My mentor with hunting and fishing and much else was Hartwell Shaffer. He was so open to friendship that he allowed our relationship to shape-shift so that at times, even when I had just entered my teens and he was in his mid-twenties, I sometimes became the mentor. It was I who introduced him to the bow, but he taught me what it could mean. He never assumed the role of teacher–he summoned learning from within others rather than imposing it on them. He died in 2003, but I’m still learning from him.
When I began writing my last book, Hartwell Road, I intended to write a book about him, but found him strangely elusive–I could only reach into the meaning(s) of his life by telling my own story.
