Along the St John River

Richard Wilbur is the author of The Rise of French New Brunswick and the
co-author of Silver Harvest: The Fundy Weirmen’s Story.

This beautiful coffee-table book serves as a vivid reminder of the
beauty and grandeur of New Brunswick’s St. John River. As a useful map
shows at the start, the river has its origins deep in the forests of
neighboring Maine. Since the river forms the border with that state and
is the province’s most important geographic feature, however, it
really belongs to New Brunswick. Such is the view former premier Frank
McKenna expresses in his well-written foreword to the book.

In his own introduction, internationally recognized photographer George
Fischer explains that his assignment was to discover the spirit of the
St. John River. He took his photographs from the conventional vantage of
a canoe and from the less conventional one of a small aircraft. He
wandered into a log-hunting cabin, visited a Maliseet Festival, caught a
fisherman casting just above the famed Harland covered bridge, and
somehow framed children in a brilliant sunrise throwing stones off a
bank just above Fredericton.

Fischer ends his photographic essay with 11 memorable views of Saint
John that capture the many sides of this old Loyalist port. Along the
St. John River is a visual treat.