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“I am not a ‘Newfoundlander,’” Stuart Pierson wrote in “A Diatribe,” his controversial review of Historical Atlas of Canada; “it takes a few generations to achieve that.” But he had with passion observed and commented on Newfoundland culture for many years before his early death in 2001. To adapt his own words, he was a “terrieresque reader” who sank his teeth into a subject and never let go, a scholar of encyclopedic knowledge in several fields who achieved a plainly eloquent literary style. This book presents all of Stuart Pierson's significant writings on Newfoundland culture—historical, literary, and visual. It is a posthumous gift to his adopted nation/province and to readers everywhere, because in Pierson's spacious thinking Newfoundland culture is a fascinating instance of world culture.

"[The essays] are incisive and witty, brilliantly blending classical erudition and folksy metaphor."

       Canadian Book Review Annual

"A fascinating look at many aspects of contemporary Newfoundland culture, from Ron Hynes to Wayne Johnston. It is thought provoking and challenging and makes me wish I had known Stuart Pierson."

    The Independent

 

"Written with a combination of simple eloquence and wit . . ."

    The Scope

 

"In Hard-Headed and Big-Hearted, Stuart Pierson not only reveals intriguing new pathways through Newfoundland books, art and culture, but also something of his own sense of enjoyment and wonder at the inner world of the mind. This is a book well worth arguing over and with."

    The Independent

Read an excerpt from Hard-Headed and Big-Hearted