George Whalley, Death in the Barren Ground: The Diary of Edgar Christian

Michael DiSanto (Algoma University College)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.1.2: Canadian Writing and Culture (Anglophone): The Twentieth Century and beyond, 1900-present.
Vol. editors: Sarah Henzi (Simon Fraser University), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Glen Nichols (Mount Allison University), Wendy Roy (University of Saskatchewan), Denis Salter (McGill University), Karis Shearer (University of British Columbia)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1980

Places

Canada (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Non-Fiction
- Biography (literary)

Resources

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Originally published in 1980,

Death in the Barren Ground: The Diary of Edgar Christian

was reprinted in 2009 in response to the resurgence of interest in the story of John Hornby that followed upon the publication of Elizabeth Hay’s Giller prize-winning book

Late Nights On Air

(2007). The novel tells a story set in the Canadian north and repeatedly refers to Hornby and two works about him written by George Whalley: a CBC radio drama entitled “Death in the Barren Ground” and a biography entitled

The Legend of John Hornby

The diary of Edgar Christian is a “stark and reticent” record of the harrowing events of a trip three men took to the barren grounds in the Canadian north (Whalley 2009, 3). It begins on October 14, 1926 and ends with two letters Christian wrote to his parents

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756 words

Citation: DiSanto, Michael. "Death in the Barren Ground: The Diary of Edgar Christian". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 29 November 2013 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=33210, accessed 27 November 2024.]

George Whalley, Death in the Barren Ground: The Diary of Edgar Christian

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