Last week, the Archives received a very special delivery from Oslo, Norway: a copy of Edvard Hoem’s Liv Andre Har Levd. This historical novel, published by Oktober Publisher, includes a reproduction of 1955 County of Grande Prairie map from our collections. The publisher generously provided a copy of the book for the Archives’ reference library.
Liv Andre Har Levd is the fourth and final installment of a Norwegian series that chronicles the lives of an immigrant family who struggle to make a new life for themselves in Western Canada. The book launched to positive reviews and received a second printing merely two weeks after initial publication. As of Friday, 15 December 2017, Edvard Hoem’s novel has reached 2nd place on the publisher’s bestsellers list. (19 December 2017 update: Liv Andre Har Levd is currently the bestselling novel in Norway)
The book provides an interesting example of the widespread reach of materials from our local collections. Among the sea of unrecognizable Norwegian, we spied the occasional (perhaps untranslatable) English words, names, and phrases: “Alberta Pool Elevator,” “Grand Trunk Railway,” “middle of nowhere,” “Red Cross Hospital,” “homesteaders,” etc. The endpaper of the book includes a portion of the County of Grande Prairie map and provides an authentic supplement to the personal histories within its narrative.
The 1955 County of Grande Prairie map was compiled by R.B. Bowen, the secretary-treasurer of the County of Grande Prairie No. 1. The map records the landowners, schools, and road locations from the area. It is bordered by the Smokey River to the East and the Wapiti River to the South. The original document is displayed in the Reading Room of the South Peace Regional Archives, where it is often consulted by researchers wishing to locate family-owned property.
Click here to browse the book (in Norwegian).
Click here to view a reproduction of the map.
Click here to view the 1955 County of Grande Prairie Land Ownership Map Database.
1955 County of Grande Prairie Land Ownership Map [cropped] SPRA 1969.53.075