Fire in the Bones: Bill Mason and the Canadian Canoeing Tradition - Softcover

James Raffan

4.21

67 ratings by Goodreads

9780006386551: Fire in the Bones: Bill Mason and the Canadian Canoeing Tradition

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0006386555 ISBN 13: 9780006386551

Publisher: Harpercollins Canada, 1997

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When Bill Mason set off alone into the wilderness in his red canoe, many people went with him, if only in their imaginations. Now, James Raffan leads us into the heart of the vast landscape that was Bill Mason's own brilliant imagination, on a biographical journey that is entertaining, enriching and inspiring. Bill Mason was a filmmaker who gave us classics such as Cry of the Wild and Paddle to the Sea; he was author of the canoeist's bible, Path of the Paddle; he was the consummate outdoorsman. But few Canadians know that his gentleness and rugged self-sufficiency masked a life of great physical struggles. James Raffan reveals the private, sometimes anguished, man behind the legend.

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From the Publisher:

On the following Tuesday, he was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and died four months later, at age 59.

Today, seven years later, the legend of Bill Mason continues to wind its way through the hearts and minds of canoeists, wilderness lovers and all those touched by his remarkable spirit. In this moving and insightful biography, James Raffan reveals both the public and private lives of Bill Mason.

James Raffan's intimate knowledge of Bill Mason as a friend and fellow paddler, a man who could not contain his passion for canoeing and the outdoors, makes Fire in the Bones a marvelous read. Raffan tells of wild canoe trips, of film shoots full of fireworks between a cantankerous Mason and his crew and of the "oldest grey-haired teenager in the land" who regularly paddled with other ardent canoeists, including neighbor Pierre Elliott Trudeau. Entertaining and inspirational, Fire in the Bones is an important new biography that places Bill Mason within a uniquely Canadian artistic and wilderness tradition.

About the Author:

James Raffan is one of our foremost authorities on the North, the wilderness and the canoeing tradition. He is the author of Fire in the Bones, the acclaimed bestselling biography of Bill Mason; Bark, Skin and Cedar: Exploring the Canoe in Canadian Experience; and Deep Waters. He is also the editor of Rendezvous with the Wild: The Boreal Forest and The Lure of Faraway Places. Raffan is a fellow and former governor of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, and has served as chair of the Arctic Institute of North America. A recipient of the Queen's Golden Jubilee Medal, he is the curator of the Canadian Canoe Museum in Peterborough. He lives in Seeley's Bay, Ontario.

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