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Fire in the Bones: Bill Mason and the Canadian Canoeing Tradition Paperback – June 28 1999

by James Raffan (Author)

13 ratings

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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 Masons 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.

Print length

324 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Phyllis Bruce Books Perennial
Publication date

June 28 1999
Dimensions

13.34 x 1.91 x 20.96 cm
ISBN-10

0006385141
ISBN-13

978-0006385141
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Product description

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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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Phyllis Bruce Books Perennial (June 28 1999)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 324 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0006385141
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0006385141
Item weight ‏ : ‎ 372 g
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 13.34 x 1.91 x 20.96 cm

Best Sellers Rank: #183,656 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #54 in Canoeing in Outdoor Sports
- #119 in Travel Writing Guides
- #399 in Travel Writing

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5 star		63%
4 star		33%
3 star		4%
2 star 0% (0%)		0%
1 star 0% (0%)		0%

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Rick Robinson

The content is great, the author has presented a deep look into ...

Reviewed in Canada on June 5, 2017

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The content is great, the author has presented a deep look into the life of an amazing man who has inspired so many.

The kindle digital version needs a bit of work. Many small typos in the text. And, I'm not sure if there are any photos in the hard copy, but there are none in the digital version. Had I known I would have bought a hard copy.

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Don Hinchey

Four Stars

Reviewed in Canada on February 25, 2015

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Good book so far! Good service too!!

Reviewed in Canada on January 17, 2001

I'd love to say this is is a great book.But it isn't. Go into a large public library, and if they have a section on canoeing the chances are you'll find a copy of Path of the Paddle by Bill Mason
I can't be the only person who learned to paddle an open Canoe by reading this book. With a library copy stuck in a plastic bag and resting on the hull, I bruised my knees and my ego trying to make 16ft of uncooperative fibre glass do the things in the diagrams. If it hadn't been for the photographs that equated canoeing with stunning wilderness scenery and beautiful campsites in remote places, I would probably have thrown the book away and retreated to my Kayak.
Bill mason did more to popularise the Open canoe than anyone else. His position is unique, since there is no one with a comparative influence on the art of kayaking. When he died, the British canoe union dedicated a chapter of its hand book to him, a film festival and scholarship were set up in his memory in Canada, and even now, when modern writers of books on the sport of open canoe paddling, like Slim Ray, disagree with what he said, they do so with a with a genial reverence that is rarely found in paddling circles.
Since Mason was such an important figure in my private mythology, I approached Bill Ruffan's biography with mixed feelings. To deal with myths is a difficult task, and Mason was many things to many people: the Author of Path of the Paddle, the maker of other films that were successful, a husband , father and friend.
The dust jacket and subtitle seemed to suggest that Raffan had taken the logical course and chosen to use Mason the paddler and his relationship with the tradition he came to embody as the unifying theme.
Instead the book is a rather logical and thorough attempt to cover everything. Ruffan, as Biographer, has used Mason's career as a film maker to hold his narrative together, and the result is a book that reads like an extended portfolio of a film maker's life. While those films were highly praised, and at least six of them are "about" canoeing, there is precious little about Mason the paddler. And outside of Canada, Bill Mason will be remembered most as the man who paddled rivers in an open canoe and indirectly taught thousands to follow him.
At the end of the book I did not know what it was like to go down a river with him. There are almost no stories about Mason as river traveler from someone else's perspective. There is nothing from the students he worked with on camp. There is little from Paul Mason on what it was like to be the very competent son of a paddling legend. I was not expecting to finish the book relatively ignorant of where Mason got his style and terminology from: it's mentioned briefly, but this subject, Bill Mason's position in terms of the tradition he came to represent, which the book's subtitle claims the book is about, is brushed over quickly.
All in all a disappointment. And an education. Watters couldn't find a publisher for his life of Blackadar: Never turn back. Yet "Never turn back" is a far better biography than Fire in the Bones

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Mike Quinlan

Well worth buying.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 8, 2019

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Brilliant canoe book, stirs the soul.

Bd Linney

A fascinating book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 11, 2014

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A wonderful read about ab amazing man. Bill Mason,s books and films are truly worth enjoying. BillMason died young and will be sadly missed by many,

federico

Per chi vuole capire meglio Bill Mason

Reviewed in Italy on October 15, 2019

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Libro molto bello, permette di comprendere realmente Bill Mason, un personaggio molto diverso da come rappresentava se stesso nei suoi film. Consigliato per gli appassionati di canoa e dei film di Bill Mason.

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Max

Super

Reviewed in Germany on November 12, 2016

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Großartiges Buch für alle Bill Mason Fans. Liebevoll recherchieret und einfach lesenswert. Ich nehme es immer wieder gerne in die Hand.

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Buy new: $21.95

Fire in the Bones: Bill Mason and the Canadian Canoeing Tradition Paperback – June 28 1999

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