James Houston Books In Order

Northern Adventures Books In Order

Frozen Fire (1977)
Black Diamonds (1982)
Ice Swords (1985)

Novels

Tika’Liktak (1965)
Eagle Mask (1966)
The White Archer (1967)
Akavak (1968)
Wolf Run (1971)
The White Dawn (1971)
Ghost Paddle (1972)
Kiviok’s Magic Journey (1973)
Ghost Fox (1977)
River Runners (1979)
Spirit Wrestler (1980)
Long Claws (1981)
Eagle Song (1983)
The Falcon Bow (1986)
Whiteout (1988)
Running West (1989)
Drifting Snow (1992)
The Ice Master (1997)

Non fiction

Eskimo Prints (1971)
Sculpture: Inuit Eskimo (1972)
Songs of the Dream People (1972)
Ojibwa Summer (1972)
Confessions of an Igloo Dweller (1995)
Zigzag (1998)
Fire Into Ice (1998)
Hideaway (1999)
Celebrating Inuit Art (2000)
James Houston’s Treasury of Inuit Legends (2006)

Northern Adventures Book Covers

Novels Book Covers

Non fiction Book Covers

James Houston Books Overview

Frozen Fire

Determined to find his father who has been lost in a storm, a young boy and his Eskimo friend brave wind storms, starvation, wild animals and wild men during their search in the Canadian Arctic.

A novel that shares a time and place with The Last of the Mohicans, relating the experiences of a young woman caught in the fury of the French and Indian Wars. Seventeen year old Sarah Wells is taken from a New Hampshire farm by Abnaki Indians and renamed ‘Ghost Fox.’ Line drawings by the Author.

River Runners

Two young boys, who have been sent into the Canadian interior to set up a fur collecting station, are befriended by a Naskapi Indian family.

Whiteout

Jonathan Arid, a rebellious 17 year old city boy, is sent to live with his uncle at a remote Arctic settlement on Baffin Island, a World away from his passion: leading and playing in a small jazz group. Angry at his mother and relatives, he must come to terms with new ways and with the harsh reality of an environment where one small mistake can mean certain death.

Running West

Running West, James Houston’s fifth novel, is an epic tale of harrowing adventure in the North of the early 1700s, which has at its heart one of the most unusual and compelling love stories ever told. Based on historical fact and real people, the story has its beginnings in the Highlands of Scotland and the treacherous world of Queen Anne s London, then moves across the Atlantic to the desolate west coast of Hudson Bay. There, William Stewart, a Scottish clerk banished from his homeland, meets the extraordinary Thanadelthur a young Indian woman of the Dene Nation, who had been taken into the Hudson s Bay Company s York Factory after her family was massacred. When the Company s Governor, James Knight, interested in expanding the fur trade, sees the elegant yellow knife that had belonged to Thana s mother, he sends the resourceful William and the indomitable Thana to find their way back to her homeland to bring back fur and valuable metals. Thus begins a heroic trek into uncharted wilderness, on which the courage and growing love between William and Thana is tested as they, accompanied by a dwindling band of Cree, endure deprivation, violence, and near starvation. Told in a rollicking historic style resonant of the period, Running West is peopled by memorable characters, and is enriched by James Houston s wide knowledge of the North its landscape, its native peoples and lore. This is gripping adventure in which James Houston s narrative skills and meticulous research blend potently. Running West is a book to treasure.

The Ice Master

In the 1870s whaling was North America’s biggest business. Successful voyages south, to the warm waters of Melville s great white whale, or north, to the Arctic, brought back ships laden with the whale oil that lit the lamps of the civilized world and the whalebone that stiffened its corsets. Many of the fortune seekers in this harsh trade lost their lives, while others became millionaires. In James Houston s exciting new adventure novel it is the spring of 1875. Two ships set sail from Connecticut, traveling north together to the Baffin Island Arctic whaling grounds. One ship is captained by a hard as nails Yankee veteran, a man who knows how to deal with mutineers. The other falls to the command of a young Newfoundlander, an expert at sailing through ice fields in a wooden hull an Ice Master but inexperienced in the specialized, bloody trade of Arctic whaling. Fierce conflicts arise between the two men as they struggle for control during a year long stay with whale hunting Inuit at their base on the shores of Baffin Island, where the seamen and the local people find exciting ways of whiling away the long winter nights. To the drama of the whale hunts is added the dangers of dog team trips inland, involving terrifying encounters with polar bears. At the whaling station further drama is added by a rivalry with a nearby group of Scottish whalers and an encounter with their dreaded missionary, and a feud with a local shaman, a woman possessed of uncanny powers. Then both ships face the long, creaking, perilously heavy laden voyage back to New England with a fortune on board.

Zigzag

This memoir by a Canadian artist tells of his many fascinating experiences in the move he made from the Arctic to Manhattan. Houston spent 14 years in the Arctic, developing the Inuit art that is now world famous. In 1962, he moved to NY City to become a glass designer. An engaging storyteller, he captures his difficult life style change in a series of short vignettes. Punctuated by his own B&W sketches, they follow not only his blundering attempts to take Manhattan, but also the incredible Zigzags that his life has taken, including 26 trips back to the Arctic. Also tells of his experiences as a sheep farmer, best selling novelist, Hollywood scriptwriter, & prizewinning author of 17 children’s books.

