Classic North Woods Novel by George Marsh. A Centennial Celebration.
I’m celebrating the Centennial of George Marsh’s North Woods classic novel THE VALLEY OF VOICES!
Released a hundred years ago in 1924, this was George’s third book. And it was published three times that year. Red Book Magazine serialized it in its May to November ’24 issues. Penn Publishing (Philadelphia, US) and Hodder & Stoughton (London, England) both published it in hardcover editions.
THE VALLEY OF VOICES – A North Woods Novel by George Marsh – Book Review
American author and trailsman George Tracy Marsh (1875-1945) is remembered today for his Northern fiction set in the wild country around Hudson Bay. Especially the Albany River area.[1]
“Approaching camp” From VALLEY OF VOICES, Red Book Magazine, July 1924 issue. Illustration by Frank Schoonover.
As a young man, George avidly traveled the Northern Canadian wilderness paths and waterways.
And later wrote about them in popular poems, short stories and books such as his masterwork, the North Woods novel FLASH THE LEAD DOG.
During World War I, George served in the US Infantry. He saw action in the fierce Meuse River–Argonne Forest Offensive in France. And later served as an Army Judge Advocate.
In some of his early short stories, such as “For the Great Father,” he told of Canadian First Nations men who had fought in that War before returning to their native North Woods.
After the War, he was still able to find time from his busy legal practice and government service to travel on some of his old trails. And to write about them…
“Its hero is a man of daring, its heroine a woman of fire.”
THE VALLEY OF VOICES – A North Woods Book Review
“There is no laughter at Wailing River — now.” She raised her hands in eloquent gesture. “The winter here is so long — so cold. The eternal wind in the spruce. Does it not speak to you, too? To me there are always the voices — voices of hunger and pain. And death.”
“Yes, summer or winter,” he said, “the voices are everywhere. In the white-waters, the spruce, the hills. And often, in the breeze, the forest becomes one great orchestra.”
And now, at Wailing River, there was another voice. An old, old voice. The terrible Windigo was calling in the North Woods nights.
The Windigo, the terrible demon of the deep forests who hunted for raw flesh, especially Human flesh.
THE VALLEY OF VOICES, Penn Publishing Company, 1924. Cover art by Frank Schoonover.
Meet Brent Steele, who was delighted at the invitation to stay at Wailing River trading post.
Marsh tells us that “As a student of Indian mythology and worship of the supernatural, the probing of this mystery — the study of its effect on the post Indians — demanded his best efforts. It was a rare opportunity for an ethnologist, a student of folklore, to gather data at first hand.” A kind of early Robert Langdon.
Usually Marsh’s heroes were working men of the Northcountry. White men, Ojibway and Cree. Trappers, prospectors and explorers. Men toughened by the wild rivers and snowy trails they followed. Steele was a scientist. He also loved “to be out in the field.” He would be up to the job.
“But over and beyond that was the riddle of this girl whose hands of an artist were now busy with the dishes up there in the factor’s house.”
He had met Denise St. Onge while she sat on a lonely rock at the river’s edge. Playing the sad violin tunes that had drawn him there.
There were mysteries there at Wailing River.
THE VALLEY OF VOICES, Hodder & Stoughton, 1924. Cover artist not credited.
Steele had to solve them.
Even if it meant leaving Denise there in late September. Meant leaving her at the mercy of two powerful traders each wanting her in marriage. And meant he wouldn’t be able to return until the snowy winter trails made North Woods travel available again.
With his friend David, a river-wise Scotch-Ojibway, he set out in his Peterboro canoe. And when their ammunition is stolen at a camp visit, things heat up.
“Five summers of running ‘strong-water’ of northern rivers under the training of David had made a stern man of Brent Steele. With the pains which a wood Indian expends on the education of a son in the use of paddle and pole, the Ojibway had taught the white man the mysteries of an art, of which, in all the Nepigon country, he was the acknowledged master. And now the teamwork developed by the habit of years was to meet its acid test in the wild waters of the gorge of the Jackfish.”
Under fire from ambushers in the forest, Brent and David are driven into the whitewaters they wanted to avoid — the Frying Pan Rapids…
And there was even more to come.
For Steele, it was a trip south to the Head of Track. Then on the train, bound for his New York home. When he returned to the North Woods winter had come. The big American met David, who had two teams of huskies waiting. Steele had brought Pete with him, his long-eared, wrinkle-faced hound with a voice like a lion. He needed his steadfast bloodhound.
It was time for a Windigo Hunt.
==>> To read more about the Life and Literary works of American author George Marsh, go to Wolf Whelps & Lead Dogs: A Tribute to George Marsh, Wilderness Writer
See Us on Our CELL PHONE FRIENDLY Format: BrianAlanBurhoe.com.
[1] And, after all these years, the spectacular Albany River still offers great fishing. You will find walleye, brook trout, lake trout, sturgeon and Northern pike in its waters.
NOTE: George Marsh’s magazine stories and books were illustrated by some of the best pastoral artists of his day. They included Charles Livingston Bull, N C Wyeth, Maxfield Parrish and (left) Frank Schoonover.
Book Review, Flash the Lead Dog, Frank Schoonover, George Marsh, George T Marsh, George Tracy Marsh, Great Northwoods, Hudson Bay Canada. North of the border, North woods, North Woods by Daniel Mason, North Woods book, North Woods Novel. Valley of Voices, Wendigo, Wétiko, Wheetigo, Windigo (There are different spellings), Western writer.
