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NATURAL HISTORY
Literature
Specialist Guides
(Picador, o/p/Vintage). Humorous but at times embarrassingly contrived
account of a journey to "admire the quirky but genuine receptivity of the
country's liberal-minded citizens".
(Hutchinson in UK and US, o/p). An
engrossing description of a harsh and lonely canoe journey through the
Northwest Territories.
(Hodder & Stoughton in
UK, o/p). Tales of derring-do from noted adventurer, white-water rafting down
the South Nahanni and Fraser rivers of British Columbia and the NWT.
(Picador/Bantam). Extraordinary award-winning book combining
natural history, physics, poetry, earth sciences and philosophy in a dazzling
portrait of the far north.
(Eland/Hippocrene). Less a travel book than a social document from a Glaswegian
who left home at eighteen to spend ten years with the Inuit.
(Diadem in UK).
Reflections on a 6000-mile journey through the country's rivers and
backwaters.
(Virago/Beacon, both o/p). Wonderful narrative written in 1852, describing
an English couple's slow ruin as they attempt to create a new life in
southeastern Ontario.
(Pemmican in Canada).
Heart-rending account of the enforced fostering of Metis children in Manitoba
during the 1950s.
(Thames & Hudson in UK and
US). Anthropological and archeological tour-de-force on the prehistory, history
and culture of northern peoples: backed up with fine maps, drawings and
photographs.
(Phaidon/HarperCollins, o/p). Stylized poses don't detract from a plaintive
record of a way of life that has all but vanished.
(MacFarlane,
Walter & Ross in Canada). A contemporary survey on what Canadians think of
everything from sex to politics.
(McClelland
& Stewart in Canada). Detailed biography of Joey Smallwood, the
Newfoundland premier who pushed his island into Confederation in 1949. Gwyn's
exploration of island corruption and incompetence is incisive and intriguing in
equal measure.
(Charles E Tuttle in Canada, o/p). Kane, one of Canada's better-
known landscape artists, spent three years travelling from Toronto to the
Pacific Coast and back in the 1840s. His witty account of his wanderings makes
a delightful read.
(Douglas
& McIntyre in Canada). Excellent anthology on Canada's native groups from
prehistory to current issues of self-government and land claims. Well
written and illustrated throughout.
(Oxford
University Press in UK and US). Not especially concise, but a thorough trawl
through Canada's leading artists, with bags of biographical detail and lots of
black and white illustrations of major works.
(Chatto &
Windus/Knopf). A satirical chronicle of the hysteria, zeal and chicanery
surrounding Québec's independence movement. Home Sweet Home
(Grafton/Penguin, both o/p). Entertaining but occasionally whingeing anecdotes
from all corners of the country.
(Lund Humphries
in UK and US). A fascinating and well-illustrated book exploring how Canadian
artists have treated the country's challenging landscapes.
Owen Beattie and John Geiger The Fate of the Franklin Expedition
1845-48.
(Bloomsbury/ Plume). An account both of the doomed expedition to
find the Northwest Passage and the discovery of artifacts and bodies still
frozen in the northern ice; worth buying for the extraordinary photos.
(Little, Brown in US). Exceptionally readable account from one of Canada's
finest writers of the characters and epic episodes of the Yukon gold rush.
The Arctic Grail (Viking, o/p/Penguin). Another Berton blockbuster,
this time on the quest for the North Pole and the Northwest Passage from 1818
to 1919. All the author's other books are well worth reading; see also The
Last Spike (Penguin in US), an account of the history and building of the
transcontinental railway; The Mysterious North: Encounters with the Canadian
Frontier 1947-1954 (McClelland & Stewart in Canada); Flames across
the Frontier (Penguin in US), episodes from the often uneasy relationship
between Canada and the US; and Vimy, an account of the World War
I battle fought mainly by Canadians which Berton sees as a turning point in the
nation's history.
(University of
Toronto Press in UK and US). Stunningly well researched and detailed account of
the development of Western Canada. A surprisingly entertaining book that's
particularly good on the culture of the Metis and Plains Indians.
