Gray owl

The son of a drunken farmer, Archibald from childhood was fascinated by stories about American Indians. After making sure that his British relatives did not need him too much, in 1906 the 18-year-old Beeline went to Canada. Initially, he seemed to be going to study agriculture in Toronto , but soon went to the north of Ontario , where he lived among the Ojibwe Indians (Chippewa). He married an Indian woman and began to call himself an “Indian”, adopting the Indian name Gray Owl . He told others that he came from the United States and that his mother was from the Apache tribe. Gray Owl was a forester and trapper hunter and lived in Ontario until the outbreak of World War I.

In 1915, the Gray Owl was drafted into the British army as a sniper and was sent to the battlefields in France . His fellow soldiers knew him as an “Indian” and did not doubt his Indian origin. In 1916, he was twice wounded, sent to England for treatment, spent more than a year in various hospitals ( gangrene began in his injured leg), and in September 1917 he sailed back to Canada.

In 1925 , under the influence of his new wife, also an Indian (from the Iroquois tribe), the Gray Owl began to write. Initially, articles and essays came out from under his pen urging him to love and protect the wildlife; The Gray Owl was best known for its series of articles written in 1931 by order of the Canadian Forest Association.

In 1931 he published his first book, The Men of the Last Frontier, about the initial period of his life in the forests. Between 1935 and 1936, three fiction books were published: Pilgrims of the Wasteland ( The Pilgrims of the Wild ), The Adventures of Sajo and Her Beaver People ( The Adventures Sajo and her Beaver People ), and Tales of the Deserted huts "( English " Tales of an Empty Cabin " ). The Gray Owl also illustrated with their own drawings.

In the same years, the Gray Owl visits England several times, where he performs in an Indian national costume, presenting his books and campaigning for the protection of nature. In 1937, he, in particular, spoke to young British princesses, including the future Queen Elizabeth .

Tours and alcohol undermined the Gray Owl's health. In 1938, he died of pneumonia in his hut on Lake Ajavan ( Saskatchewan ).

After the death of the Gray Owl, his secret gradually began to be revealed: journalists found out that he was a fake Indian, and at first it had an extremely negative impact on his posthumous writing fate. However, then public opinion rehabilitated the Gray Owl. He is widely recognized in Canada as one of the first fighters for the rights of Indians and for the conservation of nature.

In 1999, the film about him, made by Richard Attenborough with Pierce Brosnan as a writer, greatly contributed to the popularization of the life and work of the Gray Owl. As a teenager, Richard Attenborough, along with his younger brother David, attended a Gray Owl performance in London. Richard Attenborough noted that this event made a lasting impression on them and influenced their future life and choice of profession ( David Attenborough became a naturalist, writer, documentary director). In the Canadian city of Prince Albert (Saskatchewan) is the house museum of the Gray Owl ^[1] .

The book of the Gray Owl “Sajjo and her beavers” was translated by A. Yu. Makarova and published in the journal “Pioneer” in 1939 with a foreword by M. M. Prishvin . A separate book was published in 1940. Andrei Platonov responded to this book with a review (the journal Children's Literature, 1941, No. 4, under the pseudonym F. Man.) In 1958, the book was reprinted. This publication contains illustrations by the author, but with minor abbreviations. There is also no dictionary of Native American words. In the future, the book was reprinted, but without copyright drawings. Again with illustrations of the Gray Owl, it was reprinted in 1988.

In 1939, the publishing house "Children's Literature" published a book by M. Prishvin, "The Gray Owl," which is a retelling of the book of the Gray Owl, " Pilgrims of the Wild " (" Pilgrims of the Wild "). Then the book was reprinted separately or in collected works of M. M. Prishvin. In 1961, a book by the Polish writer and traveler Arkady Fiedler , Canada, Smelling of Resin, was published in the USSR, which spoke in some detail about the life of the Gray Owl. The annual almanac "Hunting Spaces" published the story "Pine", which is the head of the book "Tales of the Empty Hut." In 1966-1968 the journal " Science and Life " published individual chapters of the book in the translation of Alla Makarova. And with drawings of a Gray Owl and photographs. In 1970, Pioneer magazine published chapters from The Tales of the Empty Hut as separate stories, The Deceptive Light and The Bears from Haskesie. The book "Tales of the Empty Hut" with a foreword by Alla Makarova was published in 1974 by the publishing house "Young Guard". Its design was very weak, which negated the effect of its appearance in the cultural space of the country.

• Ovcharenko N.F. English prose of Canada. - Kiev: Naukova Dumka, 1983. - S. 108-114.
• Platonova M.A. Gray Owl / Abbr. option // Lit. Russia. - 1967. - Dec 1 - S. 10-11. - (On the philosophical views of the Indian writer Vesha-Kuonnesin [1888-1938]).
• Prishvin M.M. Gray Owl / Peresk. from English M. Prishvina. - M .: Children's literature, 1971. - 176 p.
• Prishvin M.M. Gray Owl / Peresk. from English M. Prishvina // Green noise. - Sat - M .: True, 1983.
• Prishvin M.M. Gray Owl / Peresk. from English M. Prishvina. - M. - L .: Detizdat of the Central Committee of the Komsomol, 1939 .-- 256 p.
• Gray owl. Deceptive light, Bears from Haskesie / Tales from the book "Tales of the Empty Hut" / Per. from English A. Yu. Makarova // Pioneer. - 1970. - No. 7. - S. 48-52.
• Gray owl. Stories of an Empty Cabin / Transl. from English A. Yu. Makarova // Science and Life. - 1966. - No. 10. - S. 138-145. - 1967. - No. 8. - S. 122-130. - 1968. - No. 2. - S. 114-121.
• Gray owl. Stories of an Empty Cabin / Transl. from English A. Yu. Makarova. - M .: Young Guard, 1974. - (Brigantine). - 160 p.
• Gray owl. Saggio and her beavers / Per. from English A. Yu. Makarova; drawings of the author. - M.: State Publishing House of Children's Literature of the Ministry of Education of the RSFSR, 1958. - 159 p. - (With photo of a Gray Owl).
• Fidler A. Canada, smelling of resin. - M.: State Publishing House of Geographical Literature, 1961. - S. 36–41.
• F. Man. Gray owl. Sajjo and her beavers // Children's literature. - 1941. - No. 4. - S. 52-53.

• 1 (inaccessible link) 2 Album of drawings and photos of the Gray Owl
• Gray Owl Biography
• Gray Owl Books
• Literary Encyclopedia
• Vorobyova L. New details from the biography of the club "Gray Owl". About a man named Gray Owl // Ecologization of consciousness. Bulletin "Green Salvation". - Almaty, 2008, - No. 18. - S. 92