Alfred Carmichael

Alfred Carmichael was a Canadian writer remembered for Indian Legends of Vancouver Island, first published in 1922. Library and public-domain records consistently identify him as the author of that book, which was later preserved through sources such as Project Gutenberg, Open Library, and the Online Books Page.

In the book's introduction, he explains that some of the stories came from conversations and versions he collected in the Alberni district of Vancouver Island, including material connected with the Seshaht and Opitchesaht communities. That makes the work part folklore collection, part literary retelling, and part historical snapshot of how Indigenous stories were being recorded by non-Indigenous writers in the early 1900s.

Reliable biographical details about his wider life are hard to confirm from the sources found here, so it is safest to keep the focus on the surviving work itself. Today, he is chiefly of interest to readers of British Columbia history, Indigenous story collecting, and older regional literature.