Fishing Stories nets an abundant catch of wonderful writing in a wide
variety of genres and styles. The moods range from the rollicking humor
of Rudyard Kipling's "On Dry-Cow Fishing as a Fine Art" and the rural
gothic of Annie Proulx's "The Wer-Trout" to the haunting elegy of Norman
Maclean's "A River Runs Through It."
Many of these tales celebrate human bonds forged over a rod, including
Guy de Maupassant's "Two Friends," Jimmy Carter's "Fishing with My
Daddy," and an excerpt from Ernest Hemingway's The Garden of Eden.
Some deal in reverence and romance, as in Roland Pertwee's "The River
God," and some in adventure and the stuff of legend, as in Zane Grey's
"The First Thousand-Pounder" and Ron Rash's "Their Ancient Glittering
Eyes." There are narratives that confront head-on the heartbreaks and
frustrations of the sport, from Thomas McGuane's meditation on long
spells of inaction as the essence of fishing in "The Longest Silence" to
Raymond Carver's story of a boy's deflated triumph in the gut-wrenching
masterpiece "Nobody Said Anything." And alongside the works of literary
giants are the memories of people both great and humble who have found
meaning and fulfillment in fishing, from a former American president to
a Scottish gamekeeper's daughter.
Whether set against the open ocean or tiny mountain streams, in ancient
China, tropical Tahiti, Paris under siege, or the vast Canadian
wilderness, these stories cast wide and strike deep into the universal
joys, absurdities, insights, and tragedies of life.
This beautiful hardcover edition features seven original woodcut
illustrations by Paul Gentry, and includes a silk ribbon marker,
European-style half-round spine, and full-cloth case with two-color foil
stamping.
