Suitable for the Wilds: Letters from Northern Alberta

Jackson, Mary Percy; McGinnis, Janice P. Dickin

ISBN 10: 0802005829 / ISBN 13: 9780802005823

Published by Univ of Toronto Pr, 1995

About this Item

The letters of Dr. Mary Percy, who at the age of 25 left home in Birmingham to take on responsibilities as a doctor, dentist, public health officer, and coroner in the Peace River area of Northern Alberta, ministering to the MTtis and Native people, as well as to increasing numbers of immigrant families. The introduction by editor McGinnis provides.

Seller Inventory # 413368

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Suitable for the Wilds: Letters from Northern Alberta
• Publisher: Univ of Toronto Pr
• Publication Date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0802005829
• ISBN 13: 9780802005823
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Good

About this title

Synopsis

Dr. Mary Percy, twenty-five years old and from a comfortable Birmingham family, left home in 1929 to take up a medical posting in the Peace River area of northern Alberta. Her letters home, collected here, vividly describe her adventurous life on one of Canada's last frontiers. Her district covered 900 square kilometres of wooded, boggy land, which she travelled on horseback, by dogsled, and sometimes by automobile.
Dr. Percy faced many issues in caring for the Metis and Native people, as well as for increasing numbers of immigrant families. Her greatest medical challenges, though, were the result of poverty and isolation - and she often railed against the government for what she saw as irresponsible settlement policies and lack of attention to her community.
Despite the strenuousness of her responsibilities as doctor, dentist, public health officer, and coroner, Dr. Percy enjoyed the personal and professional challenges presented by wilderness life, and her enthusiasm for this great adventure, which permeates her letters, is infectious. Indeed, by the end of 1930 she complained that the area was becoming too civilized! The letters conclude in January 1931, with her marriage to farmer-fur trader Frank Jackson and her subsequent move farther north, to Keg River, where she lives today.

About the Author

Dr. Mary Percy Jackson was inducted into the Alberta Order of Excellence in 1983 and inducted as an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1990. She received both the Alberta and Canadian Centennial Medals and was a lifetime member of the College of Family Physicians. She died in 2000 at the age of 95.