Description

Hurtig Publishers [Published Date: 1984] Hardcover, 303 pp. NO other printings listed. Very good in very good dust jacket. Blue cloth covered boards with gold lettering on spine. Light bumping and scuffing to edges of covers. Binding tight. Pages clean and unmarked. Dust jacket has light bumping and creasing to edges and light overall scuffing. NOT price clipped. Now in an archival-quality (removable) Brodart Cover. NOT Ex-Library. NO remainder marks. [From jacket flap]. For centuries the Rockies have dominated the human imagination just as they dominate the geography of the West. For the Indians the mountains were a sacred place of revelation and power. For the first European explorers and trappers and settlers they were a barrier and a challenge. For generations to come they will be a refuge, a place of beauty and grandeur, and an inspiration. The mountains themselves, with their many-faceted dramatic perspectives, are the dominant presence in this superb collection of the best writing about the Canadian Rockies. In addition, Tales from the Canadian Rockies is peopled with a host of unforgettable personalities, most of whom are actual historical figures. Here we will find adventurous explorers like Alexander Mackenzie and David Thompson, botanist David Douglas (after whom the Douglas Fir is named)
and geologist James Hector (whose unruly horse is forever commemorated in the names of Kicking Horse River and Pass). Experience the hunger and hardships of artist Paul Kane and the indomitable Mrs. Lane who, on one particular day, waded across no less than seventeen meltwater rivers. Join Lady Agnes Macdonald relishing, like a child on a rollercoaster, her heady ride on the unprotected "cowcatcher" of an early CPR train. And there are many more memorable characters, both human and animal—the independent Bill Peyto, the legendary Conrad Kain, Andy Russell's elusive grizzly bear, Mr. Holt's untrained horse, which survives a precipitous fall, five bullets in the head, being washed downriver, and a night exposed to the elements. Tales from the Canadian Rockies incorporates the best writing from the Rockies and all the lost important actors in the saga of recent mountain history. It includes excerpts from the. classics of Canadian travel writing, as well as imaginative re-creations of important events and vocative portraits of modern-day life.