WILDERNESS MAN: THE STRANGE STORY OF GREY OWL Lovat Dickson. Toronto, Macmillan, c1973, 1984. 283pp, paper, $7.95. Laurentian Library #81. ISBN 0-7715-9867-X. Grades 12 and up. Reviewed by Elaine Balpataky. Volume 12 Number 6 1984 November As the subtitle suggests, Grey Owl's story is a strange one, and therefore it makes fascinating reading. The author was Grey Owl's publisher and friend. Yet even he did not know, and at first refused to believe, the astonishing truth of Grey Owl's English parentage and upbringing. His subsequent investigations convinced him, but served only to deepen the mystery. As one person asked, "How did the soul of an Indian get into the body of an Englishman?" The book is, in one sense, an attempt to answer that question. Grey Owl's story is told with the sympathy of one who obviously admired him and wished to defend him to the world. Dickson describes his ancestry, his childhood in England, and the sequence of events that led to his transformation, first to an expert woodsman and trapper, finally to a distinguished writer and lecturer who, as an Indian, interpreted the wilderness and its creatures and made a passionate appeal in their defense. This book would be suitable as supplementary reading for senior English or environmental science courses. Most readers will wish to go on to read the books of Grey Owl himself. Elaine Balpataky, Ingersol D. C. I., Ingersoll, ON.