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.
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.
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.
Editor Gregory Klages, PhD, is author of The Many Deaths of Tom Thomson: Separating Fact from Fiction (National Post non-fiction bestseller, Writers' Trust of Canada Best Books 2016). Klages was Research Director for Death On A Painted Lake: The Tom Thomson Tragedy (2008), part of the international award-winning Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History Project. His writing has been published in the American Review of Canadian Studies, Asian Review of Canadian Studies, Ontario History, Saskatchewan History, and the anthology Archives & Canadian Narratives.
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Volume includes:
· 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.
· A biographical essay about Robinson,
· An essay on Algonquin Park history and policies,
· Editor's notes,
· Excerpts from Robinson's published magazine articles
· Recipes & potions drawn from the diaries
10 b&w photos, 2 maps. 378 pages.
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"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."
Jeff Lehman, Chair, Muskoka District Council (2022-present); Mayor, City of Barrie, Ontario (2010-2022)
