New Releases by Farley Mowat

"We have doomed the wolf not for what it is, but for what we deliberately and mistakenly perceive it to be – the mythologized epitome of a savage, ruthless killer – which is, in reality, no more than the reflected image of ourself." —from the Preface Never Cry Wolf is a brilliant narrative on the myth and magic of wild wolves and man''s true place among the creatures of nature. Hordes of bloodthirsty wolves are slaughtering the arctic caribou, and the government''s Wildlife Service assigns naturalist Farley Mowat to investigate. Mowat is dropped alone onto the frozen tundra, where he begins his mission to live among the howling wolf packs and study their ways. Contact with his quarry comes quickly, and Mowat discovers not a den of marauding killers but a courageous family of skillful providers and devoted protectors of their young. As Mowat comes closer to the wolf world, he comes to fear with them the onslaught of bounty hunters and government exterminators out to erase the noble wolf community from the Arctic.

Farley Mowat''s outrageous memoir begins with his unlikely conception in a canoe and continues to his boyhood fascination with creatures of the natural world and on to his youthful rambles and adventures. To his immense pleasure and his parents'' dismay, he adopted various beasts (whom he affectionately calls "The Others") as roommates. In this boyhood memoir, he recounts the exploits of this second family, who have been the subjects of many of his beloved books for young readers. This is the tale of a mischievous, immensely gifted young naturalist, recounted with the wisdom, humor and grown-up perspective of a very talented writer.

In 1886, the Ihalmiut of northern Canada numbered 7,000 souls; by 1946, when 25-year-old Farley Mowat travelled to the Arctic, their population had dwindled to only 40. Living among them, he observed the millennia-old migration of the caribou and endured the bleak winters, food shortages and continual, devastating intrusions of interlopers bent on exploiting the Arctic. In this seminal book, Mowat details a genocide wrought by misunderstanding and neglect. Debated long after its publication, this powerful story of the Ihalmiut continues to haunt the Canadian conscience.

Mowat''s gripping account of how a young man, excited by the prospect of battle, is transformed into a war-weary veteran.

When an 80-ton Fin Whale became trapped in a lagoon near his Newfoundland home, Farley Mowat rejoiced: here was a unique chance to observe one of the world''s most magnificent creatures up close. But some of his neighbours saw a different opportunity altogether: in a prolonged fit of violence, they blasted the whale with rifle fire, and scarred its back with motorboat propellers. Mowat appealed desperately to the police, to marine biologists, finally to the Canadian press. But it was too late. Mowat''s poignant and compelling story is an eloquent argument for the end of the whale hunt, and the rediscovery of the empathy that makes us human.

A Canadian icon gives us his final book, a memoir of the events that shaped this beloved writer and activist. Farley Mowat has been beguiling readers for fifty years now, creating a body of writing that has thrilled two generations, selling literally millions of copies in the process. In looking back over his accomplishments, we are reminded of his groundbreaking work: He single-handedly began the rehabilitation of the wolf with Never Cry Wolf. He was the first to bring advocacy activism on behalf of the Inuit and their northern lands with People of the Deer and The Desperate People. And his was the first populist voice raised in defense of the environment and of the creatures with whom we share our world, the ones he has always called The Others. Otherwise is a memoir of the years between 1937 and the autumn of 1948 that tells the story of the events that forged the writer and activist. His was an innocent childhood, spent free of normal strictures, and largely in the company of an assortment of dogs, owls, squirrels, snakes, rabbits, and other wildlife. From this, he was catapulted into wartime service, as anxious as any other young man of his generation to get to Europe and the fighting. The carnage of the Italian campaign shattered his faith in humanity forever, and he returned home unable and unwilling to fit into post-war Canadian life. Desperate, he accepted a stint on a scientific collecting expedition to the Barrengrounds. There in the bleak but beautiful landscape he finds his purpose – first with the wolves and then with the indomitable but desperately starving Ihalmiut. Out of these experiences come his first pitched battles with an ignorant and uncaring federal bureaucracy as he tries to get aid for the famine-stricken Inuit. And out of these experiences, too, come his first books. Otherwise goes to the heart of who and what Farley Mowat is, a wondrous final achievement from a true titan.

Awasin, a Cree Indian boy, and Jamie, a Canadian orphan living with his uncle, the trapper Angus Macnair, are enchanted by the magic of the great Arctic wastes. They set out on an adventure that proves longer and more dangerous than they could have imagined. Drawing on his knowledge of the ways of the wilderness and the implacable northern elements, Farley Mowat has created a memorable tale of daring and adventure. When first published in 1956, Lost in the Barrens won the Governor-General’s Award for Juvenile Literature, the Book-of-the-Year Medal of the Canadian Association of Children’s Librarians and the Boys’ Club of America Junior Book Award.

The popular sequel to his award-winning Lost in the Barrens, this is Farley Mowat’s suspense-filled story of how Awasin, Jamie and Peetryuk, three adventure-prone boys, stumble upon a cache of Viking relics in an ancient tomb somewhere in the north of Canada. Packed with excitement and with little-known information about the customs of Viking explorers, this story of survival portrays the bond of youthful friendship and the wonders of a virtually unexplored land.

In a voice alternately filled with rage, humor, and pathos, Mowat seasons his story with photos, maps, and verbatim transcriptions of testimonies from northern peoples, Inuit and white, at a time when the old ways of life were disappearing.

The northeastern seaboard of Canada and the United States, extending from Labrador to Cape Cod, was the first region of North America to suffer from human exploitation. Farley Mowat, who has observed this region closely over the past forty years, informs the extensive historical and biological research with his direct experience of the natural world. When it was first published nearly twenty years ago, Sea of Slaughter served as a warning to humanity and a catalyst for environment reform, raising awareness of the decline and destruction of marine and coastal species. As timely today as it was on first publication, this classic is now available to a new generation of readers. Monumental in scope and chilling, Sea of Slaughter was and certainly still is required reading for anyone concerned with the increasingly precarious state of our world. (April 2003) This book is the first in The Farley Mowat Library. Forthcoming classic titles to be reissued include The Snowwalker, And No Birds Sang (Fall 2003.)

The adventures of two owls who shake up an entire neighborhood and turn a house topsy-turvy. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.

THEY COULD SURVIVE ANYTHING IN THE ARCTIC WILDERNESS--EXCEPT THE WHITE MAN. They were rich, the caribou were abundant. Their dogs were many and strong. The children in the tents were happy, and there was never any fear of going hungry. Then came the ruthless white man''s civilization. And with it came slaughter of the herds, starvation of the flesh, and torture of the spirit.

A humorous account of the author''s excursions through the Maritime Provinces in a thirty-one-foot craft that was barely seaworthy

One of the great storytellers of our century writes passionately of the courage of men and of a small, ocean-going salvage tug, Foundation Franklin. The captain and the crew were mostly Newfounders; the sea was in their blood. Battered by towering waves, dwarfed by the ships she towed, blasted by gale-force winds and frozen by squalls of snow and rain, the stout ship and her brave crew saved hundreds of vessels and thousands of lives as they battled their ancient enemy, the North Atlantic.

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