Romancing the Rockies
| Author | Brian Brennan |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | |
| Country | Canada |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Fifth House |
Publication date | 2005 |
| Pages | 212 |
| ISBN | 1-894856-40-6 Search this book on  . |
Romancing the Rockies: Mountaineers, Missionaries, Marilyn and More is a book of historical vignettes written by Irish-Canadian author Brian Brennan[1].[2] The focus is on various individuals who found themselves drawn to Canada's Rocky Mountains over a 250-year period.[3][4] The book brought the author the first Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award[5][6], presented at Calgary's now-defunct Word on the Street.[7]
The mountaineers referred to in the subtitle include Peter Fidler, David Douglas and Philip Stanley Abbot. Fidler in 1792 became the first known European to enter the Rockies, name one of the peaks (Mount Pyramid, later renamed Mount Glasgow), and scale another peak (Thunder Mountain). Douglas was a Scottish botanist whose ascent of Mount Brown in 1827 served to popularize mountaineering as a sporting activity for Europeans. Abbot, a member of the Boston-based Appalachian Mountain Club, became North America's first mountaineering fatality when he fell to his death while climbing the then unconquered Mount Lefroy in 1896.
The missionaries referred to in the subtitle include Robert Terrill Rundle, George McDougall, and his sons John and David. Rundle was an itinerant English-born Wesleyan Methodist who spent seven years travelling between Hudson's Bay Company forts in what is now Saskatchewan and Alberta, pursuing the Natives and baptizing them with such English names as Benjamin, Jacob and Sarah. The McDougalls built the first permanent mission station in the Rockies when they established one at Morley, Alberta, in the ancestral winter camping grounds of the Nakoda (Stoney).
The Marilyn of the subtitle is Marilyn Monroe, who filmed much of the movie River of No Return in Banff National Park, Jasper National Park and Lake Louise in 1953. Other stories are about the "champagne safari" of Charles Bedaux to the Rockies in 1934, the 1939 trip to Banff by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, and the attempt by Martin Nordegg to build a model town in the Rockies.
The book spent seven weeks on the Calgary Herald weekly bestsellers list.[8]
References[edit]
- ↑ "Western authors offer some colourful new releases to pass the time till the warm weather arrives," by Dina O'Meara, Western Standard, May 2, 2005, page 44
- ↑ "It is crammed full of local history that not only made Alberta, but Canada as well, as seen from the eyes of average people trying to tame the Rockies in order to make a new life for themselves." Calgary Living, July 12, 2005
- ↑ "Sampler skims the surface of mountain history," by Michelle Gurney, Edmonton Journal, June 12, 2005, page E12
- ↑ Book review by Ben Gadd, Alberta Views, April/May 2005, pp 56-57
- ↑ "Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award, a Canadian writing contest with emphasis on social justice issues". www.greberwritingaward.com.
- ↑ "Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award, a Canadian writing contest with emphasis on social justice issues". www.greberwritingaward.com.
- ↑ "Literature and literacy take to the street," by Harry Vandervlist, Fast Forward Weekly, Sept. 23, 2004
- ↑ Calgary Herald, April 23, 30, May 7, 28, June 4, 25 and July 2, 2005
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