Eric Sevareid
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 19
Average rating: 5.0 of 5
REMARKABLE ACCOUNT OF A REMARKABLE JOURNEY 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.
Canoeing with the Cree by Eric Sevareid is one of the more unique works I have had the pleasure of reading over the past several years. In 1930, Sevareid (Yes, the famous news man), and his good friend and school mate, Walter C. Port, set out on an adventure that few of us could ever dream. They traveled by canoe from Minneapolis all the way to Hudson Bay! This journey covered 2,250 miles and went through some of the harshest wilderness in North America. There are several facts that make this adventure even more unique (as if the simple trip was not enough). First, Sevareid was only 17 years old at the time and his friend, Walter was only 19. Both boys were what would be classified a "city boys," in that they had never experienced the out of doors, nor had they any experience in canoeing. Secondly, they had a very limited budget, even for that time. Third; they did not have maps, GPSs, high tech camping gear or supplies. Forth, the area they traveled, in particular the last half of the journey, was almost completely isolated and still in the frontier stage of development.
This book is the telling of the trip these two young men undertook. We get a first hand account of the hardships, toil, hazards, and landscape they encountered. Each page is a further marvel. When you consider the primitive state of their equipment, there lack of maps and direction, lack of our modern prepackaged camping food and even their clothing, it is an absolute miracle they survived this trip.
This of course is Sevareid's first book. The reader must remember that he was seventeen years old when he wrote this book. Sevareid used a combination of his journal he kept and the articles he wrote for a local paper to use is creating this work. If I can remember correctly, when I was seventeen, I had difficulty trying to figure out which shoe went on which foot, much less write a book. That the author was able to plan and complete this journey is quite remarkable; that he was able to write a very readable account of the journey is just as remarkable, as far as I am concerned.
The reader must also remember that this work is far more than a good story though. It is actually one of the few published works, descriptions and accounts of the land which was explored (and indeed, exploited) by the Hudson Bay Company. That entire wilderness in now gone or at the very least altered beyond recognition in this day and age. The author's description of the Cree Indians, Mounties, Hudson Bay Company employees and folks met on the way constitute a very remarkable source document.
I must say I enjoyed every page of this book. As a matter of fact, once I started, I could not put it down and read it from cover to cover in one setting. Yes, it was that good! Fortunately this book is back in print after a number of years being out. The old copy I have here was a 1968 edition, but I see now that there is a newer addition available. This is a good thing as this is one of those reads you really should treat yourself to.
Highly recommend this one. I doubt if you will be sorry you gave it a read
Don Blankenship
The Ozarks
Editorial Review:
In 1930 two novice paddlers--Eric Sevareid and Walter C. Port--launched a secondhand 18-foot canvas canoe into the Minnesota River at Fort Snelling for an ambitious summer-long journey from Minneapolis to Hudson Bay. Without benefit of radio, motor, or good maps, the teenagers made their way over 2,250 miles of rivers, lakes, and difficult portages. Nearly four months later, after shooting hundreds of sets of rapids and surviving exceedingly bad conditions and even worse advice, the ragged, hungry adventurers arrived in York Factory on Hudson Bay--with winter freeze-up on their heels. First published in 1935, Canoeing with the Cree is Sevareid's classic account of this youthful odyssey. The newspaper stories that Sevareid wrote on this trip launched his distinguished journalism career, which included more than a decade as a television correspondent and commentator on the CBS Evening News. Now with a new foreword by Arctic explorer, Ann Bancroft.
