Superior: The Haunted Shore. Rev. ed.

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian studies at
Concordia University, and the author of Kurlek, Margaret Laurence: The
Long Journey Home, and As Though Life Mattered: Leo Kennedy’s Story.

Superb photographs and a strong supporting text make up a volume of
exceptional beauty and significance, a witness to an area of Canada that
should be treasured and protected. Writer and photographer Bruce
Litteljohn traveled some 450 miles along the North Shore of Lake
Superior to create the book, first published in 1975. This revised
edition, which preserves the magnificent color and clarity of the
original photos, is a plea for the protection of these wild places in
the years to come.

The photos are breathtaking. Compositions of rock and stone, water and
light reflect an awesome beauty caught in “The Lonely Land,” a poem
by A.J.M. Smith that is included here: “This is a beauty/ of
dissonance, / this resonance/ of stony strand ... / This is the beauty/
of strength / broken by strength/ and still strong.” There is a bull
moose swimming in a lake of pink light at dawn or sunset; an intricate
composition of lily pads and stalks; close-ups of incredibly patterned
and textured snow formations.

An introduction by both writer and photographer articulates two
recurring themes: the co-existence of power and fragility in an immense
landscape teeming with delicate yet resilient plant and animal life; and
“the humbling insignificance of the human record” revealed in
Superior’s rocks: “ten restless millennia against three billion
sombre years of endurance.” Wayland Drew’s strong and relevant text
deals with the history, development, and local lore of the area he and
Litteljohn traveled by canoe.

Superior: The Haunted Shore is an exceptional volume worthy of any
library.