(Penguin in UK and
US, o/p in UK). Recently revised and concise analysis of the country's
economic, social and political history.
(Breakwater in Canada). Lively text
and excellent illustrations make this the best account of the province's
history, though it's short of contemporary information.
(Penguin in UK and US,
o/p in UK). Highly acclaimed and readable account of the rise and fall of the
Hudson's Bay Company.
(Penguin in UK, o/p).
Erudite yet readable book about the peoples of Canada and the changes in
lifestyle from wilderness to city.
(Macmillan in UK, o/p). Well-illustrated and comprehensive
handbook.
(Viking in UK and US, both o/p). The text is prone to purple fits, but
the luscious photographs make this a book to savour.
(Dragon's World in UK). Clearly laid out and
well illustrated, the Pocket Book series are excellent basic handbooks for
general locations of species, identification and background. Individual titles
are: The Pocket Guide to Mammals of North America (John Burton); The
Pocket Guide to Birds of Prey of North America (Philip Burton); The
Pocket Guide to Wild Flowers of North America (Pamela Forey); The Pocket
Guide to Trees of North America (Alan Mitchell); The Pocket Guide to
Birds of Western North America (Frank Shaw).
(Souvenir Press in UK). The North
Pacific seals' battle for survival.
(Hutchinson/NAL Dutton, both
o/p). Encyclopedic and lavishly illustrated guide to the biggest sea mammals.
Anahareo Grey Owl and I: A New Autobiography.
(Davies in Canada).
The story of Grey Owl's Iroquois wife, their fight to save the beaver from
extinction and her shock at discovering that her husband was in fact an
Englishman. Good insights into the changing life of Canada's natives in this
century.
(Virago/ Fawcett). Canada's most
eminent novelist is not always easy reading, but her analysis, particularly of
women and society, is invariably witty and penetrating. Surfacing, the
tale of a young divorcee who returns to a remote part of northern Québec
to investigate the disappearance of her father, is perhaps the best of her
novels with a Canadian setting - the surroundings become instrumental in an
extreme voyage of self-discovery that'll leave you unable to look at the
Canadian wilderness in quite the same way again. Cat's Eye
(Virago/Bantam) deals with a painter returning to Toronto to find herself
overwhelmed by the past, a theme also explored in Lady Oracle
(Virago/Fawcett), the account of a poet confused by a life divided between
London and Toronto, who plans a new life in Italy after faking her death.
Wilderness Tips (Virago/Bantam) is a collection of short stories mainly
about women looking back over the bastards in their lives and Atwood's latest
offering, The Robber Bride (Virago/Bantam), wittily transports
fairy-tale themes into a modern setting.
(Chatto & Windus/Farrar,
Straus & Giroux). Though American by birth, Bishop spent much of her youth
in Nova Scotia. Many of her early poems feed off her Canadian childhood and a
fascination with the rough landscapes of the northeast.
(Cape/Viking Penguin, o/p). A fine
collection from a Sixties survivor who enjoyed high critical acclaim as a poet
before emerging as a husky-throated crooner of bedsit ballads. See also his
recently reissued Beautiful Losers, one of the most aggressively
experimental Canadian novels of the Sixties (Black Spring Press/Vintage).
Davies' big, dark and
complicated up-market soap operas are partly set in the semi-rural Canada of
his youth, though earlier books such as Tempest-Tost (Penguin in US) and
Fifth Business (Star, o/p/Penguin) make more of their Canadian
locales.
(Abacus in UK, o/p). The fascinating
story of Archie Belaney, the Englishman who became famous as his adopted
persona, Grey Owl. Written by his English publisher and friend, who was one of
many that did not discover the charade until after Grey Owl's death.
Two novels dealing with the waste and
dehumanization of war - the former set in World War I, the latter in World War
II. Findley's latest, Inside Memory: Pages from a Writer's Notebook
(HarperCollins in US) is a collection of sometimes painful reminiscences,
addressing his homosexuality, his lapses into alcoholism and his careers in
fiction, acting and screenwriting.
(all o/p). First published in the 1930s, these books
romantically describe life in the wilds of Canada at the time when exploitation
was changing the land forever. His love of animals and the wilderness are
inspiring and his forward-thinking ecological views are particularly
startling.
