In recent years I’ve become a huge fan of the work of many Canadian Inuit & First Nations artists, and Agnes Nanogak, who illustrated this wonderful “Tales from the Igloo,” is one of my very favorites. This hardcover first edition, published in 1972, features 22 stories edited & translated by Maurice Metayer interspersed with 31 fantastic full page, full-color illustrations by Nanogak that communicate the same legends visually—and which I think I could look at every day and never tire of!

The stories themselves, specific to the Kitlinermiut or “Copper” Inuit population of the Canadian Arctic and passed across generations orally, were collected through audio recordings and translated to create this book. With titles such as “The Deceitful Raven”, “The Lazy Son-in-law,” “The Blind Boy and the Loon,” the stories are at turns inspiring, brutal, and provocative—definitely as much a book for adults as children. I would keep this on the coffee table or nightstand to look at very frequently!

6 1/4" x 8 5/8" x 3/4". 127 pages. Good vintage condition, with light wear to the front and back covers and a small stain at the top center edge of a section of pages, starting with page 66 and fading out toward the end of the book. On the front inside page is a stapled orange paper reading "J. Bergasse. Compliments of Department of Education, Government of the N.W.T, Yellowknife, N.W.T. "