It is commonplace for long-established writers, late in their careers, to indulge in some type of retrospective look at their decades of literary endeavor. The word “indulge” is used advisedly, because to some degree virtually every such effort involves cosseting of one’s self. Books of this sort, whether autobiographies, memoirs focusing on a specific aspect of the author’s life or anthologies belonging to the “best of” genre, often make for fine and sometimes revealing reading.
There are numerous examples of such books. For an eye-opening title it’s tough to beat gunwriter Elmer Keith’s Hell: I Was There!. The title is so appealing that a modern scribe working in the same field, Jon Sundra, plays off of it for his memoir, Hell, I’m Still Here!: Fifty Years as a Gunwriter. Jack O’Connor, who viewed Keith with a touch of condescension while Keith sometimes saw him as his bête noir, didn’t exactly write an autobiography, but his scathing posthumous work, The Last Book: Confessions of a Gun Editor, has many of the attributes of a free-wheeling, opinion-filled memoir.
That’s but a smidgen of this genre. Other noteworthy examples include Herbert L. Stoddard’s Memoirs of a Naturalist, Charlie Elliott’s An Outdoor Life, Negley Farson’s The Way of a Transgressor and reaching back further to the fly fisherman and hunter who gave us the wonder tale John Macnab, we have Memory Hold-The-Door by Lord Tweedsmuir (John Buchan). Two iconic names in modern angling also left us accounts of their lives—Lefty Kreh with My Life Was This Big and Mark Sosin’s A Sportsman’s Memoir. Several of Nick Lyons’ elegantly written books, notably A Flyfisher’s World, Confessions of a Fly Fishing Addict and My Secret Fishing Life, have strong autobiographical overtones. Much the same is true of another inveigling angling writer, Harry Middleton, in The Earth Is Enough and On the Spine of Time. Charles Ritz’s A Fly Fisher’s Life and “Polly” Rosborough’s Reminiscences from 50 Years of Flyrodding add to the angling side of published memoirs. For years, Ludo Wurfbain of Safari Press had a sort of cottage industry specializing in memoirs from African hunters.
As these examples suggest, the field is a rich one. Like many other seasoned scribblers who have become rather long in the tooth, two of my own efforts fit this general category. A Smoky Mountain Boyhood: Memories, Musings, and More, uses recollections of what time has told me was an enchanted youth as a springboard for a wider look at Appalachian culture as it existed in the middle of the past century.
The second, Fishing for Chickens: A Smokies Food Memoir, focuses on the food my family ate when I was a lad—fruits and vegetables from a productive garden and small orchard, the livestock and poultry we raised for meat and eggs, the berries and nuts gathered from nature’s abundant larder, the game we killed and enjoyed on the table and the fish we caught and dined on with delight. The work, which includes lots of recipes, is probably best described as a food autobiography. All are available through the Sporting Classics Store.
This all came to mind when a trio of books in this general category recently found their way to my desk. Before turning to the individual books, I should note that I know and have, in one way or another, worked with all three of the writers whose books are reviewed and consider each of them friends as well as longtime laborers in a common vineyard.
Vin Sparano
With an incredible six decades plus as an editor and writer on outdoor subjects, with the heart of that work being editor of Outdoor Life, Vin Sparano has pretty much done it all. He oversaw a stable of columnists and feature authors who represented the best in sporting literature stretching across decades. Sparano has also written, edited or compiled numerous books. One of them, Complete Outdoor Encyclopedia, is arguably the finest compendium of that genre ever published. Even in ostensible retirement the muse has continued to move in Vince, as is evidenced by his recent Wit and Wisdom of an Old Outdoor Guy; Or How to Survive in Our New Broken World. Independently published by the author, the book contains a whopping 70 chapters and lots of illustrations including “My Life in Pictures” at the back.
Many of the pieces come from regular contributions the author makes to a local newspaper and, because of the publication’s space restrictions, they are uniformly short. Yet Sparano knows how to cram a lot of information or tell a fine tale in 600 words or less, and the end result is dozens of windows opening on a truly impressive career. You’ll meet his family and vicariously rub elbows with many icons of the outdoor world—folks such as Lee and Joan Wulff, along with Jim Zumbo; get a poignant reminder of the emotional impact of Corey Ford’s immemorial story, “The Road to Tinkhamtown” (Sparano calls it the greatest outdoor tale ever written, and far be it from me to differ with that judgment); share deeply moving outdoor moments with his kids (his wedding present to one of his sons was an elk hunt, and you’ve got to like a guy who does that as well as admiring the guts it took to face the bride); and plenty of pithy common sense on the state of a world where common sense has become a scarce commodity.
