Goodbye Jan…

Said goodbye to a dear friend this weekend. Jan Furst, whom I have known for more than 10 years [which, as you can see, was a very small part of his life] left the world a better place than he entered it, almost 99 years ago. An author, a shipwright, an engineer, a dancer, a raconteur — Jan has left a mark none who knew him will ever forget.

My favourite story about Jan is about his life as an author. He published his first book on Kayak construction in 1931, at the age of 18. More than sixty years later, he wrote THORFINN THORHALLSON’S SAGA, his Norse myth story and returned to the same house to have it published in Norwegian. Jan told me of the shocked look on the faces of the people he met there — they were a non-fiction house, but since they’d never had SIXTY years pass between requests for publication by the same author — they published it.

You can read more about Jan and his book here: http://www.thorfinn.ca/novel.html

I miss you, Jan!

More soon…

~kc