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  Pool and Rapid An Early Haig-Brown Book Is Reborn As a Work of Art
Keith Paskin, a member of the fly fishing club that is based in Victoria, British Columbia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island, had some experience with limited edition-edition publishing. When he couldn’t find a copy of Pool and Rapid anywhere, he mentioned to Dave Lock, another club member, that the book would be worth reprinting, given the continued interest in Haig-Brown’s writing. From that innocent comment, an ambitious and ultimately magnificent project began. In an effort to both pay tribute to Haig-Brown, and at the same time raise funds to restore the author’s home on the banks of the Campbell River, the Haig-Brown Fly Fishing Association has produced a third edition of the book, which was last printed in 1936. Beautifully produced by Morriss Printing, which brought Linotype operators out of retirement to set the type, Pool and Rapid is one of those rare books that can be called a work of art in itself. After the second edition was finished, he refused to let it be reprinted, thinking it wasn’t really worthy of another press run. By then he was already on his way to becoming a great writer and he was slightly embarrassed by his earlier, somewhat naive work. Luckily for Haig-Brown fans, Mr. Lock and the Haig-Brown Fly Fishing Association was able to convince the author’s family to allow a reprint. The book is flawed - but it’s still a very good read, and Haig-Brown fans will love it because it shows flashes of the brilliant writer who would soon emerge. In the forward to the third edition, Valerie Haig-Brown, Roderick Haig-Brown’s daughter, quotes from her father’s diary, to illustrate how he felt about the book. “Two or three times I’ve hit just what I’d hoped to, but so many parts are bad. I’m ashamed of myself ,” he stated. “I wrote that book because I wanted to write it, because I enjoyed writing it. . .at least in parts of it I’ve tried and tried and tried to show people the joy and pleasure and delight that I find in moving water.”
Pool and Rapid contains some very good writing and is interesting because of the glimpses it gives of the author who was developing. As Valerie Haig-Brown put it perfectly when she wrote: “Rod’s struggles with Pool and Rapid remain an interesting part of his development as a writer and, in context as part of his lifetime work, the book is still to be enjoyed.” The Haig-Brown Fly Fishing Association did more than just reprint the book. They repackaged it, and convinced Loucas Raptis, a Victoria artist, fly fisher and great admirer of Haig-Brown, to illustrate it. Mr. Raptis has said that he was reluctant to tackle the project at first, because it was so daunting. “You don’t just do any kind of a drawing for a Roderick Haig-Brown book,” he said. He struggled with the first illustration for a month. In the end, he got it right, with a series of black and white illustrations that perfectly capture the essence of Haig-Brown’s writing. You know looking at this edition, of which only 300 copies were printed, that Haig-Brown would have been deeply moved to see his book reproduced with such reverence. Cloth bound copies of the book, which comes in a slip case, are available for $150 CDN. There is a $4 charge for shipping within Canada. The funds all go to the Haig-Brown Kingfisher Creek Society, which is restoring the author’s house and a small coho stream that runs through the old family farm on the banks of the Campbell River.
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First published in 1932, the book, which recounts the story of the birth of a salmon river and its effect on the people that live along its banks, had long gone out of print.
