A couple months ago, fellow QJer "Lost Again" was gracious enough to provide me with a copy of "Northern Trader: The Last Days of the Fur Trade" by H.S.M. Kemp, written by his grandfather.  My intent was to treat myself to reading this book during one of my planned canoe trips this coming summer.  Alas, I couldn't hold out any longer!  Perhaps driving through a snow storm this past Monday, May 1st, was the straw that broke the back of my resolve?  Anyway, I needed SOMETHING to get me over a mental hump. 

This book was surely it!

If ever you wished to savor authentic flavors of what the "north country" was really like in the days before planes, modern roads and fancy communications globalized, modernized and (somewhat) assimilated the region, "Northern Trader" IS your ticket.  Lost Again's grandfather was a skilled raconteur.  His rich stories and the accompanying photography are absolutely vintage stuff, covering the end of an era (@ one century ago).  I felt fully transported to another place & time... which is the test of any good book.

Captured are the people, the pace, the adversities, the victories and defeats of a trader's life lived up north.  Hear the dogs, smell the balsam, run the rapids, swat the mosquitoes, learn how to build a birch bark canoe or set up a dead-fall bear trap... it's all here in Kemp's book.  There are great tales about scheming competitors in the fur trade, about the customs & habits of native and not-so native peoples, about getting lost then found again, and even about some goings-on that seem to have come out of Spook Central or The Twilight Zone. 

H.S.M. Kemp led a rich life.  His keen observations and sense of humor make this a very entertaining read.  Little wonder that this extraordinary account of those times has been brought back into publication after so many years!  See:   (You need to Login or Register


I highly recommend "Northern Trader" for all aficionados of literature dealing with the Far North!

Jimbo   8-)