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Survival of the Bark Canoe Paperback - 1991

by McPhee; John McPhee


About this book

In the small town of New Hampshire, Greenville, Henri Vaillancourt makes birch-bark canoes in the same manner and with the same tools that Indians used. The Survival of the Bark Canoe is a telling of this ancient craft and a 150 mile trip through the Maine woods in these examples of prehistoric technology. The book is written in the traditions of the first tourist in these woods, Henry David Thoreau, whose text The Maine Woods recounts a familiar journey in a similar vessel. McPhee describes the expedition with Vaillancourt, the evolution of the bark canoe from beginning through the development of the large canoes used by fur traders of the Canadian North Woods. He notes the differing types of bark canoes, whose construction varied from tribe to tribe, according to custom and available materials. Effortless as the waters of Maine, John Mcphee has written a fascinating book, one in which his mind as a journalist is on brilliant display. 

First line

When Henri Vaillancourt goes off to the Maine woods, he does not make extensive plans.

First Edition Identification

Published by Farrar Straus Giroux in 1975, this first edition is in brown cloth with gold lettering on the spine and illustrated with several sketches of canoes. 
 

Details

  • Title Survival of the Bark Canoe
  • Author McPhee; John McPhee
  • Binding Paperback
  • Edition Second Edtn: Fir
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher MacFarlane Walter & Ross, Toronto, ON, Canada
  • Date January 18, 1991
  • ISBN 9780921912309 / 0921912307
  • Weight 0.81 lbs (0.37 kg)