Andy Russell's Campfire Stories - Hardcover

Russell, Andy

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 077107882X ISBN 13: 9780771078828

Publisher: McClelland & Stewart, 1998

Synopsis

“As the dark closes in and the fire settles down to a deep and warming glow, there’s no nightcap better than a good story well told.”

Andy Russell is a master storyteller, and this collection of new and previously published tales evokes as if by magic the irresistible allure of the campfire. It’s not hard to imagine the starry sky above and the sound of the pack horses as they sleepily crop the grass nearby.

Some of Andy’s tales are about his own youth. Others are part of western lore and the history of the west. Others concern those whose trails crossed his, or whose legends he heard over campfires long ago. Some of the stories dwell in the past, and others deal in the present. Some are about horses, grizzlies, owls, and other wildlife; some commemorate old mountain men or cunning city slickers.

What all these yarns have in common is the unique style of the most celebrated of all Canadian cowboys, the inimitable Andy Russell.

About this title

About the Author

Andy Russell was born in 1915 into a pioneer Alberta family — his father was the first white baby born in what is now Lethbridge — Andy left high school in the Depression to become a trapper, cowboy, bronco buster, and trail guide. In time his guiding expeditions in the Rockies led to campfire yarns that found their way into magazines, and a new career as a writer and film-maker soon beckoned.

Over the years he became the best-known of all the writers about the Rockies and the wildlife to be found there. His book titles speak for themselves. In order he wrote Grizzly Country; Horns in the High Country; The Rockies; The High West; Memoirs of a Mountain Man; Andy Russell’s Adventures With Wild Animals; The Life of a River; The Canadian Cowboy; Andy Russell’s Campfire Stories; and finally Wild Country, edited by his friend Bruce Morrison, which was published in 2004.

Always an outspoken public figure, famous for his battles with the oil and gas industry, in 1976 he received the Order of Canada. An early conservationist, he began to film wildlife in the Rockies when he tired of guiding trophy — seeking hunters, and switched to trophies on film. He produced Grizzly Country and two other films for international lecture tours; he would introduce them on stage in his everyday Western gear, which he used to great effect. His films and his books — especially The Life of A River, a plea to stop the Oldman River Dam — had a major impact on our understanding of the fragile environment of the Rockies, foothills and prairies.

Andy Russell, author, outdoorsman and conservationist, passed away in Pincher Creek, Alberta, on June 1st at the age of 89.

From the Inside Flap

<i>“As the dark closes in and the fire settles down to a deep and warming glow, there’s no nightcap better than a good story well told.”</i><br><br>Andy Russell is a master storyteller, and this collection of new and previously published tales evokes as if by magic the irresistible allure of the campfire. It’s not hard to imagine the starry sky above and the sound of the pack horses as they sleepily crop the grass nearby.<br><br>Some of Andy’s tales are about his own youth. Others are part of western lore and the history of the west. Others concern those whose trails crossed his, or whose legends he heard over campfires long ago. Some of the stories dwell in the past, and others deal in the present. Some are about horses, grizzlies, owls, and other wildlife; some commemorate old mountain men or cunning city slickers.<br><br>What all these yarns have in common is the unique style of the most celebrated of all Canadian cowboys, the inimitable Andy Russell.

Edition details

• Publisher: McClelland & Stewart
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 077107882X
• ISBN 13: 9780771078828
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 328