Skip to main navigation menu Skip to main content Skip to site footer
##common.pageHeaderLogo.altText##

Articles

Volume 07, Number 2 (1982)

Alexander Mackenzie and the Landscapes of Commerce

  • I. S. Maclaren
Submitted
May 22, 2008
Published
1982-06-06

Abstract

The sensibility of Alexander Mackenzie's document of exploration -- The Journals and Letters of Sir Alexander Mackenzie -- is commercial, rather than aesthetic or "literary." The journal tends to reinforce the myth of the regions as, largely, a wasteland in the late eighteenth century. William Combe acted as a sort of ghost writer, significantly emending and embellishing the text. Because of the popularity of travel and adventure writing at the time, Combe alters the narrative to suggest that Mackenzie's frequently-cited frustrations at what he saw during his journey were the result of an affront to his aesthetic sensibility; yet, in reality, it was his concerns over the commercial viability of the region that caused his frustration.