The Romance of Brandywine

The Romance of Brandywine

The men and women who studied under Howard Pyle all but dominated American illustration during the first half of the 20th century. At the beginning of the 20th century, Howard Pyle of Wilmington, Delaware, was most popular illustrator in America. He had only one...
A Killing in Saskatchewan

A Killing in Saskatchewan

It was a scene of primal, primitive savagery; it seemed like something out of a corrupted Moby Dick, with the inept, half-crazed Wolf in the role of Queequeg, the aboriginal harpooner who prided himself on his lethal professionalism. Below Elizabeth Falls, where it...
Fishing Guide – My Short, Brilliant Career

Fishing Guide – My Short, Brilliant Career

The novelist John Gardner posited that there are really only two stories: A man goes on a journey, or a stranger comes to town. With all due respect to Gardner’s memory, however, I’d like to add a third: The telephone rings, and you answer it.  The caller identified...
The Day the Duck Hunters Died

The Day the Duck Hunters Died

Nothing escaped the “winds of hell” and the deadly, suffocating snows that swept across the Upper Midwest on that fateful day in 1940.

English Springer Spaniel: The Happy Medium Flusher

English Springer Spaniel: The Happy Medium Flusher

When it comes to flushing dog breeds, the English springer spaniel is a near-perfect blend of fun and functionality. If the German shorthair is the “happy medium” of the pointing dog set, the breed that fills this role in the flushing dog division is the springer...
German Shorthaired Pointer: The Low Maintenance Pointer

German Shorthaired Pointer: The Low Maintenance Pointer

In just about every respect you can think of, the German shorthaired pointer is the “happy medium” of pointing dogs. Years ago, I saw a sign near the first tee of a golf course that had a phrase in Latin inscribed above its translation in English. I don’t remember the...
Golden Retriever: The Original Party Animal

Golden Retriever: The Original Party Animal

Make no mistake – as eager as the golden retriever is to sniff out a good time, it’s even more eager to sniff out a skulking rooster. A while back, someone sent me a link to one of the damnedest video clips I’ve ever seen. There’s a wounded rooster pheasant sort of...
Lynn Bogue Hunt: The Best That He Could Be

Lynn Bogue Hunt: The Best That He Could Be

Angler, hunter and above all artist, Lynn Bogue Hunt was America’s most popular and prolific outdoor illustrator of the mid-20th century.  Note: This article is an excerpt from Tom Davis’ Lynn Bogue Hunt: Angler, Hunter, Artist.  Flushed by his success at Sports...
In the Field Trial Kingdom, Labs Rule 

In the Field Trial Kingdom, Labs Rule 

The Labrador retriever’s distinctions are many. If there’s one arena in which the Lab is utterly and incontrovertibly dominant, it’s retriever field trials. The most popular purebred dog in America; the most popular gundog, too: the Labrador retriever’s distinctions...