Shadowy Lakes & Dreaming Woods - Mark Robinson Algonquin Park Ranger 1908-1917

<p>From 1907 through to 1936 author naturalist and soldier Mark Robinson served as an Algonquin Park Ranger. His service included working twice as Chief Ranger as well as twice as Acting Park Superintendent. Throughout these years Robinson scrupulously maintained a daily diary documenting early life in the Park. These diaries are an essential evocative record of Canada's environmental social and military history.</p><p>Whether tracking poachers thieves or wolves; befriending artists politicians or socialites; writing articles for magazines and newspapers or coping with the challenges of military life during wartime (at home and overseas) Mark Robinson's observations offer a witty fascinating history of special places during a time of unprecedented change. The diaries offer unique insights into the people wildlife technologies and society of Algonquin Park's early decades and Canadian life of the 1910s through to the 1930s.</p><p>This first volume in this series of three Robinson diaries opens in January 1908 as Robinson is finishing his first month of duty as a ranger. It closes in April 1917 as he returns to Park duties after 20 months war service with the Canadian Expeditionary Force. During this time Robinson worked as a recruiter in Ontario's Simcoe County and accompanied his men to England and briefly to the front lines of France.</p><p><strong>Editor Gregory Klages PhD</strong> is author of <em>The Many Deaths of Tom Thomson: Separating Fact from Fiction</em> (<em>National Post</em> non-fiction bestseller Writers' Trust of Canada Best Books 2016). Klages was Research Director for <em>Death On A Painted Lake: The Tom Thomson Tragedy (2008)</em> part of the international award-winning Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History Project. His writing has been published in the <em>American Review of Canadian Studies</em> <em>Asian Review of Canadian Studies</em> <em>Ontario History</em> <em>Saskatchewan History </em>and the anthology<em> Archives & Canadian Narratives.</em></p><p>----</p><p><strong>Volume includes:</strong></p><p>· Almost 300 annotations providing biographical information for key personalities explaining terminology providing historical context and identifying contemporary geographic place names where these have changed from Robinson's era.</p><p>· A biographical essay about Robinson</p><p>· An essay on Algonquin Park history and policies</p><p>· Editor's notes</p><p>· Excerpts from Robinson's published magazine articles</p><p>· Recipes & potions drawn from the diaries</p><p>10 b&w photos 2 maps. 378 pages.</p><p>----</p><p>A triumph of Canadian storytelling and an endlessly fascinating read the Robinson diaries are at once historical record wilderness guidebook and an autobiography of adventure. This book is far more than a journal; it's a companion. Whether you read a few lines or many pages at a time Mark's diaries immerse us in one of the most iconic environments in Canada. His words bring to life the waters and hills of Algonquin their mesmerizing calm the insignificance of man the colossal power of the natural world. That feeling is restorative and therapeutic and even a few lines can transport the mind.</p><p><em>Jeff Lehman Chair Muskoka District Council (2022-present); Mayor City of Barrie Ontario (2010-2022)</em></p>