Down North

by Ronald Caplan

Down North is a word-and-picture portrait of elements of Cape Breton life.

241 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

Publisher, Writer, Folk-historian, Order of Canada appointee. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Ronald Caplan emigrated to Canada in 1971, settled in Cape Breton Island's Highlands region, and began chronicling the local history. This was a region where Gaelic was still the language spoken by people in the area, but was quickly being replaced by English. Sensing that he would have only a time-limited opportunity to record this culture before its native speakers died off, he founded Cape Breton's Magazine in 1972, to record the culture and living history of the island and its people. His audio recordings and photographs are a lasting record of this way of life that has mostly disappeared. He was appointed to the Order of Canada in 2010 for his work on the magazine and as the publisher of the Breton Books imprint. [wikipedia]