THE BUSH PILOTS: A PICTORIAL HISTORY OF A CANADIAN PHENOMENON Foster, J.A. Toronto, McClelland & Stewart, 1990. 224pp, cloth, $29.95, ISBN 0-7710-3245-5. CIP Grades 7 and up/Ages 12 and up Reviewed by Jack Brown Volume 18 Number 5 1990 September "Looking back over the seventy years of exploration and development of commercial bush operations I am struck with the fact that the successful pioneers were moderately educated young men of great courage and fierce determination with a love of flying," writes J. A. Foster. He substantiates this thesis very convincingly through a detailed description of the beginnings of bush pilot operations, biographies of the first pilots, the barnstormers, the first commercial ventures into new frontiers, the search and rescue operations, the coming of age with its accompanying growing pains, and the culmination in World War II. He writes with a love of his subject, showing the uniqueness, the magic and the challenge of flying alone in the Canadian wilderness. His book is a tribute to bush pilots who explored, mapped and developed the north. 'For the pure joy of flying there is no equal to the life of a bush pilot,” says the author. The book contains 186 black-and-white photographs that appeal to the imagination and the desire for adventure. Foster, a native of Winnipeg now living in Halifax, has aviation experience including military, charter, crop-dusting, bush, and geophysical survey flying. He is the author of other noteworthy naval and air force books. Jack Brown, Kingston C.V.I., Kingston, Ont.