W.O. Mitchell Country Book

When W.O. Mitchell died in February 1998, Canadians all across the country mourned the death of a much-loved writer. But it was in the West that his loss was felt most keenly. For he was one of them, a Westerner, a man who had grown up in Weyburn, gone to University in Winnipeg and then spent most of his life in High River and in Calgary. His writing – in Who Has Seen The Wind, Jake and the Kid, The Vanishing Point, How I Spent My Summer Holidays, and many other books – brought their part of the world alive on the page, so that millions of readers seemed to breathe fresh Western air as they turned the pages of his works.

His family – represented by his son Orm and daughter-in-law Barbara – were pleased by the idea of an illustrated book that would show W.O. Mitchell country, provided that it included prairie and foothills and mountains. This book carefully gives full weight to both parts of what we affectionately call W.O. Mitchell country. And from the outset the Mitchells knew that the excerpts of W.O.'s landscape writing that they would select deserved to be matched by superb photographs produced by an artist of equal skill and sensitivity.

Enter Courtney Milne, the justly famed photographer of landscapes around the world but especially of his beloved prairies. Prairie boy and long-time admirer of W.O.'s work, he jumped at the chance to produce this book. With the help of the Mitchell family he tracked down sites that W.O. had known and written about. In addition he combed through his vast treasure store of photographs, to try to find the single image that perfectly matched a chosen piece of W.O.'s prose.

In the end, from over18,000 photographs – over 18,000! – he and the group assembling this book chose the best 200, none of them published before. The result is a magical blend of text and pictures that is greater than the sum of its parts. This classic volume sets a new standard for illuminating a writer's words and bringing alive "the poetry of earth and sky." Open the book. Read it. You will see.

Author Biography: Courtney Milne is an internationally acclaimed photographer with a solid base on an acreage outside Grandora, Saskatchewan, where he lives with his partner Sherrill Miller, researcher, writer, and fellow-traveller extraordinaire. A contributing editor to Photo Life, Courtney conducts workshops, classes, and photographic tours both at home and abroad, and his multimedia concerts – involving images, narration, and music – are famous. His many activities are outlined on his website

His previous books include bestsellers such as Prairie Light, Prairie Dreams, and Prairie Skies, while his wider travels have produced The Sacred Earth, Spirit of the Land, and Visions of the Goddess. A perfectionist, Courtney takes pride in the fact that none of his W.O. Mitchell Country photographs have appeared in any previous book.


Orm Mitchell is the eldest of W.O. and Merna Mitchell's three children. His predictably interesting childhood was mostly spent in High River, where he met another kid who became his wife. Like her husband, Barbara Mitchell went on to gain a Ph.D. Orm teaches at Trent University in Peter-borough, Ontario, and Barbara, who has also taught at Trent, is a freelance writer.