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Fire in the Bones: Bill Mason and the Canadian Canoeing Tradition Paperback – January 1, 1996

by James Raffan (Author)

4.5 34 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 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.

Length

300
Pages
Language

EN
English
Publisher

HarperCollins
Publication date

1996
January 1
ISBN-10

0002553953
ISBN-13

978-0002553957
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Kevin Callan
122
Paperback
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92
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Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

An admiring, rather placid biography of the Canadian filmmaker and wilderness proponent Bill Mason. Mason is best known for his films: Paddle to the Sea, adapted from a children's book about a little carved Indian canoeing and adventuring from Lake Superior to the Atlantic, and Cry of the Wild, his short feature in praise of wolves. He was also the author of several bestselling books on canoeing techniques and history (Path of the Paddle and Song of the Paddle). He brought to all of his various labors both knowledge and love of the great outdoors, as well as doses of Christian sermonizing. It didn't hurt that just as Mason was refining his artistry, during the 1960s and '70s, a great wave of environmental appreciation and concern broke across North America and Europe, giving his material additional currency and power. Raffan's (Outdoor and Experiential Education/Queens Univ., Ontario) biography is a linear model, starting at the beginning--Mason's early days in Winnipeg, his schooling, with much consideration given to his short stature--on through his start in commercial art and photography, his marriage and family life, his breakthrough into directing films, his abandonment of filmmaking and retreat into painting (no critical success there, nor much self-satisfaction), to his death at 59, in 1988, of cancer. There are plenty of excerpts from his journals and letters, but a clear picture of the man never emerges. Perhaps this has to do with Mason's religious bent, with which Raffan seems uncomfortable; you can almost feel him cringe when Mason talks of nature as ``God's creation'' and refers to the outdoors as ``this blessed wilderness.'' Raffan is much happier with Mason the environmental advocate, the canoeist, the guy who should have been a voyageur but was born 200 years too late. Lots of facts, background, and stories, but Mason never gets the breath of life from Raffan. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ HarperCollins; First Edition (January 1, 1996)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 300 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0002553953
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0002553957
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.4 pounds

Best Sellers Rank: #4,604,528 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #265 in Canadian Biographies
- #7,932 in Artist & Architect Biographies
- #20,865 in Traveler & Explorer Biographies

Customer Reviews:
4.5 34 ratings

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4.5 out of 5

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Yankee Reader

Finding Bill Mason

Reviewed in the United States on March 15, 2011

I imagine the task of writing a life of Bill Mason to be akin to writing a new Gospel: everybody knew Bill Mason, or at least a part of him. Most people (like me) "knew" him only second hand: the Bill Mason we knew was an artistic expression, mostly wrapped around a guy in denim shorts and plaid shirt paddling a woefully abused canoe.

The Bill Mason that emerges so clearly from Raffan's book is not a saint, not even blessed, but the complicated external reality of a man whose life was frustrated in many particular ways: by a stifled upbringing, hormones, bureaucracy, philistinism, and finally cancer. It is not the picture of a heroic martyr triumphing through art or faith, but instead is that of a really talented and spirited guy who always did what he wanted to do--but who also ironically, in a way, never got to do what he wanted to do. It must have been frustrating for Raffan, too, to try to capture the essence of a man whose essence in at least one determinative way never came to fruition.

And yet Raffan clearly shows a guy who made the world a better place--through his art, his enthusiasm, and his faith. Bill Mason was a man worthy of biography--almost, I think, of a gospel--and Raffan has given us the Good News along with the Passion.

2 people found this helpful

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L. Guilar

A great subject.

Reviewed in the United States on January 18, 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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Rick Robinson

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

Reviewed in Canada on June 5, 2017

Verified Purchase

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.

One person found this helpful

Red Green

Good Story, Horrible Editing - kindle ver.

Reviewed in Canada on July 14, 2022

Verified Purchase

I love the story, of course Bill Mason touched so many people, but the book is riddled with misspelling and wrong words which continually threw me off and caused the flow to stumble. Several times there was a reference to “Puddle To The Sea”. But that was a minor one, many times the “die” was used for “the”. I paid for a book and feel like I got a draft.
I hate to complain and wasn’t going to but it just threw the story off so many times trying to understand what the author was saying that I had to mention it in hopes that someone would edit the book, correct these silly mistakes and post a final product.

federico

Per chi vuole capire meglio Bill Mason

Reviewed in Italy on October 15, 2019

Verified Purchase

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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Mike Quinlan

Well worth buying.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 8, 2019

Verified Purchase

Brilliant canoe book, stirs the soul.

Max

Super

Reviewed in Germany on November 12, 2016

Verified Purchase

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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