About this title: 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 ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux
Date Published: 1975
ISBN-13:9780374272074ISBN:0374272077
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. 160 p. Contains: Illustrations. read more
Description: Acceptable. Book is in good reading condition. Cover has fold/crease lines. Cover has slight wear to its edges/corners. Spine edges show slight wear. Spine has cr. read more
Description: Acceptable. Shows definite wear, and perhaps considerable marking on inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Warner
Date Published: 1975
ISBN-13:9780446872515ISBN:0446872512
Description: Very Good. Book is in excellent condition. Slight residue on first blank page where owner's sticker was removed. Pages clean, unmarked, tight, whole. 114 pages, plus "A Portfolio of the Sketches and Models of Edwin Tappan Adney (1868-1950)". read more
Edition: 9th Printing
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, New York
Date Published: 1988
ISBN-13:9780374516932ISBN:0374516936
Description: Very Good. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. Angled crease on lower corner of back cover. 114 pages plus A Portfolio of the Sketches and Models of Edwin Tappan Adney (1868-1950). read more
Edition: Later Printing
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux, New York
Date Published: 1990
ISBN-13:9780374516932ISBN:0374516936
Description: Very Good. Light wear to wraps. Clean, no markings inside. 114 pp. Plus, unpaginated: A Portfolio of the Sketches and Models of Edwin Tappan Adney (1868-1950). read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: 1975 Warner Books, NY
Description: Softcover edition, with minor wear, otherwise very good. A history of the classic canoe with some photos and early illustrations. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Date Published: 1982-05-01
ISBN-13:9780374516932ISBN:0374516936
Description: Like New. May be shiny, in some instances dust jackets are not included, no missing pages, no damage to binding, may have a remainder mark. read more
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Inc., New York, New York, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1975
Description: Good. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. 114+ pages. Clean text. Fly page has crease. Cover has some wear, creasing, hole punched in corner edge. read more
Description: Edwin Tappan Adney. New. 5 1/2 x 8. 1992 printing. This is a new book with some minor shelfwear. The story of the building of birch-bark canoes and of a 150-mile trip through the Maine woods. The narrative includes the history, technique, and lore of bark canoes as well as the experiences on the journey. Illustrated with sketches. read more
Edition: Later Printing
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Warner Books, New York
Date Published: 1975
ISBN-13:9780446872515ISBN:0446872512
Description: Very Good. 8vo-8"-9" Tall. 3rd printing trade paperback in VG, unmarked condition. Light use, corner curl. 114pp., portfolio of sketches by Ed Tappan Adney. read more
Description: Fine. Trade Paperback. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1982. Fine Book. Overall, a clean and tight, lightly read copy. Media mail packed in protective bubble lined shipping bags, Priority in a Flat Rate Envelope. Shipped quickly. Prompt response to questions. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Date Published: 1979
ISBN-13:9780446973267ISBN:0446973262
Description: Fine. Has a inscriptions on the inside cover page, book is in perfect condition All of our products are cleaned with an disinfectant for your protection before shipping. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux
Date Published: 1975
Description: A wonderful copy with some minor edgewear to the cover. Dust Jacket may have chips and close tears. -, Hard Cover, Very Good / Good. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Date Published: 1982-05-01
ISBN-13:9780374516932ISBN:0374516936
Description: Clean. Story of birchbark canoes, how they were constructed using native American tools, and of a 150-mile trek through the Maine woods in search of the evolution of the craft. Includes discussions of various native American tribes and the differences in their methods of construction. Illustrated by Edwin Tappan-Adney. read more
"Another books about McPhee's obsession with Maine, but crossed with one of the other McPhee sub-genres - the one where he goes on trips with people through Nature.
This one was good. It was almost like an expanded version of the Gibbons story in Hovings - but with more about the boat. And seriously, this one had illustrations (still no maps though)! It didn't suffer from some of the McPhee-jingo-ism issues becuase when he talks about outerwales of a canoe, he explains what it is.
It was no Pine Barrens, and it was no Carriers, but it was above average and worth reading."
"I have just re-read this book, in anticipation of a 100 mile journey on the Allagash Wilderness Waterway coming up in a month or so. I don't remember a finer, more enjoyable read. This book is slim, but perfect. It has history, unique characters, and an honesty about the conflicts and follies of group travel that is wincing in its honesty. Part of the story occurrs where we will go, and that is so tantalizing right now, as winter is fades and spring is harrowing in its brutal carnage around here this year. This is an other reminder of the pleasures, a few of the real challenges and in many ways the stunning power of simplicity."
"Henri Vaillancourt builds birch bark canoes. He taught himself how to do it and now creates them in an effort to prevent the skill from dying out. Contrary to what one might think, these canoes are incredibly strong. As a demonstration, Vaillancourt will drive his fist as hard as he can into the skin of one, which remains unaffected. The bark of the white birch tree is strong, resilient and waterproof. He splits all the wood for the frames - split wood is stronger and more flexible than cut wood. But Vaillancourt is perfectly content to let the myth of the fragile bark canoe continue. He knows they would survive white water - the Indians used them under all sorts of conditions, including the ocean - but he doesn't trust his customers. Any canoe can be damaged, and he knows bark canoes are too rare to risk being destroyed. After all, he can only build about eight a year.
Only John McPhee could write about Henri and the canoe. All of McPhee's books and articles are classics, and this one is no exception. McPhee describes, in loving detail, the entire process of building one of these canoes, from the splitting of the tree for the thwarts and ribs, to laying on the birch bark. Henri never uses power tools. Indeed, all he needs are an axe, an awl, and a crooked knife. Even the paddles he carves himself. McPhee, Vaillancourt and a couple of friends take a trip into the wilds of Maine, which have remained almost unchanged since Thoreau wrote about them more than a hundred years ago. It's here that Vaillancourt finds his birch trees. All of them are steeped in Thoreau although Vaillancourt sneers at his impracticality, arguing that you can use nature without destroying it, and that Thoreau could travel in a bark canoe, yet when asked to describe how it was constructed could not. That Thoreau set several forest fires accidentally and walked away from them does not sit well with Vaillancourt either.
Sleeping at night in the Maine woods can only be described as "insectile." While mosquitoes cannot make it through the screens on the tents, no-see-ums can. "They home on flesh. They cover the hands, the arms, the neck, the face. Like an acid, they eat skin. They are not ubiquitous, but they have been with us now for two nights in a row. At 3 A. M., I got up and . . . went into the water like a fly-crazed moose. I stayed in the lake in the dark for an hour . . . only the nose out - dozing." Thoreau slept in the smoke from a fire covered with wet logs in a vain attempt to repel the insects. The Indians would never have made a warm weather camping trip. They weren't fools. The tribes who lived there left during the summer months. They went, much like the Bushes, to the coast and Kennebunkport."
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