(Collins/Carroll & Graf,
o/p). A melodrama of love and oil-drilling in the Canadian Rockies - though the
landscape's less well evoked than in The Land God Gave Cain
(Fontana/Carroll & Graf, o/p), the story of one man's search for "gold and
truth" in Labrador.
(all Virago/University of Chicago Press). Manitoba-born Laurence epitomized the
new vigour that swept through the country's literature during the Sixties -
though the best of her fiction was written in England. Most of her books are
set in the fictional prairie backwater of Manawaka, and explore the loneliness
and frustration of women within an environment of stifling small-town
conventionality. Always highly revered at home, Laurence's reputation is on the
increase abroad.
(McClelland
& Stewart/Ayer). Whimsical tale of Ontario small-town life; the best of a
series based on the author's summertime stays in Orillia.
(Penguin in UK and US). London spent over a year in the Yukon goldfields during
the Klondike gold rush. Many of his experiences found their way into his vivid
if sometimes overwrought tales of the northern wilderness.
(Picador/Carroll & Graf). Lowry spent almost half his writing life
(1939-54) in log cabins and beach houses he built for himself around Vancouver.
Hear Us O Lord is a difficult read to say the least: a fragmentary
novella which amongst other things describes a disturbing sojourn on Canada's
wild Pacific coast.
The story glides along, oozing with history and pain and sentiment. The MacDonald clan, through the eyes of Alexander
MacDonald, comes clearly to life. We follow the clan for more than 200 years after they leave Scotland. To this family,
history is all-important, and family is everything. The red- and black-haired and dark-eyed MacDonalds survive
heartbreak and loss in the "land of the trees" -- Cape Breton -- and dig out a new life on the Maritime shores. Young
Alexander and his twin sister live with their grandparents, near their other grandfather, and are eternally schooled in their
family's past. I felt honoured to share in their history, to soak in their very lives. From the coast of Scotland to the
hard-rock mines of northern Ontario to the bleary streets of today's Toronto, MacLeod takes us on a road seldom taken
in modern fiction.
(Canongate/Little, Brown).
Canada's equivalent of Huckleberry Finn is a folksy story of a young boy
coming of age in small-town Saskatchewan, with great offbeat characters and
fine evocations of Prairie life. Mitchell's The Vanishing Point
(Macmillan in US), though witty and fun to read, is a moving testimony to the
complexities of native assimilation in a country dominated by "immigrants".
(Puffin in UK and US).
Growing pains and bucolic bliss in a cloying children's classic from 1908.
(Paladin/Fawcett). Moore emigrated to
Canada from Ireland in 1948 and stayed long enough to gain citizenship before
moving on to California. Black Robe - the story of a missionary's
journey into native territory - is typical of the author's preoccupations with
Catholicism, repression and redemption.
Amongst the world's finest living
short-story writers, Munro deals primarily with the lives of women in the
semirural and Protestant backcountry of southwest Ontario. Her latest book,
Open Secrets (Chatto & Windus), concentrates on stories set in two
small Ontario towns from the days of the early settlers to the present.
(ed. Margaret Atwood; OUP in UK and
US). Canadian poets are increasingly finding a distinctive voice, but few
except this collection's editor have made much impact outside their native
country. Atwood's own sharp, witty examinations of nationality and gender, are
among the best in this anthology - more of her verse is published in the UK by
Virago.
(OUP in US, o/p). Over twenty
stories, including W P Kinsella's Shoeless Joe Jackson Comes to Iowa -
the inspiration for the fey Field of Dreams.
(ed. Margaret Atwood;
OUP in UK and US). A broad selection which delves beyond the better known names
of Alice Munro and Margaret Atwood.
(OUP in UK and US, both o/p). At
almost 900 pages, this is the last word on the subject, though it is more
useful as a work of reference than as a primer for the country's literature.
(Fourth Estate/Collier
Macmillan). The 1994 Pulitzer Prize winner is a rambling, inconclusive
narrative of a social misfit who finds love and happiness of sorts in
small-town Newfoundland. Superb descriptions of sea, weather and all things
fishy make it an essential primer for any visitor to the province.
