#200 David Dunlap: The Man Who Wrote Shahwandahgooze
BP: David Dunlap Observatory Park, Richmond Hill, ON
My candidate for all-time best Canadian book title.
David Dunlap’s only book, Shahwandahgooze Days, was published in 1925. It’s a collection of poems and ephemeral scribblings influenced by his real life trips into the wilderness with famous Canadian painters. And the cover was done by a young Thoreau MacDonald, his first book-length work of illustrations.
Since only a couple hundred copies were printed, Shahwandahgooze Days, is exceedingly rare. Online, copies can go for $200 or more. You can also read the recently digitized version from the National Library for free.
Best stanza from the book:
Into the night they went, silent and lone,
Where the half-moon shed its murky light on
Leaf and cone.
(From Shahwandahgooze Days, by David A. Dunlap, 1925)
THE GEO-BIBLIOGRAPHY:
David Dunlap Observatory Park, Richmond Hill, ON
David Dunlap Observatory, Richmond Hill, ON
David Dunlap Circle, Toronto, ON
Shahwandahgooze days; by David A. Dunlap “Sip-Him-Dew-Dave”; illus. by Thoreau MacDonald. Toronto: D.A. Dunlap, Printed at Warwick Brothers & Rutter, 1925.
