The Literary Legacy of W. Robert Foran
A few months back I received an e-mail from a book collector/dealer asking me a question that immediately raised a question of my own. The essence of his inquiry involved a photocopied collection of a series of syndicated columns written by W. Robert Foran under the...
The Grandfather Factor
Some of the finest sporting literature ever published delves deeply into outdoor interactions between seasoned veterans of the field and apprentice hunters, fishermen or natural historians. Unquestionably the finest example of this literary genre is Robert Ruark’s...
Frank Young: An Angler for the Ages
As a trout fisherman, Frank was simply the best I have ever been privileged to witness in action, and I’ve been astream with the likes of Gary Borger and Lee Wulff.
Zane Grey American Sportsman
My earliest memories of Zane Grey remain as powerful as they were when I was first introduced to his writings a few years before reaching my teens. An astute grade school teacher with exceptional pedagogical skills recognized an unquenchable thirst for certain types...
Negley Farson Forgotten Giant of the Angling World
Over the years I’ve read what I personally consider one of the great books of angling literature, Negley Farson’s Going Fishing, three or four times. It’s a book, similar to Robert Ruark’s The Old Man and the Boy or Nash Buckingham’s De Shootinest Gent’man, that...
“Caring Karen” Messer Goes Bream Fishing
As those who have read previous episodes of the ongoing misadventures of Mollygrubs Messer will recall, his nosy, busybody, and termagant-in-training mother, who in rather grandiose fashion styled herself “Caring Karen,” was, to use a description common in the...
Fishing for Night Crawlers: A Mollygrubs Messer Angling Adventure
In some senses you have to feel sorry for the seemingly endless mélange of misery which Mollygrubs Messer somehow managed to become involved. A prime example involved an out-of-state trout fishing trip with a buddy and a couple of adult companion. The plan was for the...
Trout Magic in Words: The Anatomy of a Fly Fisherman
More years ago than it is completely comfortable for me to ponder, I wrote a series of profiles on celebrated angling writers for a little publication, Fly-Fishing News. The bimonthly offering, featuring noted sporting scribes such as John Gierach, Lefty Kreh and Paul...