R. M. Patterson : A Life of Great Adventure

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Summary: Canadian Paddler Lives on in Finch Biography
Review: In R. M. Patterson: A Life of Great Adventure, historian David Finch brings the famous river explorer back to life. Patterson died at 86 almost twenty years ago, but The Dangerous River, based on his explorations on the South Nahanni River in the Northwest Territories, remains in print and his most popular work, as fresh today as its setting in the late 1920s. The Finch biography revisits the South Nahanni as well as Patterson's roots in England and his many years in the Canadian Rockies. It traces the events of "a life of great adventure," a theme suggested by Patterson's employer at the Bank of England as he wished Patterson well on his 1924 move to Canada to settle in the Peace River country of northwestern Alberta.

Patterson was more than a river rat. He worked as a logger, a trapper, a prospector, before he began to explore the rivers of the region. He ran a sheep operation near Banff, a dude ranch in the footthills of the Rockies, an orchard on Vancouver Island. All five of Patterson's frequently-autobiographical books remain in print decades after they first appeared.

In his exhaustive studies Finch dug into several archives, interviewed dozens of family members and friends, followed the rivers that Patterson explored, and hiked or rode horseback over Patterson's favorite trails. In this biography, Finch shares with his readers the essence of Patterson that he gleaned during a decade of research and writing. In this reader's mind, he brought Patterson back to life as well as any writer could.

(I met Patterson in his latter years, corresponded with him, and interviewed him. Like Finch, I read all of his books, interviewed Patterson himself, his widow, only daughter, and older son. I had planned to write the biography myself, but Finch beat me to it. He did a fine job. --Verne Huser)