John Vaillant
John Vaillant is a journalist who has written for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, National Geographic–Adventure, Outside and Men’s Journal. The Golden Spruce is Vaillant’s first book and has been compared to the works of Jon Krakauer and Sebastian Junger. Combining history, politics, psychology and West Coast ecology, The Golden Spruce (the story first appeared in The New Yorker in 2002) is a dramatic account of a disgruntled logger’s destruction of a legendary tree in the Queen Charlotte Islands. John Vaillant lives in Vancouver.
Jury's Comments
A stark and hypnotic story about a maverick logger and an iconic 300-year-old tree on the Queen Charlotte Islands, The Golden Spruce is a multi-layered tale that both rebukes and questions Canada’s management of its forests. Meditative and powerful, this book is both a mystery and a lament about greed and the Canadian character.