From the Land of Shadows

Résumé du livre

"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, centring 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... 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."--Book jacket.