The Country Beyond, James Oliver Curwood
The Country Beyond, James Oliver Curwood
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
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The Country Beyond

Author: James Oliver Curwood

Narrator: Ric Benson

Unabridged: 8 hr 19 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/15/2000


Synopsis

For three years the grim chase had continued. Hanging like a wolf to the trail of Jolly Roger McKay, Corporal Cassidy of the Royal Northwest Mounted had put more than a thousand miles of frozen nothingness behind him. But always the man he hunted, the o

About James Oliver Curwood

James Oliver Curwood (1878-1927) was born in Owosso, Michigan, in 1878, where he lived for most of his life. His father was a cobbler and owned a small shop, but this failed when James was six years old. For the next seven years the family lived on a remote farm, and James's job was to pick up stones. Later in life he pointed to these rough years as having helped to build his character.

Despite being expelled from high school in the tenth grade, Curwood passed the entrance exams to the University of Michigan, where he studied journalism. Two years later, in 1900, he left the university and married Cora Leon Johnson. This was also the year he sold his first story, "Across the Range," for five dollars. He went to work for the Detroit News-Tribune covering funerals and for a pharmaceutical company until he was able to support himself through his writing. In 1909 Curwood divorced Cora and married Ethel Greenwood. That was also the year he took his first trip into the Canadian Northwest and thereafter would spend up to six months each year in the arctic wilderness. This was where he set some of his most successful books.

While on a hunting trip in the Rockies, Curwood stalked a bear for three weeks. As he moved in for the kill, he slipped and broke his gun. The bear reared up over Curwood, then left him unharmed. That day Curwood turned away from hunting and became an ardent conservationist.

By 1919, when he wrote The River's End, Curwood was one of the most successful writers in North America. He eventually earned over $1,000,000, which enabled him to build a Norman chateau along the banks of the Shiawassee River, now the official James Curwood Museum. Despite being obsessed with his health, and declaring that he would "live to be 100," he died of blood poisoning at age 49, in 1927.

Over his lifetime, Curwood wrote over 30 books. Among them were The Grizzly King, The Wolf Hunters, The Alaskan, The Country Beyond, and Son of the Forests.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Tweety

Mister Jolly Roger McKay has been an outlaw ever since he did one good deed for his Cree friends, and broke the law to do it. The Royal Mounted Police have been after him ever since and he's slowly added to his crimes. A parcel of books here, some food there and as of let, he's never hurt a human. H......more

I remember trying to read “Old Yeller” when I was a kid. I must have tried starting three or four times, and never could get much beyond “Little Arliss…” I guess it just wasn’t for me. I haven’t read many dog stories in my life, but this one seemed different from the typical. For one thing, it wasn’......more

Goodreads review by Dawn

Mainly the book is from the perspective of the dog - Peter, but switches to be from the perspective of the other characters in the story which causes a bit of confusion when reading.......more

Goodreads review by Stephen

Fun, adventurous and romantic...with a good message. After having screwed up a good part of his life, a man falls in love and in order to save his beloved, he admits to a horrible deed. He runs away and spends the rest of the book trying to get back to the girl despite his troubles....his constant c......more