(Penguin in
UK and US). Richler uses his early experiences of Montréal's
working-class Jewish ghetto in many of his novels, especially in this, his
best-known work, an acerbic and slick cross-cultural romance built around the
ambivalent but brilliantly drawn figure of Kravitz. Richler's pushy and ironic
prose is not to all tastes, but you might also try Solomon Gursky Was
Here (Vintage/Penguin).
(A & C
Black/Putnam). Service's Victorian ballads of pioneer and gold-rush life have a
certain period charm, but generally make unintentionally hilarious reading.
(Fourth Estate in UK). Dry,
humorous account of the ninety-year life of one Daisy Goodwill, born in humble
circumstances in Manitoba.
(Paladin/Vintage). A cult masterpiece which lyrically details the writer's love
affair with the English poet George Barker. See also the less well-known The
Assumption of Rogues and Rascals (Paladin/McKay) and the acclaimed
Collected Poems (Grafton in UK).
(Fourth Estate/Viking Penguin,
o/p). A collection of witty tales about male-female relationships by the
renowned Canadian short-story writer.
(Penguin/Carrol & Graf). A
science-fiction classic built around a group of telepathic children and their
adventures in post-holocaust Labrador.
(Rocky Mountain Books in Canada).
Good photos and solid text extolling the delights of Yoho National Park in the
Rockies.
(Travel Vision in
Canada). A much-needed guide to long and short walks in a park where the trail
network is still in its infancy.
(Northwest
Books in US). An authoritative guide to islands which are difficult to explore
and ill-served by back-up literature.
(Fulcrum in UK
and US). Less detailed but less dry than its main competitor, the better-known
and encyclopedic Milepost (Northwest Books).
(Hunter in US). Descriptions of 115 day hikes, with degrees of difficulties,
time needed, sketch maps of routes, wildlife descriptions and numerous
photos.
(Stewart,
Tabori & Chang in UK and US). Too bulky to be a useful guide in the field,
but a lavishly illustrated introduction to the outdoor pursuits, wildlife and
geology of 37 of the country's best national and provincial parks.
(Corax in Canada).
Widely available in western Canada's larger bookshops, this is a lovingly
produced and painstakingly detailed account of walks, flora, fauna, geology and
anything else remotely connected with the Rockies.
(Moorland, o/p/Hunter). A reasonable though not terribly penetrating guide to
the highway, how to prepare for it and what to see.
(Lost Moose Publishing in Canada). Highly
entertaining and iconoclastic magazine-style guide and commentary on the
contemporary mores of the Yukon and far north.
(Gordon Soules
in US). Small but extremely detailed pointer to some tempting routes, backed up
with good maps.
(Macdonald in Canada). A
canoeist's Bible, with many detailed accounts of the province's waterways, and
especially good on routes in the Rockies.
(Primrose
Publishing in Canada). An invaluable guide to some of the country's best
canoeing rivers.
(John Muir in UK and US). A generous portion of the guide is
devoted to an intimate but rather homely run through some of British Columbia's
lesser known islands.
(Whitecap in UK). A good
overall summary of the walks, wildlife and social history of the Pacific Rim
National Park and its nearby towns. The same writer's The Gulf Islands
Explorer, and in the same series, Eliane Jones' The Northern Gulf
Islands Explorer, are also useful.
(Summerthought in Canada). An absolutely essential guide for anyone wishing to
do more than simply scratch the surface of the Rockies' walking
possibilities.
(Adventure Publishing in Canada). The author
has produced five separate books whose 157 canoeing routes provide the
definitive account of how and where to canoe the lakes and rivers of British
Columbia.
(Northwest Books in US). An pithy accompaniment to the Chilkoot Trail
that should be read in conjunction with Pierre Berton's Klondike.
(Douglas &
McIntyre in Canada). Now in its sixth edition, this is probably the best of
several guides to Vancouver Island's popular but demanding long-distance
footpath
Further Suggestions:
Suggestions made by Larry Peters, UNBC