Paul H. Stehelin (–1989)

To a certain extent this reads much like a vanity press produced family history, but this family's adventure is so incredible that it transcends the type. In 1896 a wealthy industrial family, the Stehelins, move from the no-man's-land of Alsace to the wilderness of Nova Scotia. In no time they establish a smart community with hydroelecticity ("The Electric City") and sawmills and 10,000 acres of timberland holdings. Then in 14 short years, it is abandoned, and the ozymandian devolution starts immediately as it is all but absorbed back into wilderness. For me the fascinating part was the contrast between the immense ambition and industry that they brought to the task of building it all and the simple, inevitable life events (love, birth, death) that pulled it apart so soon thereafter. When Mme. Stehelin dies of diabetes in 1910, they pack up and move to town. The evocation of how palpably fragile a human civilization can be reminded me of Jane Smiley's similar achievement in Greenlanders and the stark ruins of Electric City and the Greenland settlements are not dissimilar.… (mais)