The Survival of the Bark Canoe by John McPhee
In Greenville, New Hampshire, a small town in the southern part of the
state, Henri Vaillancourt makes birch-bark canoes in the same manner and
with the same tools that the Indians used. The Survival of the Bark
Canoe is the story of this ancient craft and of a 150-mile trip through
the Maine woods in those graceful survivors of a prehistoric technology.
It is a book squarely in the tradition of one written by the first
tourist in these woods, Henry David Thoreau, whose The Maine Woods
recounts similar journeys in similar vessel. As McPhee describes the
expedition he made with Vaillancourt, he also traces the evolution of
the bark canoe, from its beginnings through the development of the huge
canoes used by the fur traders of the Canadian North Woods, where the
bark canoe played the key role in opening up the wilderness. He
discusses as well the differing types of bark canoes, whose construction
varied from tribe to tribe, according to custom and available
materials. In a style as pure and as effortless as the waters of Maine
and the glide of a canoe, John McPhee has written one of his most
fascinating books, one in which his talents as a journalist are on
brilliant display.
Hardcover with dust jacket: 160 pages
Publisher : Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Language : English
ISBN-10 : 0374272077
ISBN-13 : 978-0374272074
Item weight : 499 g
Dimensions : 13.84 x 1.65 x 20.83 cm