Northland Footprints

Conibear, Kenneth

Published by Scribner's, New York, 1937

About this Item

Scribner's, New York, 1937. First American Edition, with "A" on copyright page. Signed by the author on the half-title. Octavo, 339 pp. Green cloth with white printed titles and cover image of a beaver. Pictorial jacket is rust and white. Book is nearly immaculate - genuinely fine but for just a trace of soiling on top page edge. Jacket is solid, no large chips or tears, and has the original $2.50 price showing. General peripheral wear and light rubbing makes the jacket a VG. Certainly one of the finest-condition copies available anywhere of this scarce example of Canadian fiction, this is one of only two which author Kenneth Conibear recalled ever signing. Ken passed away on October 4, 2002, six weeks after his 95th birthday, knowing that in Northland Footprints he had contributed a timeless masterwork. Northland Footprints is a magical tale, after the form of Felix Salten's original Bambi (not the Disney stylization, but the original), in which animals are the main characters and somehow take on a believable substance despite the potential problems of anthropomorphization. A book that took consummate skill to create. Included is a frontispiece pictorial map of "Little Bent Tree Lake", the spiritual central venue of the story, which lies "somewhere south and east of Great Slave Lake and the Slave River". Another nice touch is the List of Characters, all wildlife but for three peripheral humans, and all of which are named in Indian languages of the Northwest Territories: Ojibway, Chipwyan, Cree, and Sioux, but for one wolverine with the "French-Canadian" name Carcajou. An uber-enchanting example of naturalist fiction which avoids juvenile simplicty or sentimentality. Genuinely difficult to do, and there's no better legacy for this man. L-41n.

Seller Inventory # 000569

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Northland Footprints
• Publisher: Scribner's, New York
• Publication Date: 1937
• Language: English
• Binding: Cloth
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)
• Seller catalogs:
  • Nature / Wildlife / Travel / Exploration
  • Canada