FUR TRADER OF THE NORTH: The Story of Pierre de la Verendrye

by Ronald Syme ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 5, 1973

The name of Pierre de la Verendrye, the French voyageur who searched unsuccessfully for a route to the Western Sea, will be unfamiliar to the vast majority of explorer connoisseurs, and Syme would have done well to outline the extent of his subject's travels before launching into this plodding chronological narrative. Not only did de la Verendrye's quest end anticlimactically with French trade in decline and the old explorer himself in poverty, but the journal excerpts here offer only scanty glimpses of the Mandan, Cree and Sioux peoples de la Verendrye met and observed. A peppier style and more background from independent sources on the voyageur lifestyle and the tribes encountered would have enlarged de la Verendrye's potential following, but French Canadians will still take pride in their countryman who anticipated the famous westward crossing of Alexander MacKenzie by more than fifty years.

Pub Date: Sept. 5, 1973

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Morrow

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1973

Categories: NONFICTION