Jerry Auld
Jerry Auld is a Canadian author of short stories and had his first novel published in September, 2009. His short stories have been published in Alpinist magazine and in the Canadian Alpine Journal. He is a graduate of the University of Calgary and an alumnus of the Banff Writing Studio. At the 2005 Banff Mountain Film Festival, Jerry was the co-Recipient of the 2005 People’s Choice Award for the independent film, Sister Extreme. His novel, set in the Canadian Rockies, titled Hooker & Brown, is an evocative adventure story about one man’s quest to put to rest a historical mystery. His knowledge of the mountains comes from full time work on the trail crew for Kananaskis Country in the Alberta Rockies, as well as at the Banff Centre, Parks Canada, and the Banff Lodging Company. He is currently a self-employed consultant in website development and programming in Alberta.
Jerry researched many famous mountaineers in preparation of writing this book, including David Douglas, James Outram, J. Norman Collie and Arthur Philemon Coleman. More information on the Hooker and Brown mountain peaks can be found on their own page.
About The Novel
The majestic peaks of Hooker and Brown were first discovered at the turn of the 1900s, and marked on the fur traders maps as the highest mountains in the Western hemisphere. For almost a hundred years, these two sat unnoticed and unvisited, as many of the early maps were owned and guarded as trade secrets by the fur trade companies. Rumi, a geology student and climber, is drawn to the legend of Hooker and Brown while reading a history book of the area. Compelled to see the mountains for himself, Rumi, who has worked as a trail crewman in the Rocky Mountain Parks system, sets out on a journey that challenges both mind and body. With their story in the climber’s imagination, he is excited by the idea of seeing the mountains and retracing the steps of earlier mountaineers. Inspired by the mythical story of how these two mountains came to be named, he begins a pursuit to reach these peaks and to find out if they truly do exist. Part adventure story, part historical mystery, it is a powerful and exhilarating page turner. Based on a true story from the Rocky Mountains and filled with breathtaking descriptions of one climber’s attempt to tackle some of the world’s greatest peaks, Hooker & Brown explores the effect of mystery and historical inaccuracies in our lives.
Nominated for the 2009 Boardman Tasker Award ().
"A technically highly accomplished mountaineering novel with a clever plot-line and convincing characters." Boardman Tasker Award Jury 2009
"A Rocky Mountain yarn, imaginatively told." Karsten Heuer
"Like a polished stone, Hooker & Brown reveals layers of time, meaning and beauty.” Thomas Wharton
"With this powerful and highly poetic first novel Jerry Auld achieves a new peak in the literary interpretation of the nature, history and culture of the mountain West. It is a book about the power of maps and dreams that explores our relationship to gravity and ghosts, rock, water and place with an ending that will leave you breathless. Auld confirms once again that no one returns from the high places unchanged." Robert William Sandford
- "I always wondered why the great thinkers stayed around and taught normals Joes. Why make a map? But if the teaching is mysterious, like parables, and if they are the key to perpetuating mystery, and therefore motivation and meaning, it totally makes sense. Remember what you imagined Hooker and Brown and the Pass to be the very first time you heard of them, before you saw any photos or maps or read any accounts. Just that first flash of imagination, those first, childishly simple ideas of the mountains - perfect snowy pyramids, glistening with sunlight in rarefied air. That is the true form of these mountains: not their physical manifestations, but instead their metaphysical truth."
Links and References
- Publisher's Website
- Jerry's Website
- Book Site
- Available online from Amazon.ca and Chapters.Indigo.ca
- Thomas Wharton's blog
- Trailer on YouTube