Editing Pierre-Esprit Radisson (section)

{{Short description|French fur trader and explorer (d. 1710)}}
{{redirect|Pierre Radisson|the icebreaker ship|CCGS Pierre Radisson}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2018}}
{{infobox person
| name = Pierre-Esprit Radisson
| image = Pierre-Esprit Radisson.jpg
| caption = 
| birth_date = 1636–1640
| birth_place = Possibly [[Avignon]] or Paris, France
| death_date = 1710 (aged 69–74)
| death_place = London, England
| death_cause = 
| known_for =
| occupation = Explorer, fur trader, co-founder of [[Hudson's Bay Company]]
| signature =
}}
'''Pierre-Esprit Radisson''' (1636/1640–1710) was a French [[coureur des bois]] and explorer in [[New France]]. He is often linked to his brother-in-law [[Médard des Groseilliers]]. The decision of Radisson and Groseilliers to enter the English service led to the formation of the [[Hudson's Bay Company]]. His career was particularly notable for its repeated transitions between serving Britain and France.

There is no image of him other than that provided in his writings and those of the people who encountered him in New France, in Paris on the fringes of the court, on remote Hudson Bay, and in late [[Stuart London]].{{sfnp|Warkentin|2012|p=3}} Radisson should be considered in multiple contexts; for his achievement as a narrator of his own life, the range of his explorations, his experiences among the Indigenous peoples, and his social formation, both as a man of the early modern period for whom personal honour was an important value and as a working trader participating in the mercantile projects of the era.{{sfnp|Warkentin|2012|p=10}} Radisson's life and writings have been interpreted from many different perspectives. Many French Canadians until the twentieth century accepted the verdict of his French contemporaries that he was a traitor to France.{{sfnp|Warkentin|2012|p=8}}