The three most famous and influential works from the controversial legend and early conservationist.
Grey Owl was born Archibald Stansfeld Belaney, the son of an aristocrat in Hastings, England, in 1888. Raised by his two aunts, he led a lonely childhood in England until 1906, when, at the tender age of seventeen, he emigrated to North America to live among the Native people. He returned to England a few years later to serve in the First World War, was wounded, and returned to live with the Ojibwe in northern Canada.
In mid-life, Archibald Belaney adopted the Ojibwe name Wa-sha-quonasin, or Grey Owl. He married three times and fathered three children. He also lived for many years with an Ojibwe woman named Anahareo, and moved to northern Quebec, where he began his writing career in earnest.
All of Grey Owl's stories are based on true-life experiences. As a canoeman, packer guide, fur trapper, naturalist and storyteller, Grey Owl's nature writings have delighted readers worldwide since they first began to appear in 1929, the same year that Grey Owl began to lecture as a conservationist.
During the course of his career as a writer, Grey Owl's deep love and respect for nature came through in his body of work. Through his true tales of life lived in the wilderness, he helped to promote conservation awareness.