Entrusted to My Care

M.T. Myers was Professor in the Department of Biology, University of Calgary.

Grant MacEwan, at 84, is the grand old man of prairie writers, but this was really a side-line to a career as a professor and dean of agriculture for over 20 years and as a politician for 15years, concluding as Lieutenant-Governor of Alberta from 1966-1974. Grant MacEwan’s 30+ books range in subject from prairie biographies and histories to conservation, and they are intended to attract readers to neglected subjects.

This is not a new book, but a reprint of one first published 20 years ago. It consists of 40 short chapters averaging only six pages each, and so it is easy to read. Chapters include short accounts of, for example, the history of the bison, beaver, passenger pigeon, whooping crane, and prairie duck populations, as well as information about such species as prairie dogs, grizzly bears, cougars, and coyotes.

To the original edition have been added a new preface and seven “mini-chapters of pertinent afterthoughts,” which are updated on wildlife conservation, fish and fishing, forestry, agriculture and soil conservation, water conservation, air pollution, and mineral resources conservation. But new material has been added to less than one-quarter of the chapters and comprises only one-sixth of the new edition’s text.

In an “Author’s Supplication” Grant MacEwan writes “there can be no hope of genuine peace on earth as long as humans are at war with other creatures and creations” and “it behooves me to make the pursuit of conservation and stewardship my highest aim.” The message is important, though the documentation of facts is informal or incomplete; I would prefer footnotes or a list of source references. This paperback edition is reasonably priced, a credit to the publishers. There is an excellent color photograph of Grant MacEwan on the cover.

School librarians should make sure the book is in their libraries.