A Heroine Of The North. Memoirs Of Charlotte Selina Bompas (1830-1917) Wife Of The First Bishop Of Selkirk (Yukon). With Extracts From Her Journal And Letters

BOMPAS, CHARLOTTE SELINA [COMPILED BY S. A. ARCHER]

Publication: The Macmillan Company o Canada Limited, 1929, Toronto

First Canadian edition. 8vo. Light blue cloth, titles in gilt on the spine, map of Western Canada on the front and rear endpapers, xv [blank], 17 -187 pp., frontispiece (portrait of Mrs. Bompas aged 86), preface, introduction, table of dates.

The memoir traces Charlotte's life from England to the remote and harsh regions of the Canadian North, including the Yukon and Mackenzie River areas. It details the physical and emotional challenges she faced: extreme cold, long periods of isolation, difficult travel, illness, and the scarcity of supplies. Despite these hardships, Charlotte is shown as resilient, deeply religious, and committed to her work. Charlotte joined her husband on his many repetitious and tiresome portages over the lakes and rivers of Northwest Canada after he was consecrated Bishop of the Diocese of Athabasca. As the diocese covered over a million square miles, she was often left alone, and spent her time working with the local Indigenous Slavey, or Athapaskan-speaking Dene people, organizing and teaching Sunday and Day Schools, learning the Athapaskan Slavey language, and more. After settling at Forty Mile in 1892, they established another school, and would later organize the first branch of the Women’s Auxiliary in the Yukon. The book details the physical and emotional challenges she faced: extreme cold, long periods of isolation, difficult travel, illness, and the scarcity of supplies.

Two light glass imprints on the front cover, light wear to the corners and extremities, else a good copy of an interesting book told from a woman's viewpoint of life in the Yukon.