Books with author Jane Annixter

Andy Cameron and his parents, coming to live in the isolated Quah Davic Valley in the Quebec wilderness, have taken over its fur-rich trapping range following the mysterious death of the previous holder. The local inhabitants believe that the evil spirit of the north called the Windigo is responsible for the trapper’s death, and that it is only a matter of time before the Camerons run into trouble. Sometimes, when out alone in the woods, the local superstition does send chills down the spine of 14-year-old Andy, but it is with a more concrete “ghost” that his father, Ron Cameron, is concerned—an old renegade bear called the Boniface Black, a wily and malevolent trap robber. When that bear is the cause of Ron’s death, Andy and his mother, Evva, are faced with the decision to give up and leave the valley—at the very moment the range is about to pay off—or to keep a promise made to Ron to stick it out. Andy wants to stay, and he sets about persuading his mother by proving to her that he can do the necessary work to prepare for another winter in their lonely cabin and that he can run the trap line alone. Despite all his efforts, Andy runs into one setback after another. Could the uncanny myth about the valley be true? Then, when it seems that Andy’s courage and perseverance will finally be rewarded—through the loyalty of a little mongrel dog and invaluable help from an unexpected quarter—Old Boniface goes on another rampage.

This is a twofold story of a dramatic struggle for survival. For countless generations the lives of the American bison and the Plains Indians were as one. Periodically stirred by the rhythm of the seasons, the great buffalo herds followed the ancient trails from north to south and back again, and the Indians followed the buffalo. It was a pattern and way of life regarded by both as inevitable. The Indians depended on the buffalo for food, for clothing and shelter, and for sport. In turn the buffalo accepted Indian hunts as only another natural hazard of their nomadic life, along with wolves and grizzlies, floods and droughts and blizzards. But with the coming of the white man, this age-old relationship was changed forever. Both Indian and buffalo, threatened with extinction, struggled desperately for survival. This Native American story is told through the lives of Standing Elk, a wise old Sioux medicine man, his headstrong, warlike son, Hawk, and Hawk's adopted brother, Stabs-the-Bear, in spite of his youth a "far-seer" like his foster father. Woven through their experiences and adventures are the ways of the buffalo, centered on the life of the king bull, Kahtanka, from birth through his sagacious later years as herd master. And opposed to these plains dwellers is the advancing, disrupting tide of the white man, with his guns, his railroads, his hide hunters, and his soldiers. Between them, Mr. and Mrs. Annixter have written four previous novels, many novelettes, and over five hundred short stories for almost every U.S. magazine. He was born in Minneapolis, she in Detroit. They have traveled throughout the United States, Canada, and parts of Mexico, mostly off the beaten paths. They now live in Pasadena, California, where they work with their hands at gardening or building when not at their typewriters or off mountain-climbing. They believe that the efforts of both head and hands are necessary for a balanced life, and that the world of nature is no less important than the works of man.

1958 very early edition of this almost seventy year old copy. There are 219 clean, tanned pages with no writing. There is a school stamp on the title page and another crossed out (covered over). There is a small half-inch tear on the bottom of the next page following the title page. Inside the back cover there is an unused 'date due' label, and on the inside cover itself the remains of a removed label. The green cover has little shelfwear and a very 'exciting' illustration on the cover of a running herd of buffalo with a Sioux Chief jumping on one from his own horse. All our books are gift wrapped, protectively packed and include tracking.