Wilderness Man: The Strange Story of Grey Owl

Tamela Topolie was a student of journalism at Ryerson Polytechnical School, Toronto.

In Wilderness Man: The Strange Story of Grey Owl, Lovat Dickson has attempted to balance the myth against the reality of one of the strangest characters of the Canadian frontier. Dickson was also Grey Owl’s English publisher. He thought he knew this half-breed who captured the imagination of the civilized world. But after Grey Owl’s death, stories began to circulate about his true origins. Dickson has tried to capture the “essential man.”

Archie Belaney, the man who was to become Grey Owl, left England at the age of eighteen to search for the glamour of the wilderness. His boyhood imagination had been fired by tales of the Indians and he longed for an affinity with them. He was quick to adopt their lifestyle, and he created for himself the role of a half-breed. He became an experienced trapper, hunter, and woodsman, letting his hair grow and wearing Indian clothing. When he met Anahareo, a young Iroquois girl, he found his soul-mate and with her his purpose. After they adopted two beaver kittens whose mother had been drowned in Grey Owl’s trap, he gave up his trapping and became, instead, a conservationist.

This gave him his greatest role. He wrote several books (notably Pilgrims of the Wild, an autobiography) and earned fame as a lecturer.

Dickson has written an entertaining story of a real eccentric and a vanishing way of life. He has painstakingly pieced together the tapestry of Grey Owl’s life through interviews and research. Whether the reader dislikes or admires his character, the story captivates the imagination.