From the Land of Shadows: The Making of Grey Owl

by Donald B. Smith

Abandoned by his parents, Archie Belaney had a lonely and unhappy childhood in the 1890s in Hastings, Sussex, England, but found refuge in a fantasy world of his own making, centering on the North American Indian. By the time he died in Saskatchewan at the age of forty-nine, he had created for himself a different heritage, and was known to the world as Grey Owl, one of Canada's greatest conservationists and one of the foremost Canadian writers of his day.

Appointed to Riding Mountain and later to Prince Albert National Park to look after a beaver conservation programme, Grey Owl wrote four books-books that remain in print and that have been translated into numerous languages-The Men of the
Last Frontier (1931), Pilgrims of the Wild (1934), The Adventures of Sajo and her Beaver People (1935), and Tales of an Empty Cabin (1936). His work was extremely popular, especially in Britain, where he made two lecture tours. Animal lovers
throughout the world viewed his films about his life with the beaver.

After Grey Owl's death in 1938, the press discovered his English birth, and so began the public's fascination with his racial masquerade, and his conservationist message. This new biography continues the probe begun by Lovat Dickson, Grey Owl's friend and publisher in England, in his book Wilderness Man, published in 1973.

In From the Land of Shadows, Donald Smith delves deeply into Grey Owl's past to find out just who he was and why he chose to adopt a new identity, and assesses his contribution to the twentieth-century environmental movement. After twenty years of documentary research and numerous interviews with people who were personally acquainted with Grey
Owl, Smith uncovers the inner torment of a deeply troubled individual who came to stand as a symbol for the preservation of the Canadian wilderness.

Donald Smith is the author of two biographies, Long Lance: The True Story of an Impostor (1982) and Sacred Feathers: The Reverend Peter Jones (Kahkewaquonaby) and the Mississauga Indians (1987). Grey Owl has been his passion for the past
twenty years. A professor of history at the University of Calgary, where he has taught Canadian history since 1974, Donald Smith lives in Calgary with his wife, Nancy Townshend, and their two sons.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Biography

320 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1999

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Please see: Donald B. Smith

Donald B. Smith (1946-) is a professor emeritus of History at the University of Calgary who focused his career on the history of Aboriginal Canada, Quebec, and the history of Calgary and Southern Alberta. He was born in Toronto and raised in Oakville, Ontario. He obtained his Honours B.A. in Modern History from the University of Toronto in 1968; his M.A. from Université Laval in Quebec City in 1969; and his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto in 1975. He taught Canadian History at the University of Calgary from 1974 to 2009, where he is now Professor Emeritus of History and member of the Order of the University of Calgary. He is married to Nancy Townshend, and they have two sons, David and Peter. Smith and his family live in Calgary.Donald Smith's publications include five biographies on individuals connected with Aboriginal Canada, Long Lance: The True Story of an Impostor (1982), Sacred Feathers: The Reverend Peter Jones (Kahkewaquonaby) and the Mississauga Indians (1987), From the Land of Shadows: The Making of Grey Owl (1990), and Mississauga Portraits: Ojibwe Voices from Nineteenth Century Canada (2013), as well as Calgary's Grand Story: The Making of a Prairie Metropolis from the Viewpoint of Two Heritage Buildings, a history of Calgary (2005). He tells the story of his interest in the Mississauga (Ojibwe) First Nations on the north shore of Lake Ontario in the introduction to the second edition of Sacred Feathers, published in 2013. In 2014, Smith's book Mississauga Portraits won the Floyd S. Chalmers Award for the best book on Ontario history published in the preceding calendar year.

Reviews

[Eve · Rating 5 out of 5]

One would think...what would possess a man from England to become an imposter, posing as a Canadian native (Indian) back in the 1900s? Some people are/were offended that he 'pretended' to be First Nations, other's were embarrassed. In any event, the English man Archibald Belaney who became known to the world as Grey Owl. He was a popular author and spokesperson for enviromental issues long before the modern day cause. He advocated for conservation. His story, as colourful as it is, is a significant part of Saskatchewan and Canadian history. This is another must have for any serious history buff.

[Peter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good information...just poorly written....