My Paddle to the Sea

John Lane knows that traveling on a river is the best way to see the land, to remember our history, and to face ourselves. This fine writer’s journey down his own southern waterway is an adventure that can inform and inspire us all.

* author of Rivers of America, Lifelines: The Case for River Conservation, and Youghiogheny: Appalachian River *

Countless readers across the South, and well beyond, will profit from trekking right along with John Lane, who is a very gifted natural teacher and a great literary companion.

* co-author with Scott Taylor, The Coasts of Carolina *

In graceful, richly detailed prose, John Lane captures the dynamics of a complex watershed, where droughts, dangers and historical narratives flow as seamlessly together as the tributaries of the Santee.

* Warren Wilson College, author, Coyote: Seeking the Hunter in Our Midst *

I love John Lane's work. Before I picked up My Paddle to the Sea I was reading another book, a classic I am told, that was putting me to sleep. Then I turned to Lane's book and—zook—I was wide awake and floating down the river. Three qualities exist in his writing that are rarely compatible in an author: an intense readability, a deep thoughtfulness, and a largeness of spirit. 'Largeness is a lifelong matter,' said Wallace Stegner. John Lane has taken that to heart. Join him on this beautiful trip—full of contemplation and life-and-death, and humor and derring-do—and you will find yourself growing larger.

* author of Return of the Osprey *

Lane lends eloquent weight to the metaphoric assertion that life is a river. This book is more than a chronicle and much more than a journal. . . . In an age that values faster and faster travel, Lane's river memoir affirms the great value of floating and observing, providing meaningful testimony to the merits of focusing on a deeper level to one's life journey.

* Booklist *

One needn't be a canoeist or even outdoorsy to appreciate the insights of modern-day river voyager John Lane as he chronicles his downriver journey from the Upstate to the Atlantic Ocean. . . . His overwhelming desire to 'rewild' South Carolina's disappearing natural places is presented less as environmental activism and more as a means to a somewhat idealistic end: ultimate preservation of our common heritage. Because for Lane, maintaining the integrity of our watershed is as much about holding on to the stories that have been born and died there, as it is about the river itself.

* Town Magazine *

More than a mere travelogue, My Paddle to the Sea is a celebration of life, friendship, river travel, and the natural world. Like Lane's previous books of nonfiction, Deep in Black Water, Chattooga: Descending Into the Myth of Deliverance River, The Best of the Kudzu Telegraph and Circling Home, My Paddle to the Sea is written in crisp yet intimate prose that is both poetic and layered, while never losing sight of the author's urgent desire to communicate the depth of his love for the natural world.

* Spartanburg Herald-Journal *

This beautifully written and lyrical book is a meditation on the state's history and tangled environmental legacy as well as a look at the challenges that lie ahead. . . . Lane’s book is an intimate look at the vanishing wilds of our state as well as the author's own life. Either way, it is a journey well worth taking.

* Post and Courier