PHOTOS, 1970s. L TO R, On patrol, Tonquin Valley, JNP. With sons, Bryant Creek, BNP.  Cable and helicopter sling rescue practice, with Clair Israelson, Castle Mountain, BNP.


Canadian Sid Marty writes mainly on natural history and western life and culture. He has published five books of non-fiction and five of poetry, some of which are based on his formative experiences as a park warden in the Rocky Mountain national parks. His new title is Oldman's River, New and Collected Poems, NeWest Press, Edmonton, May 2023. His nonfiction book Leaning on the Wind: Under the Spell of the Great Chinook was a finalist for the l996 Governor General’s Award for Literature and won the Mountain Environment and Culture Award at the l996 Banff Mountain Book Festival.

  His most recent nonfiction, The Black Grizzly of Whiskey Creek, McClelland and Stewart, (2008) made the Globe and Mail's Top 100 list and was short-listed for the Governor General's Award. It was a grand prize winner at the Banff Festival of Mountain Books. Black Grizzly  picks up the story of some  infamous bear attacks which were briefly mentioned in Switchbacks (l999). (Switchbacks won the Jon Whyte Award for Mountain Literature at the l999 Banff Mountain Book Festival).

Marty has long been a singer/guitarist performing his original songs about western Canada at various venues and on radio. He has released two CDs of his original music. (Please see the "Music" button for more info.)  Sid and his spouse, Myrna, live near Pincher Creek, Alberta, at the foot of the Livingstone Range.

The Writer

Born in South Shield's, Co. Durham, England, Sid Marty was raised from infancy in Alberta where his family has resided for four generations.  He was schooled in Medicine Hat, Calgary and Montreal. He and his family have resided in an old ranch headquarters in southwestern Alberta, since l981.

Sid Marty's career as a writer began while still in University with the publication of poems in the Soundings anthology edited by Jack Ludwig and Andy Wainwright (l970) and poems published in Al Purdy's Storm Warning anthology (l971). This led to an invitation from John Newlove, then an editor at McClelland and Stewart (Toronto), to submit a MS of poetry. This was published in l973 and entitled Headwaters

2023 marks the 50th Anniversary of Headwaters (poems), Sid Marty's first published trade book.

Sid was a park warden (ranger) from l966 to l978 (and for half of l988) in Yoho , Jasper, Prince Albert and Banff national parks. He spent part of his career patrolling the mountain backcountry with saddle and pack horses. He wrote many of the poems in his first two poetry books literally in the saddle, composing them in his head while on patrol far from home. He writes some rhyming poems but mainly works with free verse. In the 70s, prompted by Jack McClelland's faith in his ability to handle prose, he wrote Men for the Mountains (l978), one of his best known works. A good portion of that book was composed by the light of candles or Coleman lanterns in remote forestry cabins late at night. 

His books are about family, rangers, cowboys, homesteaders, forest fires, grizzly bears, love, death, mountaineers and wildlife conservation. His poems appear in many Canadian anthologies, including the Oxford Book of Canadian Verse and in a number of school text books. His book Men for the Mountains was twice cited by the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Association as one of the fifty most influential books in the Canadian conservation movement.  Since l978, Sid Marty has been a full time free lance writer and part time singer/songwriter. He writes on natural history and social issues, and has also written radio and television plays.

See list of Published Work under "Books"

for more information, E-Mail sid@sidmarty.com


Photos ( L TO R) Payne Lake, AB with Myrna.  On Mount Victoria, BNP, AB ( Lake O'Hara, YNP, BC,  below);  Myrna and "Mojo",Chapel Rock, AB;  and Hunting with "Coulee", McGrath, AB.