James Raffan – författare

There are few writers who can take the facts of an actual event and transform them into a compelling story that captures the mind and the heart. James Raffan is that rare author, proving with Deep Waters that he is a masterful storyteller who has not only penned a story that is by turns harrowing and poignant, but is also a powerful investigative work that sensitively explores the nature of courage, risk and loss.

On the morning of June 11, 1978, 27 boys and four leaders from St. John’s School in Ontario set out on a canoeing expedition on Lake Timiskaming. By the end of the day, 12 boys and one leader were dead, with all four canoes overturned and floating aimlessly in the wind. This tragedy, which was first deemed to be an “accident,” was actually, as James Raffan explains, a shocking tale of a school’s survival philosophy gone terribly wrong, unsafe canoes and equipment, and a total lack of emergency preparedness training. Deep Waters is a remarkable story of endurance, courage and unspeakable pain, a book that also explores the nature of risk-taking and the resilience of the human spirit.

The adventure-filled story of the legendary Hudson’s Bay Company is inextricably linked to the formation of a Canadian nation stretching from sea to sea to sea. In an absorbing and lively new book on The Bay, James Raffan explores the forces that moulded a man, a company and a country.

The histories of Sir George Simpson and the HBC in the golden years of the 19th century are in many ways one history, for Simpson’s professional acumen and personal ambitions propelled a failing business to a position of great wealth and political power. At its height, the HBC trading territory covered an astonishing one-twelfth of the world’s surface. Raffan captures the many contradictions of the larger-than-life man at its centre: a brilliant manager who kept an iron grip on his fur forts from east to west, ensuring British power across the land; a pompous dandy who was most at home in a voyageur-paddled canoe; a man ashamed of his illegitimate birth but who went on to sire 13 children with eight different women, only one of whom was his wife; a master businessman who laid the foundations for the single greatest business enterprise of its day. Emperor of the North is the vibrant tale of a man who shaped much more than a fur-trading company—he launched an empire of ideas that led to the creation of a country. Meticulously researched, highly readable and wonderfully illuminated by maps and archival photographs, Emperor of the North is a delight for history buffs, armchair adventurers and biography fans alike.

Bark, Skin and Cedar is an intelligent and grand exploration of that great Canadian icon -- the canoe. From the graceful birch bark vessels of the Micmac Indians to the wide and sturdy Haida dugouts, from the canvas-covered Chestnut Prospector to the sleek dragon racing boats, the fragile but powerful craft defines our history and our culture in a myriad of ways.

James Raffan takes us on a canoe tripping journey: we are transported back in time to the notion of the canoe as a luminal vehicle, bearing the human spirit from one world to another; we are there at the Lachine Rapids, where Jacques Cartier and Samuel de Champlain learned to paddle canoes, so different from their sea-faring vessels; we explore the canoe trip as a reflection of a heroic quest and the craft as a cradle or womb out of which love and new life will grow; and we investigate the canoe as a rich muse for our artists and profitable inspiration for our advertisers. Along the way we meet some of the canoe’s most ardent and colorful paddlers: Governor George Simpson, Frances Ann Hopkins, Edwin Tappan Adney, Eric Morse, Pierre Trudeau, Bill Mason and Kirk Wipper. With its fresh and unique blend of canoe history, legend, insight and imagination presented in an attractive gift book format, Bark, Skin and Cedar will capture a large and enthusiastic reading audience.

Tumblehome: a term to describe the way the side of a canoe arcs inward toward the center, toward home.

James Raffan has always followed his own arc in life. Like his mentor and friend Bill Mason, Raffan has taken his love of the wilderness and integrated it into his life and his work, becoming not just a master canoeist and outdoorsman, but an accomplished and thoughtful writer. In Tumblehome, Raffan explores the notion that canoeing has the power to teach and transform us, even if the closest we’ve come to the wilderness is in front of the Discovery Channel.

Tumblehome is written in a series of vignettes that cover a breadth of wilderness experience and a wide-ranging timeline, from Raffan’s early childhood to the present. Many of the essays are funny: in “Wet Wellies and Frozen Drawers” Raffan discovers that compared to the lessons learned from riding floes of spring ice, school looks rather easy. Others are about connecting: in “The Glow of Green Eyes” a chance encounter with an Arctic wolf engenders hope instead of fear. Some offer an epiphany: in “River of Life” the migration of the magnificent caribou creates a sense of infinite wonder and comfort in the cyclical patterns underpinning both human and natural worlds.

