Seattle Times Reviews Black's Casting a Spell

“After World War II, fiberglass and an embargo of the world’s best Chinese cane threatened to wipe out the tiny American industry. A few die-hards hung on, however, using old and/or circuitously acquired bamboo. Surprisingly, when cheap graphite rods seemed to answer a need for affordable entry-level equipment in the 1960s, they also ‘helped to spark a traditionalist backlash from bamboo addicts.'” Irene Black reviews Casting a Spell: The Bamboo Fly Rod and the American Pursuit of Perfection in the Seattle Times.