The Mad Trapper

by Rudy Wiebe

Explore a captivating collection of vintage and rare books for sale, each page echoing the whispers of bygone eras and offering a unique glimpse into literary treasures of the past.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Canada, Novels

184 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

Wiebe was born at Speedwell, near Fairholme, Saskatchewan in what would later become his family’s chicken barn. For thirteen years he lived in an isolated Mennonite community of about 250 people. He did not speak English until age six since Mennonites at that time customarily spoke Low German at home and standard German at Church. He attended the small school three miles from his farm and the Speedwell Mennonite Brethren Church.

He received his B.A. in 1956 from the University of Alberta and then studied at the University of Tübingen in West Germany. In 1958 he married Tena Isaak, with whom he had two children.

He is deeply committed to the literary culture of Canada and has shown a particular interest in the traditions and struggles of people in the Prairie provinces, both whites and Aboriginals.

Wiebe won the Governor General's Award for Fiction twice, for The Temptations of Big Bear (1973) and A Discovery of Strangers (1994). He was awarded the Royal Society of Canada's Lorne Pierce Medal in 1986. In 2000 he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.

Reviews

[Fern · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't even know what to think of this book, both the writing itself and the story of this man hunt. If you want to read a book that will make you think, this is a good one for that. I suspect I will be thinking about this story for the rest of my life.

[Crystal · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a fictionalized account of the rCMP's pursuit of the Mad Trapper through the Canadian north during the winter of 1931-1932. I'd been told the story as a child and picked up this book while in the Yukon when I saw the cover in a gift shop and was reminded of the tale. I never knew the identity of the Trapper was never conclusively established. It's a fascinating story, but I gave it three stars because the fictionalized account of the Trapper's time alone and his thoughts bothered me. There were a number of policemen together so their stories could have been told by one another and, besides, the majority of them survived. The hunted man died without speaking to anyone once the pursuit began. Speaking to what he might have been thinking, his mood swings, and such somehow seemed like an abusive liberty to me, but to each his own.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A one-time media event frenzy from the Depression, now forgotten...but transformed into a surprisingly compelling and sensitive fictional account, providing copious amounts of humanity to each of the novel's central players. A very pleasant and unexpected surprise.

[Eli · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good account of the RCMP harassing, hounding, pursuing, blowing up his cabin, and eventually killing a man who just wanted to be left alone.

[Lilith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Edito in Italia sotto il titolo di "il cacciatore pazzo". Romanzo avventuroso biografico che narra la vera storia del "trapper" canadese Albert Johnson. Una vicenda narrata diligentemente e che riesce ad appassionare. Voto 7

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story of the Mad Trapper is a touchstone story about Canada's north. Unknown individual squares off with nature, goes mad, confronts forces of civilization trying to impose comformity with man made laws not nature's laws and the result is a metaphor gone wild. Rudy Wiebe, a truly fine Canadian writer brings an artist's sensibility and a novelists touch to a story to strange to be fiction and too elliptical to be truth.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mentally the mad trapper is a goner as far as I can tell. He behaves in a mysterious and angry manner. The rcmp chase him through frozen country, in
blizzards, over mountains, you name it. Some of them get shot some wounded all in an attempt to catch this guy. In the end the mad trapper gets shot and to this day people are clueless as to where he came from and who he is.

[rope · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great story about great northern history.