In the tradition of Sharon Butala’s Coyote’s Morning Cry, Tumblehome is evocative and affirming, a testament to the power of nature and the author’s gift of intelligent and lyrical interpretation. Packaged in a compact and artful hardcover format, this is a wonderful book for canoeists and outdoor enthusiasts, and an inspirational guide for all those who know that the world of natureis very much a part of their own spiritual landscape.

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.

Resonant, reflective, a legacy of the Canadian canoeing experience — Canexus: The Canoe in Canadian Culture is a first. "This book is cause for celebration," says Kanawa Canoe Museum founder Kirk Wipper, "because of the canoe, and because it is created by writers who are, themselves, enthusiastic paddlers."

From "Canoe Sport" to "Canoe Irony" and finding "Motives for Mr. Canoehead," Canexus opens doors to the primitive and explores the canoeing experience from an exciting variety of perspectives.

Travel with some of Canada’s best known canoeists to the mysterious Northwest Coast of BC, across constitutional waves on Meech Lake and into a landscape of the Canadian imagination. Hear great canoe stories, bake bannock, weather storms, ponder canoeing and gender roles. For all kinds of paddlers, and lovers of adventure and wilderness, Canexus gives the canoe its rightful place of prominence in Canadian culture.

With contributions by E.Y. Arima, Philip Chester, C.E.S. Franks, Shelagh Grant, Bob Henderson, Bruce Hodgins, Gwyneth Hoyle, William C. James, C. Fred Johnston, George Luste, Roderick A. Macdonald, Kenneth G. Roberts and Kirk Wipper.

"The writers in Canexus bring different perspectives & abilities to these essays, but all of them reinforce the idea of the canoe as an ancient, echoing symbol; one that can illuminate our place in the north like no other." – M.T. Kelly, Winner of the Governor General’s Award for Literature

"An intelligent person’s guide to the place of the canoe in the Canadian culture and psyche…exciting, like fast white water and spray in your face…" — Fred Bodsworth

The Lure of Faraway Places is the publication canoeist Herb Pohl (1930-2006) did not live to see published. But Pohl’s words and images provide a unique portrait of Canada by one who was happiest when travelling our northern waterways alone. Austrian-born Herb Pohl died at the mouth of the Michipcoten River on July 17, 2006. He is remembered as "Canada’s most remarkable solo traveller."

While mourning their loss, Herb Pohl’s friends found, to their surprise and delight, a manuscript of wilderness writings on his desk in his lakeside apartment in Burlington, Ontario. He had hoped one day to publish his work as a book. With help and commentary from best-selling canoe author and editor James Raffan, Natural Heritage is proud to present that book, Herb’s book, The Lure of Faraway Places. "There’s nothing like it in canoeing literature," says Raffan. "It’s part journal, part memoir, part wilderness philosophy and part tips and tricks of the most pragmatic kind written about parts of the country most of us will never see by the most committed and ambitious solo canoeist in Canadian history."

The Lure of Faraway Places is the publication canoeist Herb Pohl (1930-2006) did not live to see published. But Pohl’s words and images provide a unique portrait of Canada by one who was happiest when travelling our northern waterways alone. Austrian-born Herb Pohl died at the mouth of the Michipcoten River on July 17, 2006. He is remembered as "Canada’s most remarkable solo traveller."

While mourning their loss, Herb Pohl’s friends found, to their surprise and delight, a manuscript of wilderness writings on his desk in his lakeside apartment in Burlington, Ontario. He had hoped one day to publish his work as a book. With help and commentary from best-selling canoe author and editor James Raffan, Natural Heritage is proud to present that book, Herb’s book, The Lure of Faraway Places. "There’s nothing like it in canoeing literature," says Raffan. "It’s part journal, part memoir, part wilderness philosophy and part tips and tricks of the most pragmatic kind written about parts of the country most of us will never see by the most committed and ambitious solo canoeist in Canadian history."