Merry Hearts Make Light Days:
The War of 1812 Journal of Lieutenant John Le Couteur, 104th
Foot
Edited by Donald E. Graves
The Return of an Old Favourite
In June 1812, 17-year-old John Le Couteur, an officer in a Canadian regiment of the British army, arrived in Halifax to learn that war had broken out between the United States and Great Britain. For the next three years Le Couteur campaigned from Halifax to Fort Erie and left an entertaining memoir of his experiences full of tales of storm-tossed voyages, arduous winter marches, battles on land and water, the perils of committing matrimony, Canadian high and low society, and the occasional ghost story, played out against the spendid scenery of North America.
A man of the Regency period (a time of public manners and private passions), Le Couteur recounts his true-life adventures with drama and action, laughter and love in an engaging and easy style that reads more like a novel than a historical memoir (turn overleaf for some examples).
A perennial favourite that has appealed to general readers as well as military buffs, Merry Hearts Make Light Days has been delighting audiences for six years and Johnny himself appeared as a major character in the recently televised documentary of "The War of 1812."
Publication History
Merry Hearts was originally published
by Carleton University Press and went into three printings. Because
of the demise of its original publisher, it has been difficult
to obtain for several years. Retailers with readers interested
in Canadian history, especially the War of 1812, will be pleased
to see this popular item available again.
The Editor
Donald E. Graves is an internationally recognized expert on the
War of 1812 and has written or edited six books on that conflict.
He is the author of Field of Glory:
The Battle of Crysler's Farm, 1813 (Robin Brass Studio,
1999), of which Quill & Quire said: "This is history
at its best: exciting, entertaining, and readable." His study
of the bloody 1814 battle of Lundy's Lane, Where
Right and Glory Lead!, has been called "an excellent
example of the 'sharp end' of military history." He has also
edited the new edition of J.M. Hitsman's The
Incredible War of 1812: A Military History, published
by Robin Brass Studio in November 1999.
For a complete list of works by Donald E. Graves, go to Books by Donald E. Graves.
To visit the website of Donald E. Graves, go to Sword and Pen.
What the Reviewers Say
"... the most valuable book on the War of 1812 to surface in years. A young and gallant officer who did his duty, and a little more, but remained high-hearted throughout, speaks ... in words ... as exciting as the deeds they describe."
Colonel John Elting, author of Amateurs to Arms!: A Military History of the War of 1812
"A unique and original document, magnificently edited ... a must not only for every historian of the War of 1812 but also for the general reader interested in that conflict and early 19th century Canadian social history."
Wesley Turner, author of High Command in the
Canadas: British Military Leadership in the War of 1812