LOYALISTS AND LAYABOUTS. THE RAPID RISE AND FASTER FALL OF SHELBURNE, NOVA SCOTIA: 1783-1792. de Kimber, Stephen - 2008

Doubleday Canada, 2008. 335 pp, large 8vo (9 1/2" H). "The few hundred Loyalists who gathered at Roubalet's Tavern in New York one night in 1782 shared a nightmare of the past and a dream for the future. In the aftermath of the American Revolution, they found themselves abandoned by the king to whom they had promised their loyalty, and unwelcome in the land that had so recently been theirs. On the rocky shores of Roseway Bay on the south coast of Nova Scotia, beside one of the best harbours in the world, they would found a new and improved New York City. It would be cosmopolitan, but more refined, more royal, more loyal and certainly more exclusive than the place they were leaving forever. At first, all seemed to go according to plan. Shelburne, as it was called, quickly became the fourth-largest city in North America. At the time, Nova Scotia Governor John Parr grandly decribed it as 'the most considerable, most flourishing and most expeditious (city) ever -- built in so short a time --'. Within the decade, however, the Loyalists' dream city was well on its way to becoming a ghost town. What went wrong? This extraordinary and yet little-told episode from our nation's past is brought to exciting life. Combining painstaking research and a novelstic flair for narrative, (Kimber) charts Shelburne's 'rapid rise and faster fall' through the intertwined experiences of an eclectic collection of its early settlers, from aristocrats to freed slaves, colonial officers to local entrepreneurs." Light wrinkling at top/bottom of spine, a few tiny edge bumps to boards. Dust jacket has very light edge wrinkling, minor rubbing.. First Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good/Very Good.