Born in Hastings, England, in 1888, Archibald Stansfeld Belaney spent a solitary childhood under the strict tutelage of two maiden aunts. As a young man, he escaped to Canada, where he whole-heartedly embraced life on the frontier in northern Ontario and Quebec, passing himself off as the son of a Scotsman and a Jicarilla Apache woman. After abandoning two wives, a girlfriend, and three children, he fell in love with Anahareo, a beautiful Iroquois woman. During their tempes-tuous life together, she transformed him from a trapper to a protector of wildlife and he began writing books and magazine articles and making films about his life with his two beavers. Eventually, as Grey Owl, he became famous for his dramatic speaking tours, culminating in two stunningly successful tours in Great Britain and an audience with George VI and his family. Grey Owl is extensively illustrated with archival photographs that span his life, and Jane Billinghurst’s highly readable text is supplemented by engaging and informative extracts from Grey Owl’s own writings. Together, text and photographs provide an intimate look at this enigmatic impostor who delivered an important message of conservation to the world.
