Bradford Angier (1910–1997)

Remember reading something by Bradford Angier about fifty years ago, so this mostly cherry, if musty-smelling, first edition of WILDERNESS WIFE (1976) caught my eye in a thrift store. Plenty here about wilderness living on the Peace River in remote British Columbia, where the Angiers built a cabin and set up housekeeping with their Irish wolfhound, Bushman, and a couple horses. Detailed descriptions of foraging for food and hunting moose and encounters with wolf packs and grizzly bears, not show more to mention arctic temps of 60-70 degrees below zero. Angier wrote many books like this back in the 60s and 70s, some of them enormously popular, mostly with hunters and outdoorsy types. This one is somewhat marred, I thought, by interspersed attempts at poetic flights of fancy about the magical beauty of nature, probably his wife's contribution to an otherwise solid narrative. It's a good enough book, I suppose, and even seems rather relevant again, in light of the global warming crisis and man's continuing destruction of the wilderness. But after fifty pages or so, I grew bored with the book, skimmed as many more pages and finally put it aside. An actual outdoorsman would probably enjoy this a lot more than I did. Musty attic smell to these pages - pee-yew. Better go wash my hands.

- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER show less

This book assumes that you will be 'surviving' in North America, probably in the Northern woods. While it has aged better than many other books, it does not take the vulnerabilities of the environment into account the way we would today. (Survival of one/a few human(s) is more important than protection of animals, ecosystems?)

The kit he recommends is much heavier than most people can carry (or his own guidelines). Much of it is also of more use to those with the sort of experience that would show more make the book superfluous. show less

In the mid-1950's, Bradford Angier and his wife left their established careers in New York City (he a writer, she a ballet dancer) in order to spend one year living off the land in a remote part of Canada - the Peace River Valley near Hudson's Hope, British Columbia. This year changed their life trajectories forever as Angier found that he could make a living writing articles and books about how to live off the land in the wilderness, and they both discovered their love for wilderness show more living. Angier became one of the premier authors of this genre.

This book is well written and an interesting story, but it is also a bit dated as it has a distinct air of the 1950’s about it. He uses his wife as the foil for his explanations (‘But how can I find edible plants, dear?’) and also makes 1950’s housewife-in-the-wilderness looking all cute in her flannel shirt with flour on her nose remarks.

It’s still an interesting outdoor adventure story and his techniques for living off the land are still useful for those interested in the topic. show less

This book is not really a field guide; you have to thumb through the whole thing in order to find a plant. But the information is so condensed and well-put together that it can let you fake expertise in no time at all. I wouldn't like to try eating a new plant based on an ID just from this book, but it's been very helpful at giving me starting points for further research.