Baker, Olaf: Shasta of the Wolves. v1. 23 Mar 08

[tsgreer]

I'm a huge fan of "feral child" novels like Tarzan, Ka-Zar and Ki-gor. I'm not counting Kwa of the Jungle in this group because that was such a terrible book. Here's a little-known, well-written 1919 tale by American author Olaf Baker.

In the 19th century Pacific Northwest, an abandoned Native American baby is discovered by Nitka, the she-wolf. The wolf takes the baby back to her den with plans to eat (!) the baby later, but her "spirit of the wild" instinct takes over and she chooses to raise the baby along with her cubs.

The baby grows up among the wolves and becomes a creature of the forest. Now known as Shasta, he learns to communicate with the animals, including the wise old brown bear, Gomposh. Alas, like all children who grow up among creatures of the forest, he soon comes into contact with his fellow humans and then bad things start to happen. Shasta eventually reunites with his human tribe and must find a way to lead them to victory as a tribal war breaks out.

Vicious grizzly bears, wild moose and tribal wars--just another day in the 19th century American forest.

Of course, now we have these same things happening in corporate America today, but that's fodder for another time.

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