Dr. Richard Mackie will be speaking on “Panthering with Smith: Cougar Cecil Smith and the Literary History of Vancouver Island”, on Saturday, June 18, 2016, from 7pm-9pm, at the Sybil Andrews Cottage in Campbell River.
The Cottage is located at 2131 South Island Highway in Willow Point.
In this illustrated talk, author Richard Mackie will trace the formative influence of Cecil Smith on the lives and careers of the two most important writers of interwar central Vancouver Island: Hamilton Laing of Comox and Roderick Haig-Brown of Campbell River.
Smith taught both men the art of cougar hunting, introduced them to his extensive family and social networks, and in return was immortalized in numerous magazine articles and in at least one book.
Mackie has worked as an archaeologist for a number of universities and museums.
At the moment he is the associate editor and book reviews editor at BC Studies, a quarterly journal dedicated to B.C. culture, economy and politics, past and present.
Mackie wrote Mountain Timber and Island Timber in 2000 and 2009. These two books are a biography of Bob Filberg, the superintendent of the Comox Logging Company.
He also wrote a book about the British fur trade on the Pacific, as well as Wilderness Profound: Victorian Life on the Gulf of Georgia and a biography about Hamilton Mack Laing.
The cost for the evening is $6.00 and will be collected at the door.