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Longtime local and scribe Stephen Vogler has a new book about Whistler out on the shelves, but don’t expect to find it at a B.C. Ferries bookstore anytime soon.
Hot off the presses, it’s already been banned there.
It seems his usual cheeky look at Whistler isn’t what has caused the uproar, but rather the cheek-filled photo on the front of the book.
The cover of Vogler’s Only in Whistler: Tales from a Mountain Town features a picture of four naked women with their backs to the camera, waiting to load onto a chairlift. The photo was taken by Squamish-based photographer Gary McFarlane in the early 1990s.
“I guess they found the cover a little too hot to handle,” Vogler said. “It’s the nudity, but I think it’s tasteful.”
Vogler is celebrating the launch of the book on Saturday (Nov. 7) at Roland’s Creekside Pub with a reading and slideshow at 7:30 p.m.
Only in Whistler: Tales from a Mountain Town is Vogler’s unique, local’s perspective on more than 30 years of cultural and economic development in the resort. It’s a lively and entertaining look at what makes Whistler such a one-of-a-kind town.
“There certainly have been a lot of changes,” he said. “When I first got here, it was a small, quirky and eccentric place. It’s still quirky and eccentric, but it’s a lot bigger.”
After finishing his previous book, Top of the Pass: Whistler and the Sea-to-Sky Country, Vogler still had lots to say about Whistler.
“My publisher saw I had a lot more stories to tell,” he said. “And while the other book was a collaboration between me and two photographers, this was just me.”
It didn’t take long to get the collection of wacky and weird tales together, either.
“It took me a year to write it, sitting down every day after the kids went to school,” he said. “But I did have to spend 32 years of research living here to write it. I tell the resort’s story from where people’s lives intersected with my own, from the first newspaper to musicians, and I used those stories of mine to go on and tell their stories.”
Vogler said he thinks the book will tickle the funnybone of those interested in Whistler’s unique past.
“I think people will have a good chuckle as they read it,” he said. “I know if I had a good laugh every day writing it, then I was hitting the mark.”
As for the B.C. Ferries Corp., Vogler said negotiations are still ongoing.
“Maybe we will need to put a brown paper wrapper around the bums,” he said.
Join Vogler Saturday at Roland’s Creekside Pub to celebrate the book launch at 7:30 p.m.
