Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review"Mark Neuzil and Norman Sims have written a wonderfully detailed biography of the vessel that made North America possible, treating it as a living, breathing personality. As enjoyable as a swift, steady, and smooth river, this is the ideal book for canoeists—the perfect canoe trip of a read."—Roy MacGregor, author of Canoe Country: The Making of Canada
"Canoes is that rare cultural history that manages to transport through its very subject: the North American canoe. This book is fascinating and thorough and wonderfully accessible. It’s also the definitive work on the single most important conveyance in this continent’s rich past. It’ll carry you away like a beautifully crafted cedar strip canoe."—Peter Geye
"This book is an outstanding overview of canoes with a lot of information that isn’t covered anywhere else. I thoroughly enjoyed it."—Benson Gray, Wooden Canoe Heritage Association historian
"Canoes is a fantastic adventure."—Washington Post
"A fascinating cultural and technological history that, with its hundreds of color and black-and-white images, including many by renowned artists, is a visual as well as informative feast."—Booklist
"Deep history...from the crudest dugouts through the most elegant cedar strips to featherweight polymers of today, with hundreds of color photos and a score of profiles of the people who made and paddled them."—Star Tribune
"Lovely and practical."—Toronto Star
"Whether you love to paddle, cherish the look of the vintage canoe hanging above your fireplace or simply just appreciate canoes, this book is for you."—Cabin Living Magazine
"The coffee table-size book looks to be a must-have for paddlers and others with a penchant for the canoe’s rich history,"—Pioneer Press
"Written from the environmentalist point of view, there’s some interesting revelations and photos."—Ely Echo
"No matter what era of the canoe story you might have a special spot for, this book will certainly take a cherished place in your library collection."—Paddle Making (and Other Canoe Stuff)
"The coffee table-size book looks to be a must-have for paddlers and others with a penchant for the canoe’s rich history."—Grand Forks Herald
"This book is just superbly written, photographed and illustrated. It is the ultimate coffee table at the cabin book."—Trout Magazine
"This nice, sturdy, cloth hardcover — printed on thick, durable glossy pages — is a good coffee-table book that can either be read from beginning to end or by cherry-picking through chapters of personal interest. Just short of 400 pages, the book is liberally illustrated with beautiful historic artwork and photography in vivid color."—The Recorder
"Some of the eventual pride and creative care that goes into modern canoe-making must have gone into making this elaborate book of deep history with its commanding format as well as many historical and color photographs, paintings and illustrations, not to mention professional writing and editing."—The Keene Sentinel
"[Canoes] ... explores the humble canoe’s outsized role in exploration, economic development, politics and popular culture."—Minnpost.com
"A delightful book that satisfies both intellectual curiosity and artistic appetite." —American Whitewater
Table of ContentsContents
Foreword: Scenes from a Life in Canoes
John McPhee
Introduction
1. Dugout Canoes
Napoleon Sanford: The Important Thing is You and the Wood
2. Birch Bark Canoes
Elm Bark Canoes
The Oldest Birch Bark Canoe
3. Fur Trade and Exploration
The Algonquin Fur Trade
Frances Anne Hopkins
4. All-Wood Canoes
Jule Fox Marshall
5. Wood-and-Canvas Canoes
Tom Seavey: More Than Just the World
Canoe Sails
6. The Rise of the Synthetic Canoe
Canoe Patents
Canoes in Wartime
Square-stern Canoes
7. Canoes and the Human-Powered Movement
Paddles
Canoe Packs
8. Journeys: Canoe Tripping
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index
