Caesars of the Wilderness: Medard Chouart, Sieur des Groseilliers and Pierre Esprit Radisson, 1618-1710 (Publications of the Minnesota Historical Society)

No novelist could have invented a more colorful or interesting story than the travels and adventures of French explorers Medard Chouart, Sieur des Groseilliers, and Pierre Esprit Radisson. Yet until the publication of this book in 1943, the story of their lives was clouded by confusion and misinformation. It remained for Grace Les Nute to clear up the confusion and present the story in such a logical and entertaining way that this book, long out of print, has become a classic. In a style that satisfies both the general reader and the historian, Caesars of the Wilderness reconstructs the lives of the two men, documenting their origins in France, their early years as fur traders in the Great Lakes area, their many trips between France and England and Europe and North America, and other aspects of their far-flung careers. The role of the two men in founding the Hudson's Bay Company, which inaugurated a new phase of the fur trade leading ultimately to the full development of western Canada, is also described in fascinating detail. Later chapters unravel the complications of the English-French diplomacy during the 1670's and 1680's and describe their influence on the shifting loyalties of both Radisson and Des Groseilliers.