From a pioneering family that founded Wapella, Saskatchewan, Allan Klenman was born in Vancouver on October 3, 1920. He grew up in B.C. and turned his hobby of axe collecting into Axe Makers of North America ($18.95), an illustrated guide about axes from 1850 to 1960. After detailing axe styles and companies, he concludes by noting the first axes produced in B.C. were made by Chief Maquinna's captive John Jewitt, a blacksmith, in 1803. A realtor by trade, Klenman owns 1,200 axes. "The book is the result of my studies and research of the axe for 25 years in connection with my hobby of collecting axes," he wrote, in 1990. "I was appalled to find out the formal repositories of axe history could not tell me where the axe factories in Canada were once located. THERE ARE NO AXES MADE IN CANADA TODAY! So I set out to do my own research. As past president of the Jewish Historical Society of B.C. for ten years I was somewhat qualified... Sadly, no B.C. publishers were interested." Gordon Currie's company called Currie's Forestgraphics of Victoria prepared the book for printing by Hignell's. Klenman was also instrumental in acquiring the Leonard Frank photography archive for the Jewish Historical Society. This led to the publication of two coffee table books pertaining to Frank and his work.

BOOKS:

The B.C. Centennial Medal (Victoria: Morriss Printing, 1978)
Axes: Made, Found or Sold in Canada (Victoria: Ideal, 1981) 0-9690755-0-2
The Faces of Captain Cook (Victoria: Ideal, 1983) 9690755-1-0
Axe Makers of North America (Whistle Punk Books, 1990) 0-9690755-3-7

[BCBW 2003]