THE TRANSLATION OF A SAVAGE – SIR GILBERT PARKER, 1st/1st 1893 – American Indian
THE TRANSLATION OF A SAVAGE — By Sir Gilbert Parker — 1st Edition / 1st Printing, 1893 — Mixed Racial Marriages, Native American Indians, Canadian Native American Indians and Aboriginal Peoples
 Publisher: D. Appleton and Company, New York (1893)
In well preserved condition. The boards and binding are solid and tight, save for some shelfwear. Slight lean to book. The pages are crisp and clean save for previous owner’s bookplate on the inside front board, and name and date on the front endpaper. 184 pages, with publisher advertisements at rear. A late 19th-century perspective (and all that entails) of the native populations, which is implicit in the title. Please see below for more information on the author and his work and life in Canada.
Gilbert Parker
was a Canadian writer and politician who taught at both Trinity College and the
Ontario School for the Deaf and Dumb. After travels through Australia, the
Pacific, the South Sea Islands, Europe, Egypt, and Asia, he settled in London,
England, where he later became involved in politics and was elected to
Parliament. In London, he wrote a number of romantic novels, largely concerned
with French Canadian history and culture. He said That I understood Canada
could not be established by the fact that I had spent my boyhood there, but
only by the fact that some inner vision permitted me to see it as it really
was. The Translation of a Savage is a story of cultural differences and mixed
marriage. Parker draws upon his knowledge of the Indian tribes of western
Canada, telling the tale of an Englishman of family and wealth who marries an
Indian girl of Hudsons Bay out of anger at his family. In an attempt to
humiliate his relatives, he sends her back to England but remains in Canada,
leading to the translation of the title, and the failure of his revenge.
