The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness, and Greed, Vaillant, John. Published by W. W. Norton and Company, New York, 2005. First Edition, First Printing. Signed by author to half title. Publication release letter from the author laid in. 8vo – over 7¾” – 9¾” tall., 255pp., with photo illustrations and map. In fine, unread condition and housed in a fine, unclipped dustjacket with a very light top edge ruffle.
On a winter night in 1997, a British Columbia timber scout named Grant Hadwin committed an act of shocking violence in the mythic Queen Charlotte Islands. His victim was legendary: a unique 300-year-old Sitka spruce tree, fifty metres tall and covered with luminous golden needles. In a bizarre environmental protest, Hadwin attacked the tree with a chainsaw. Two days later, it fell, horrifying an entire community. A true-crime story of a glorious natural wonder, the man who destroyed it, and the fascinating, troubling context in which this act took place. “Absolutely spellbinding” – The New York Times. Winner of the Governor General’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction; Winner of the Writers’ Trust Non-Fiction Prize.
