Epic Wanderer

D’Arcy Jenish

$ 21.95

Who was David Thompson? Ask any high school student in Canada and they should be able to tell you at least some of the particulars (that is, if they paid attention in history class). An explorer who discovered routes and passes through the Rocky Mountains in the early 1800s. A mapmaker. Someone with a memorable haircut that could only be described as a proto-mullet.  

For a more profound understanding of Thompson and the role he played in the development of the Canadian West, turn not to local teenagers, but instead to D’Arcy Jenish’s masterful “Epic Wanderer”. Jenish lays his thesis out in the first sentence of his introduction, a statement equal parts bold and straightforward. In the author’s view, Thompson was one of the most important geographers in North American history, and his work helped to define Canada as we know it. 

Nearly 300 pages later you’ll probably agree, and even if you’re not convinced, you will have at least been entertained.  

Jenish, a former sports writer for Maclean’s magazine and a prolific hockey historian, certainly has a flair for the dramatic. Every hunting trip, each encounter with insolent aboriginal horsemen, becomes a gripping struggle for survival. There shouldn’t be this much suspense involved in a work of historical non-fiction — after all, most readers are well aware of Thompson’s fate before starting “Epic Wanderer”, but Jenish imbues even the most routine epistolary exchange with a true sense of uncertainty. Even if you know that the Hudson’s Bay Company will indeed grant the young Thompson’s request for a sextant and other instruments, Jenish’s capable prose forces you to turn the page eagerly.  

Another towering strength of “Epic Wanderer” is the author’s exquisite eye for detail. Through this precision, Jenish leaves us with a palpable sense of the Canadian wilderness and more impressively, the aboriginal and European men and women who survived in that harsh environment. A more academic approach to Thompson’s travels has been taken by Washington’s Jack Nisbet and the result is considerably more dry and difficult to read than Jenish’s later work. Relying on Thompson’s own journals and those of the great man’s contemporaries, Jenish endeavours (and largely succeeds) in painting a comprehensive tableau of Canadian life at the height of the fur trade.

A strong connection to the source material is always important in works of this nature, but Jenish manages to strike an important balance between the use of direct passages from period texts and his own paraphrasing and interpretation of the same sources. The outdated spelling and punctuation alone would make extensive use of quotations difficult to read, but it’s equally significant that Jenish has managed to express a great deal in a modern vernacular instantly accessible to his readers. There will be times at which the skeptical reader may believe that Jenish has descended into hagiography, but he remedies concerns of this nature by examining and evaluating existing interpretations of Thompson’s behaviour and impact. The bare historical truth (inasmuch as this concept exists) is that David Thompson was a remarkable man who lived a life of oustanding accomplishment. His influence was certainly felt in this part of the world at the time he passed through it, and it continues to be today.