Swiftwater by Paul Annixter

First published: 1950

Type of work: Adventure tale

Themes: Nature, coming-of-age, and animals

Time of work: The late 1940’s

Recommended Ages: 10-13

Locale: The Maine wilderness

Principal Characters:

• Bucky Calloway, a fifteen-year-old boy, who is thrown into providing for his own family
• Cam Calloway, Bucky’s father, whose lessons of survival in the woods pay off when he breaks his leg and Bucky is able to run the trap lines
• Lide (Ma) Calloway, Bucky’s long-suffering mother, who prefers life in town to the woods
• Bridie Mellott, Bucky’s girl, who does not understand his intention to build a wildlife refuge
• Whit Turner, who fights Bucky for Bridie and the dream of a sanctuary for the migrating geese
• Del Fraser, one of the townspeople, whose eye is turned by commercial interests

The Story

Although Swiftwater was published in 1950, several themes in the novel make it a timeless story for young adults. Bucky Calloway, the fifteen-year-old son of a local woodsman, faces family hardships, physical danger, and the insults of the people in the town of Swiftwater who do not understand the Calloways’ way of life. A reverence for nature and a concomitant distrust of civilization; episodes of love, adventure, and combat; incidents in which emotion overcomes reason; and the devaluation of commercial interests make this junior novel a romantic tale.

Bucky’s father, Cam, teaches the boy about hunting, trapping, and survival in the wilderness. Cam takes great—but silent—pride in the abilities of his son, and a strong mutual respect develops between the two. It is not long until Bucky must tend his father’s trap lines by himself because Cam has broken his leg. On his first trip out to check the traps, Bucky finds stolen bait and devoured game that has been caught in the now-ruined traps. A porcupine that has been eaten—quills and all— and the remains of a silver fox tell him that this destroyer is not the usual bear that raids the trap line. Cam and Bucky have been warned by Peter Nigosh, an old Indian, that there is a “bad dog” raiding the traps in the woods this winter. He suggests that they wait until next year to set their trap lines, but Cam is determined that nothing keep them from their livelihood.

Bucky faces the frightening prospect that this “bad dog” is a wolverine, the most mysterious and feared woodland creature. Doubling back along his trail, Bucky surprises the wolverine and is able to hit him with a hurried shot. Bucky follows a trail of blood to a large undergrowth through which he must crawl to get at the wounded animal. His rifle lost, Bucky must slay the wolverine with his ax and hunting knife. At sixteen, he has a pelt that most woodsmen only hear about from old-timers.

Bucky’s skill in the woods contrasts sharply with his inability to communicate with others, especially Bridie Mellott, the girl in whom he has been interested for several years. Standing in his way is Whit Turner, a boy from town he has fought before and who is also laying claim to Bridie. Since this defeat, Whit has trained himself for revenge but is still no match for Bucky.

Whit’s defeat opens the way for the beginning of a romance between Bucky and Bridie, and also for the inauguration of a wildlife refuge—a dream Bucky and Cam share. Cam, however, is killed by hunters who are indiscriminately killing the geese the Calloways want to preserve. Bucky has faced the wolverine alone, and now he is alone again, facing the objections of the Swiftwater citizens who see a hunting lodge as a quick way to bolster the town’s faltering economy. Not until an enterprising newspaper reporter tells of the Calloways’ efforts to make Swiftwater a safe stop for migrating geese is the town persuaded of the value of the bird sanctuary. Bucky not only has learned his father’s skills but also has inherited the reality of his father’s dream.

Context

Howard Sturtzel published more than five hundred short stories before he wrote Swiftwater and has completed a number of books and short stories since then. He and his wife, Jane, have collaborated on many of the books published since 1955. Many of his stories, such as Swiftwater, focus on nature and life in the wilderness.

Swiftwater’s appearance on reading lists was largely a result of the comments of Dwight Burton in an article in the English Journal, “The Novel for the Adolescent” (September, 1951). Burton, at one time editor of the English Journal, later praised the work in his several editions of Literature Study in the High School (1959, 1964, 1970). Burton believed Swiftwater to be an important novel because of the adolescent’s confrontation with evil, symbolized by the wolverine. To Burton, Bucky represents all adolescents who must at some time fight evil. Burton was not the only one who recommended Swiftwater for reading, however. A survey of reading lists shows that Swiftwater was one of a number of young adult works of fiction that appeared most frequently.

Swiftwater has several qualities that make it attractive to adolescents. The adventures of hunting, trapping, and observing nature certainly absorb the reader. Bucky’s education in nature and the achievement of his goal are as exciting as his victory over the wolverine. A boy’s acceptance of increased responsibility is similarly appealing. In Swiftwater, Bucky progresses from merely completing chores to being forced to do his father’s work, and finally to becoming responsible for his widowed mother. In addition, he becomes a leader in the management of the game preserve. An adolescent’s struggles to become a man, confronting the difficult problems of life, the successful completion of a worthwhile goal, and suspenseful action make the book popular with adolescents.