Grey Owl was born Archibald Stansfeld Belaney, the son of an aristocrat in Hastings, England, in 1888. Raised by his two aunts, he led a lonely childhood in England until 1906, when, at the tender age of seventeen, he emigrated to North America to live among the Native people. He returned to England a few years later to serve in the First World War, was wounded, and returned to live with the Ojibway in northern Canada. In mid-life Archibald Belaney adopted the Ojibway name Wa-sha-quon-asin, or Grey Owl. He married three times and fathered three children. He also lived for many years with an Ojibway woman named Anahareo, moved to northern Quebec, where he began his writing career in earnest. All of Grey Owl's stories are based on true-life experiences.
