Nicol's 1989 book, Jack Haney, was published by Fitzhenry & Whiteside as part of The Canadians, a biographical series devoted to people who played significant roles in Canadian history.
The short biography (64 pages) shifts attention away from the English journalist Thomas Wilby and toward the American who actually drove and maintained the automobile across the country.
Haney was an experienced mechanic and automobile man, and his practical skills became indispensable as the expedition encountered primitive roads, mud, mechanical problems, river crossings, prairie trails, and the formidable geography of the West.
Source: Thomas Wilby - Cross Canada with the AllRed Route REO.
This perspective is particularly important because Wilby’s own account, A Motor Tour Through Canada, published in 1914, naturally presents the expedition through Wilby’s eyes. Wilby describes himself as setting out to become the first person to cross Canada by motor car and rarely acknowledges that his success depended heavily on assistance he received from Haney along the way. Nicol instead places Haney much closer to the center of the story.
The original portrait of Jack Haney.
Nicol drew upon Haney’s personal records and family material, providing a Canadian perspective on an expedition that had largely come to be associated with Wilby.
The book therefore helps reveal the remarkable contrast between the two men: Wilby was the writer, observer and public face of the adventure; Haney was the man responsible for getting the car through.
Nicol later returned to the subject in the more extensive The All-Red Route (1999).