Grey Owl (18 September, 1888-April 3, 1938) was the pseudonym of a Canadian writer, public speaker, and as the name might suggest, an environmentalist.
Fun Facts about Grey Owl:
1. Archibald Stansfeld Belaney was born into an upper middle-class family in Hastings, England. George Belaney, his father, couldn’t hold down a job, it seems, and wasted a lot of money on failed business ventures.
2. George Belaney and his wife Elizabeth Cox and her sister, Katherine “Kittie” Cox immigrated to the United States. Elizabeth passed away and George married 15 year old Kittie. They went back to England before “Archie” was born. When George Belaney was, for all intents and purposes, kicked out of England (he got a small allowance and returned to the US permanently), his young son stayed in England in the care of his grandmother and aunts.
3. The young man was a very good student, and enjoyed English, French and Chemistry. He didn’t have many friends due to the fact that he felt ashamed at being abandoned. He spent his time playing pranks on family by using his chemistry set to make small bombs.
4. Like many other boys, he was fascinated by Native Americans going as far as making maps of linguistic divisions in Canada. His aunt Ada said that, unlike many other boys, he wasn’t interested in the romanticism of the “noble savage”, but with their deep knowledge and expertise of the natural world.
By the age of 18, Archie Bleaney was on a ship heading to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
5. He worked hard to lose his accent, passing himself off as the sone of a Scottish man and an Apache woman, working at the Temagami Inn, by Lake Temagami. This is where he developed friendship with Native Americans and got a nickname which later became his nom de plume Grey Owl (or Wa-sha-quon-asin).
6. Grey Owl’s first publication was in 1929, an article in the British periodical Country Life. His first major publication was 1931’s The Men of the Last Frontier, a collected writings on northern wilderness life. The book warned about the ways modern industry is destroying the environment.
7. Pilgrims of the Wild, published in 1935, is Grey Owl’s biography of his journey from a fur trapper to an environmentalist (contrary to popular belief, the 1999 film, Grey Owl, directed by Richard Attenborough with Pierce Brosnan in the title role was not base on the autobiography). The book is considered to be his masterpiece. A year later, 1935, Grey Owl wrote The Adventures of Sajo and Her Beaver People, a novel for young people teaching them environmental stewardship. He also illustrated the book, and many others of his books.
8. Grey Owl’s books were translated into several languages. The sales of his books made him one of Canada’s most commercially successful authors during the 1930s. His books were so popular that he went on the British lecture circuit between 1935-1937 which included a reading to King George IV and his family.
9. His wife, Anahareo, born Gertrude Bernard, was also a writer and animal rights activist. When she married Grey Owl, she did not know he was born in England and thought they both shared an Indigenous heritage. She played a large role in shaping his views on the environment and animal rights. Her biography, My Life with Grey Owl, chronicled their life together.
10. One day following Grey Owl’s death from pneumonia, the newspapers revealed to all of Canada that he was actually an Englishman. This caused a huge literary scandal.
Zohar — Man of la Book
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Sources:
Grey Owl | Wikipedia
Archibald Belaney (Grey Owl) | The Canadian Encyclopedia
Grey Owl: Canada’s great conservationist and imposter| BBC News
