In the 1930s Grey Owl was considered the foremost conservationist and nature writer in the world. He owed his fame largely to his four internationally bestselling books, which he supported with a series of extremely popular illustrated lectures across North America and Great Britain. His reputation was transformed radically, however, after he died in April 1938, and it was revealed that he was not of mixed Scottish-Apache ancestry, as he had often claimed, but in fact an Englishman named Archie Belaney. Born into a privileged family in the dominant culture of his time, what compelled him to flee to a far less powerful one?Albert Braz’s Apostate Englishman: Grey Owl the Writer and the Myths is the first comprehensive study of Grey Owl’s cultural and political image in light of his own writings. While the denunciations of Grey Owl after his death are often interpreted as a rejection of his appropriation of another culture, Braz argues that what troubled many people was not only that Grey Owl deceived them about his identity, but also that he had forsaken European culture for the North American Indigenous way of life. That is, he committed cultural apostasy.
Authors
- Bibliography, etc. Note
- Includes bibliographical references (pages [173]-185) and index
- Control Number Identifier
- CaOOCEL
- Description conventions
- rda
- Dewey Decimal Classification Number
- 639.9092
- Dewey Decimal Edition Number
- 23
- Distributor
- Canadian Electronic Library (Firm),
- General Note
- Issued as part of the desLibris books collection
- Geographic Area Code
- n-cn---
- ISBN
- 9780887557781 9780887555046
- LCCN
- E90.G75
- LCCN Item number
- B73 2015eb
- Modifying agency
- CaBNVSL
- Original cataloging agency
- CaBNVSL
- Physical Description | Extent
- 1 electronic text (xv, 190 pages)
- Published in
- Ottawa, Ontario
- Publisher or Distributor Number
- CaOOCEL
- Rights
- Access restricted to authorized users and institutions
- System Control Number
- (CaBNVSL)thg00970060 (OCoLC)910775786 (CaOOCEL)467811
- System Details Note
- Mode of access: World Wide Web
- Title proper/short title
- Grey Owl the writer and the myths
- Transcribing agency
- CaBNVSL
Table of Contents
- Cover 1
- Contents 8
- List of Illustrations 10
- Map 11
- Preface 14
- Introduction 18
- Chapter 1 Grey Owl's Search for His "True" Self: The Vanishing Frontier/The Men of the Last Frontier 33
- Chapter 2 The Dual Conversion of Grew Owl: Pilgrims of the Wild 58
- Chapter 3 The Modern Hiawatha: Sajo and the Beaver People, Tales of an Empty Cabin, and Other Writings 79
- Illustrations 98
- Chapter 4 The Passionate Prospector: Anahareo, Grey Owl, and the Idea of Indigenous Transparency 117
- Chapter 5 Life after the Death of the Author: The Posthumous Image of Grey Owl 137
- Conclusion Grey Owl as a Caucasian Apostate 188
- Works Cited 198
- Index 211