From 1930, the year after his first article appeared in print, until his death in April of 1938, Archibald Stansfeld Belaney was known to the world as Grey Owl, a Canadian half-breed dedicated to the conservation of wildlife. His acute observations about the impact of man on nature were presented to an international public through books, articles, films, and public lectures. His contribution to the tradition of nature writing was so inextricably bound to his identity as Grey Owl that the literary work was largely eclipsed when that identity was exposed as a creation of Belaney's imagination. He was no half-breed: he was Archie Belaney, born and raised in Hastings, England.

In Footsteps on Old Floors (1968) Thomas Raddall succinctly sums up the character and appearance of one of Canada's most successful literary poseurs: "In figure he was tall and lean, with a jutting nose and a grey-blue gaze that could...