Fire Into Ice

What could be more different than the icy arctic landscape and the hot blast of a glass furnace? James Houston, explorer, artist, and writer, draws the inspiring connection in this fascinating introduction to one of the world’s most ancient and most beautiful arts. During the years that James Houston lived in the Arctic, he was above all impressed by the resourceful people. But he also fell in love with the rugged treeless land, the winter moonlight shining off the snow and ice, the majestic ever changing shapes and great sighing of new formed ice. When asked to design glass sculptures for Steuben, he, with some misgivings, left his isolated arctic home to move to the heat of a crowded New York summer. As he learned the art of glass sculpture, he found an affinity with life in the Far North. After all, glass is a liquid that hardens, much like ice. The jagged shapes reflect the arctic landscape. Glass making depends on small teams of cooperative craftspeople, much like the Inuit families as they hunt and create their art together. This very personal story is a stunning introduction to glass making, and to an extraordinary individual.

Hideaway

For more than thirty years James Houston has been flying to Vancouver, then taking a little plane north and west to the airport at Sandspit on the Queen Charlotte Islands. After the ferry ride to Skidegate, he takes the single road running north on Graham Island and settles down in his small cottage by the bridge over the Tlell River. There he fishes, writes, draws, roams around, and rejoices that he and his wife, Alice, have found the perfect place. People go misty eyed when they recall the Queen Charlottes, those distant islands in the Pacific within sight of Alaska that are miraculously temperate and see little snow. The glaciers of the Ice Age passed the islands by, leaving a treasure trove for botanists and biologists. Today, the warming Japan current still protects its shores. Among its many delights are spectacular wildlife of all kinds. On land are many deer, river otters, and the largest black bears in the world. Its waters shelter giant crabs, salmon, and killer whales. And the air is filled with remarkable birds, especially the ravens and bald eagles that are everywhere. Special landscapes include moss hung rainforests that remind us that this is Emily Carr country, sheer cliffs that plunge straight into the Pacific, miles of empty beaches piled with sculptured driftwood, Guinness black forest pools and thundering seascapes, and even a secret Haida mountain that provides the rare carving stone known as argillite. These are the islands of Haida Gwaii, of course, and James Houston has always had an affinity for native people, whether with Ojibway friends in his Ontario boyhood or with Inuit in the North. His book tells the history of the Haida, the coming of the Eagle and the Raven clans, and the rich culture they developed in this land of plenty. Then came the bloody sea otter fur trade with sometimes ruthless sea captains two centuries ago and later the smallpox that wiped out 80 per cent of the Haida population, with social effects that have lasted to this day. Houston also tells us about totem poles and potlatches, two traditions that he has seen being revived. And while many old Haida legends adorn his book, there are also fine modern characters, including the old Haida visitor who sang a song to her river chez Houston, and the Houstons friend Teddy Bellis, who liked to offer their big city guests a snack of smoked dog. From a visit to the awesome power of the crumbling poles at the deserted village of Ninstints in the south all the way to the site of a crab fishing tragedy on North Beach, the book covers the range of the archipelago. But James Houston is a fanatical fly fisherman and his love of fishing on his doorstep and dramatic tales of salmon or trout caught or lost by him, or Alice, or their friends runs through the book. So, too, does their beloved Tlell River, which ebbs and flows with the tide a mere twenty feet from his window. As he and Alice arrive and open up the old green cottage, their excitement will affect everyone whose family has ever had a special summer place, a Hideaway. Reading this book is almost as good as being there.

Celebrating Inuit Art

Lavishly illustrated with more than 100 color photographs, Celebrating Inuit Art 1948 1970 is an impressive tribute to an art form that was virtually unknown fifty years ago and is now regularly featured in major art exhibitions worldwide. The works of art in this book are organized by geographic area, to illustrate the strong regional styles of this unique art form. In Nunavik, narrative is emphasized, whereas the works of Baffin artists stress the beauty of the richly textured local stone. In Keewatin, the sculptures look pre historic yet modern, while the work of the Kitikmeot is distinguished by its shamanic whalebone carvings. Quotes, reminiscences and historic snapshots provide introductions to individual Northern communities. In a major and invaluable essay, James Houston, a tireless and passionate champion and respected authority on Inuit art, recounts his experiences and observations of fifty years with the Inuit people. The stunning photos, taken by Museum photographer Harry Foster, illustrate major pieces from the Canadian Museum of Civilization as well as treasures from James Houston’s personal collection.

James Houston’s Treasury of Inuit Legends

James Houston made his first journey to the Canadian Arctic in 1948 in search of a new land to paint. There he found a warm, friendly people living in a vast, cold, hauntingly beautiful world. He lived with the Inuit and Indian people in the Arctic and grew to understand them and their way of life. He also helped introduce Inuit culture to the world with his remarkable art and stories. Here are four of his exciting Inuit folktales Akavak, Tiktaliktak, The White Archer, and Wolf Run collected for the first time in one beautiful volume. Houston’s striking illustrations for each story bring the Arctic and its people to life. This inspired collection is sure to fascinate readers of all ages. Includes an introduction by Theodore Taylor.