Beaverbrook: A Shattered Legacy

by Jacques Poitras

For the first time, the fully documented story of the unravelling of the Beaverbrook legacy. From humble beginnings, Max Aitken, later Lord Beaverbrook, rose to the heights of politics and business. His philanthropy knew no bounds, or so it seemed. In the late 1950s, he built the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton as a gift to the people of New Brunswick and stocked it with a large collection of masterworks that form the core of the Gallery's prestigious collection. Today, the paintings are at the centre of a bitter battle between the Gallery and the two charitable Beaverbrook foundations — a battle that has rocked the art world on both sides of the Atlantic. But the "Beaverbrook dispute" is only part of this intriguing story. In this fascinating account, Jacques Poitras explores the intertwined history of the Aitken family and the Beaverbrook Gallery. Sifting through Beaverbrook's own correspondence, public and archival records in Canada and England, and interviews with friends and foes, including those involved in the dispute, Poitras disentangles the exploits of the original Lord Beaverbrook and the uncertain fortunes of a once-influential family.

318 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

JACQUES POITRAS is a journalist and author of five books of non-fiction, including Irving vs. Irving: Canada's Feuding Billionaires and the Stories They Won't Tell, a national best-seller shortlisted for the National Business Book Award; and Pipe Dreams: The Fight for Canada's Energy Future, shortlisted for the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing and the John W. Dafoe Book Prize. He is also the author of The Right Fight: Bernard Lord and the Conservative Dilemma, Beaverbrook: A Shattered Legacy, and Imaginary Line: Life on an Unfinished Border. Poitras lives in Fredericton and has been the provincial affairs reporter for CBC News in New Brunswick since 2000.

Reviews

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Who owns the Turner and the Freud at the Beaverbrook Gallery in Fredericton New Brunswick? The author presents the evidence. The story is anything but dull as we read about eccentric characters, control freaks, deference and disillusion, romantic and political scandals, the earning of vast wealth and the next generation losing it all. A great summer read.