, Notes, Bibliography, Acknowledgements, and Index.  Red brick cloth with embossed spike on front board, gold lettering on spine, small marks/stains at lower front board; light lower corner and lower spine end wear, bit of age spotting on tanned outer page block; binding sound with headbands.  Dust jacket shows edge and cover wear, age toning and stains, rubs and chips, tears repaired on verso.  Illustrated end papers; interior clean and unmarked with lightly tanned pages; black & white maps.  ‘In the four years between 1881 and 1885 Canada was forged into one nation by the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway. … Here is the full incredible story of how some two thousand miles of steel was flung across a continent in just five years – exactly half the time stipulated in the contract; the adventures that were part of this vast undertaking, the railway on the brink of bankruptcy, with one hour between it and ruin; the extraordinary land boom of Winnipeg in 1881-82; and the epic tale of how William Van Horne rushed three thousand soldiers over a half-finished railway to quell the Riel Rebellion.’ (from front flap)