Mostly autobiographical, ideally suited for a bedtime chapter or two of reading, and chock full of the “wit and wisdom” the title suggests, this is a work that, at least for me, was just pure fun. You’ll emerge from its pages moved, deeply reminded of the importance of family and friends and somehow feeling a little better for knowing that here’s a guy who really cares about and always has been committed to the wonders of the natural world. Also, I can’t resist adding the degree of delight provided me when an e-mail from Vin said that the magazine in which this review appears was one of the few he still subscribes to and reads. Click Here to View Book by Vin Sparano
Jim Spencer
Jim Spencer is a longtime friend with whom I’ve shared numerous hunting camps, lifted many a glass of fine bourbon (once the two of us, along with a trio of other fools, actually formed a sort of syndicate and bought a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle—it’s fine stuff but ain’t worth this country boy’s dollar for another go-round) and shared countless tales of wonder and woe. Jim is an outdoorsman for all seasons, and the fact that a portion of his email moniker is “modern mountain man” speaks eloquently in that regard. He can literally skin a catfish or run a trotline and does so regularly along with preparing fried catfish feasts for multitudes from time to time. He also merits recognition as a sort of unofficial dean of American trappers and has likely written more on the subject than any living author. Then there’s Spencer’s writing on turkey hunting, and that’s where we’ve found the greatest common ground. He wrote what is the best of numerous guides to the “how to” side of the sport, Turkey Hunting Digest, and his Bad Birds trilogy is literary manna for aficionados of the sport who revel in its mysteries, miseries and enduring magic.
In Spencer’s latest book, A Life Well Misspent, he brings his pronounced penchant for outrageous similes, smile-producing anecdotes and deep subject knowledge to bear in stellar form. If you can read through the book’s 15 chapters without laughing, your funny bone is in serious need of adjustment. Similarly, if you don’t discover that previously dry eyes have somehow been inundated with ocular drops, you’ve just got a hole in your soul.
As you move through the pages you’ll meet some memorable characters, not the least of them Spencer’s wife and regular hunting/trapping/fishing companion, Jill; be confronted with multiple instances the sort of embarrassing admissions only a true son of the good earth will admit (it takes some cojones to pen a chapter on “Misses (and Worse);” and delight in his willingness to gore sacred oxen and throw literary darts at the self-anointed experts and grand poobahs of the outdoor world. This isn’t exactly an autobiography, nor is it a “best of” compilation. Yet you’ll find it a crystal-clear window to the writer’s soul as well as a volume I readily recommend.
This book is that good and, when you reach the end of the last page, it will be with the inescapable conclusion is that the “well misspent” in the title is insufficient. Instead, Spencer’s life has been marvelously misspent, and he knows it. As he concludes this exercise in pure literary joy, the author bemoans how he might have gotten rich in another profession and how he has wasted three-quarters of a century failing to do so. Then he pauses, ponders and makes a course correction: “Come to think of it, maybe I did get rich. Maybe I didn’t misspend after all.” Read this book, available through the Sporting Classics Store, and I’m convinced you will agree. Click Here to View Books by Jim Spencer
W. H. “Chip” Gross
The final work, again one chronicling the writing life but falling somewhat wide of a being a straightforward memoir, is W. H. “Chip” Gross’s How to Become a Freelance Outdoors & Nature Writer. As I suspect is true for pretty much any ink-stained wretch whose byline appears with some regularity in outdoor publications or who has a number of books to his credit, in any given month I’ll have letters, emails or phone calls from readers indicating they have tales to tell and want to see their byline in print. I try my damndest to be polite and maybe even offer a wee bit of encouragement, but I also try to make a few things abundantly clear. Namely, freelance writing isn’t easy, it doesn’t provide a ready pathway to fame and fortune, you won’t be able to hunt and fish in exotic honey holes on someone else’s dollar, all the latest and greatest guns and fishing gear won’t suddenly show up on your doorstep and if you’ve got a day job you better keep it or else have a spouse who can support you. In addition, I endeavor to make it understood that yes, I’ll read and edit manuscripts, but at a somewhat pricey rate; likewise, my tolerance level declines precipitously if the would-be scribe bombards me seeking information.
In this work, Gross deals with most of the areas of interest to “wannabes,” and he does so from the perspective of a longtime, experienced freelancer. Anyone who has given much thought to joining the ranks of sporting scribes would do well to read his book before plowing ahead into territory filled with plenty of stretches of quicksand, a vocation or avocation requiring far more effort and far fewer free trips to exotic locales than typical expectations, and to gain a realistic view of what the life of a freelancer is like.
There are, to be sure, some key areas that receive little or no coverage—writing for newspapers, the points for negotiation and pitfalls related to book contracts, rights to his work a writer should understand, the vital importance of having a good editor for any book you self-publish, earning income as a consultant, ghost writing and more. Overall, though, most of the basics are found in these pages, and I know of no comparable work zeroing in on aspiring outdoor writers.
These three books vary enormously in terms of content. Yet all offer meaningful insight on the writing life as experienced by three men who have been successful in the field. The golden age of the sporting scribe almost certainly belongs to the past, but here you can get an armchair glimpse of what it was like from a trio who knew and lived in that world.
Jim Casada is Editor at Large for Sporting Classics and a lifelong student of the history of hunting and fishing. To learn more about his work or to receive his free monthly e-newsletter, visit jimcasadaoutdoors.com, or check out books offered through the sporting Classics Store.