Manuscript Collection MS COLL 00373 - Lloyd Roberts Collection of Grey Owl Papers

William Harris Lloyd Roberts was born in Frederiction, N.B., in 1884. He began his writing career as a reporter for the News in Nelson, B.C., in 1911, and later wrote for the Ottawa Citizen. He wrote and edited for the Canadian Immigration Service before retiring in 1920 to make writing his full-time career. He wrote several plays and articles, short stories, poems and radio programmes, and was a parliamentary reporter for The Christian Science Monitor from 1925-39. His books of poetry include England Over the Seas (1914) and I Sign of Life (1937).

Archibald Stansfeld Belaney (also known as Grey Owl) was a well-known conservationist and writer in the 1930s who falsely presented himself as an Indigenous person. Although born in England, he portrayed himself as the son of a Scottish man and Apache woman and named himself Grey Owl. His articles and books stressed wilderness conservation and became bestsellers in Canada and Britain. Shortly after his death in 1938, a newspaper article exposed his real identity as Archibald Belaney.

Smith, Donald B., and Tabitha de Bruin. "Archibald Belaney (Grey Owl)." The Canadian Encyclopedia. May 9, 2023. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/archibald-belaney-grey-owl