About the Author

FARLEY MOWAT was born in Belleville, Ontario, in 1921. He served in World War II from 1940 until 1945, entering the army as a private and emerging with the rank of captain. He began writing for his living in 1949 after spending two years in the Arctic. Since 1949 he has lived in or visited almost every part of Canada and many other lands, including the distant regions of Siberia. He has forty-two books to his name, which have been published in translations in over fifty languages in more than sixty countries. They include such internationally known works as People of the Deer, The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be, Never Cry Wolf, Westviking, The Boat That Wouldn’t Float, Sibir, A Whale for the Killing, The Snow Walker, And No Birds Sang, and Virunga: The Passion of Dian Fossey. His short stories and articles have appeared in The Saturday Evening Post, Maclean’s, Atlantic Monthly, and other magazines. He died in 2014.

Reviews

"Bay of Spirits paints a vivid picture of a man and his love for a lost place and time. It is an engaging read by a wonderful raconteur, as relevant today as he ever was." —The Globe and Mail

"Mowat has a deep understanding of the sea and the natural world. His observations of the outporters are equally perceptive and provide a fascinating window into a little known corner of North America. In this tender elegy to a lost Newfoundland, Mowat shows an amused tolerance for almost everything except the human greed that has inexorably destroyed his adopted home's cultures and environment." —Publishers Weekly

"Mowat, as memoirist . . . gazes outward at the world, human, animal and natural, with insatiable curiosity and passion." —Ottawa Citizen

"[A] moving memoir of the love of a woman and the love of a particular place." —Booklist

"If this deeply felt book, written in the middle of Mowat’s ninth decade, is a love song to his life’s companion, it is also a love song to a time and place in which he found the happiness he sought. All in all, a lovely book." —Washington Post

"Mowat describes with sailor’s envy many enchanting, exhilarating and dangerous journeys in and out of the tiniest outport villages. It is here he is at his best, telling the tales of the local people in their dialect and colour." —Halifax Chronicle Herald

"This is a briny maritime tale from head to toe, with Farley and Clare finding any excuse at all to continue exploring. . . . Farley Mowat has led a charmed and lucky life. Blessed with an endlessly curious and energetic cast of mind and an outrageously colourful personality, he has also been gifted with a perfect life companion and a love that has endured for many decades." —Quill & Quire

"Mowat reminisces about his early romance with his wife-to-be, but he’s preoccupied with a larger, harder love story—his courtship, adoration and disappointments with Newfoundland at the end of the outpost era." —Canadian Geographic

In this ruminative memoir, Mowat chronicles the disappearance of a way of life in Newfoundland and the chance encounter that brought him the love of his life. As a young writer in 1957, Mowat decided to travel on a tramp steamer among the small fishing villages known as outports that dotted the Newfoundland coast. These outports were the home of hardy and colorful fisherfolk of Basque, English, Irish and French descent. Government policy and the depletion of the regional fisheries by huge commercial trawlers were slowly forcing the locals out of their centuries-old homes. Mowat enjoyed the area so much that he bought a schooner for further exploration. Soon afterward, a young woman fleeing the overeager attentions of an amorous mutt stumbled on board his ship and romance quickly followed. Mowat and Claire Wheeler spent the next decade sailing in the rocky bays, thick fogs and sudden squalls of the region. The author of 40 books, mostly on nautical and adventure themes, Mowat has a deep understanding of the sea and the natural world. His observations of the outporters are equally perceptive and provide a fascinating window into a little known corner of North America. In this tender elegy to a lost Newfoundland, Mowat shows an amused tolerance for almost everything except the human greed that has inexorably destroyed his adopted home's cultures and environment. (May) Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.

"Bay of Spirits paints a vivid picture of a man and his love for a lost place and time. It is an engaging read by a wonderful raconteur, as relevant today as he ever was." -The Globe and Mail

"Mowat has a deep understanding of the sea and the natural world. His observations of the outporters are equally perceptive and provide a fascinating window into a little known corner of North America. In this tender elegy to a lost Newfoundland, Mowat shows an amused tolerance for almost everything except the human greed that has inexorably destroyed his adopted home's cultures and environment." -Publishers Weekly

"Mowat, as memoirist . . . gazes outward at the world, human, animal and natural, with insatiable curiosity and passion." -Ottawa Citizen

"[A] moving memoir of the love of a woman and the love of a particular place." -Booklist

"If this deeply felt book, written in the middle of Mowat's ninth decade, is a love song to his life's companion, it is also a love song to a time and place in which he found the happiness he sought. All in all, a lovely book." -Washington Post

"Mowat describes with sailor's envy many enchanting, exhilarating and dangerous journeys in and out of the tiniest outport villages. It is here he is at his best, telling the tales of the local people in their dialect and colour." -Halifax Chronicle Herald

"This is a briny maritime tale from head to toe, with Farley and Clare finding any excuse at all to continue exploring. . . . Farley Mowat has led a charmed and lucky life. Blessed with an endlessly curious and energetic cast of mind and an outrageously colourful personality, he has also been gifted with a perfect life companion and a love that has endured for many decades." -Quill & Quire

"Mowat reminisces about his early romance with his wife-to-be, but he's preoccupied with a larger, harder love story-his courtship, adoration and disappointments with Newfoundland at the end of the outpost era." -Canadian Geographic