Adventurers & Explorers
Aloha Wanderwell
By Christian Fink-Jensen & Randolph Eustace-Walden
In 1922, a 15-year-old girl, fed up with life in a French convent school, answered an ad for a travelling secretary. Tall, blonde, and swaggering with confidence, she might have passed for twenty. She also knew what she wanted: to become the first female to drive around the ... Read more
Antarctic Pioneer
By Joanna Kafarowski
Jackie Ronne reclaims her rightful place in polar history as the first American woman in Antarctica.
Jackie was an ordinary American woman whose life changed after a blind date with rugged Antarctic explorer Finn Ronne. After marrying, they began planning the 1946–1948 Ronne ... Read more
Arctic Naturalist
By Anthony Dalton
Dewey Soper first travelled to the Arctic in 1923. During the next seven years he accepted three research postings on Baffin Island, each of which lasted between one and two years. In 1929 he discovered the breeding grounds of the blue goose in the southwest corner of Baffin ... Read more
British Columbiana
By Josie Teed
A job as a heritage interpreter at a remote gold rush site propels an insecure and anxious twenty-four-year-old to find what she truly desires from life.
“By turns deadpan and wryly candid, Teed has a keen observational eye and a talent for characterization. An excellent ... Read more
Bush Runner
By Mark Bourrie
WINNER OF THE 2020 RBC TAYLOR PRIZE • "Readers might well wonder if Jonathan Swift at his edgiest has been at work. "—RBC Taylor Prize Jury Citation • "A remarkable biography of an even more remarkable 17th-century individual … Beautifully written and endlessly thought-provoking. ... Read more
Capturing The Summit
By Trevor Marc Hughes
The remarkable account of Hamilton Mack Laing's grueling expedition to the summit of Mount Logan. Naturalist and cinematographer, Hamilton Mack Laing, marched into the Alaskan wilderness alongside weathered guides and hardened, experienced mountaineers. From Laing's diaries, ... Read more
Cataline
By Susan Smith-Josephy & Irene Bjerky
In the early days of British Columbia, pack trains of horses or mules were a lifeline for the early pioneer population. Explorers, trappers, traders, miners, merchants, workers and settlers and relied on them for the materials needed to live and work. Packers were also vital ... Read more
Fifty Percent of Mountaineering is Uphill
By Susanna Pfisterer
Winner of the 2017 Alberta Readers' Choice Award!
is the enthralling true story of Jasper's Willi Pfisterer, a legend in the field of mountaineering and safety in the Rocky Mountains. For more than thirty years, Willi was an integral part of Jasper's alpine landscape, guiding ... Read more
George Simpson
By D.T. Lahey
Born in Scotland and trained as a sugar broker in London, England, Sir George Simpson (1792-1860) was unexpectedly appointed in 1820 as governor of Rupert’s Land and the Indian territories, an area encompassing all of Canada from Hudson Bay to the Pacific Ocean. By his friendliness ... Read more
Kechika Chronicler
By Jay Sherwood
Willard Freer lived in remote areas of northern BC for most of his life. Born in Kamloops in 1910 and raised in the Peace River country, Freer came to the Kechika River valley in 1942, where he worked for a number of years with famed packer and guide Skook Davidson. He then ... Read more