Product Description

From childhood on, Ernest Hemingway was a passionate fisherman. He fished the lakes and creeks near the family's summer home at Walloon Lake, Michigan, and his first stories and reportages were often about his favorite sport. Here, collected for the first time in one volume, are all of his great writings about the many kinds of fishing he did -- from trout in the rivers of northern Michigan to marlin in the Gulf Stream.

In A Moveable Feast, Hemingway speaks of sitting in a café in Paris and writing about what he knew best -- and when it came time to stop, he "did not want to leave the river." The story was the unforgettable classic, "Big Two-Hearted River," and from its first words we do not want to leave the river either. He also wrote articles for the Toronto Star on fishing in Canada and Europe and, later, articles for Esquire about his growing passion for big-game fishing. His last books, The Old Man and the Sea and Islands in the Stream, celebrate his vast knowledge of the ocean and his affection for its great denizens.

Hemingway on Fishing is an encompassing, diverse, and fascinating collection. From the early Nick Adams stories and the memorable chapters on fishing the Irati River in The Sun Also Rises to such late novels as Islands in the Stream, this collection traces the evolution of a great writer's passion; the range of his interests; the sure use he made of fishing, transforming it into the stuff of great literature.

Anglers and lovers of great writing alike will welcome this important collection.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #371856 in Books
• Published on: 2002-10-22
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 272 pages

From Amazon.com
When the taciturn hero of Hemingway's "Big Two-Hearted River" returns from the Great War, he heads straight to the northern Michigan woods to begin the process of healing. Camping along the river and fishing for trout, Nick Adams slowly retrieves the elements of a life interrupted, allowing familiar sensations to wash over him:

He stepped into the stream. It was a shock. His trousers clung tightly to his legs. His shoes felt the gravel.... There was a tug on the line. It was his first strike. Holding the now living rod across the current, he brought in the line with his left hand. The rod bent in jerks, the trout pumping against the current.

Later, breaking his leader on a large fish, he reels in, feeling "a little sick, as though it would be better to sit down." More than one critic has called "Big Two-Hearted River" the author's greatest short story. Certainly it's a model of the form, written in the uncluttered prose that Hemingway made his trademark. That he struck such a deep, cathartic chord with what seems on the face of it like a simple fish tale is no accident: Hemingway would return to his love of angling time and again over the course of his career.

Hemingway on Fishing collects the bulk of the author's angling-related writings, including other Nick Adams stories and excerpts from several novels--most notably, the memorable wine-soaked pilgrimage to Spain's Irati River in The Sun Also Rises. However, the lesser-known newspaper and magazine articles may elicit even more interest among readers. A piece that the 21-year-old Hemingway wrote for the Toronto Star Weekly in August 1920 reveals his rather precocious confidence. "At present the best rainbow trout fishing in the world is in the rapids of the Canadian Soo," he announces in the first paragraph, and then proceeds to scotch any hopes of an easy catch:

It is a wild and nerve-frazzling sport and the odds are in favor of the big trout who tear off thirty or forty yards of line at a rush and then will sulk at the base of a rock and refuse to be stirred into action by the pumping of a stout fly rod aided by a fluent monologue of Ojibwayian profanity.

By 1933, Hemingway was writing about his true angling passion--deep-sea big-game fishing--for the likes of Esquire and other large-circulation glossies. In "Marlin of the Morro: A Cuban Letter," he notes that when the northeast trade winds blow, the "marlin come to the top and cruise the wind." To catch a fish, the saying goes, you must think like one--and Papa's perceptive descriptions of piscine behavior show why he was considered one of the premiere anglers of his day. It's true that Hemingway indulged his passions in life and on the page, and that sometimes the former got him into trouble. As for the latter, those of us who enjoy a good fish story are the luckier for it. --Langdon Cook

From Publishers Weekly
The Lyons Press releases three books this November about man's primal passion for fishing and hunting. For the first book, Hemingway on Fishing, edited and introduced by Nick Lyons and with a foreword by Hemingway's son Jack, the publisher will undertake a 100,000-copy print run ($29.95 288p ISBN 1-58574-144-2). Hemingway's love for fishing is legendary, and both his fiction and journalism are filled with tales about his favorite sport. From his famous story "Big Two-Hearted River" to selections from The Old Man and the Sea, Hemingway's passion comes across, just as he did, as larger than life. A photo of Ernest Hemingway with a huge catch adorns the cover of The Greatest Fishing Stories Ever Told, a collection of 28 essays by contributors such as Hemingway, Zane Grey and Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, edited and introduced by Lamar Underwood (On Dangerous Ground) ($24.95 304p -140-X). Underwood also presents the similar formatted The Greatest Hunting Stories Ever Told, featuring essays by such avid sportsmen as William Faulkner, Theodore Roosevelt and, yes, Ernest Hemingway ($24.95 288p ISBN-141-8).
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
The name Hemingway immediately conjures visions of the burly writer posing beside some creature he's just dispatched, whether it be a beast of the field, a leviathan of the deepDor a pitcher of martinis (nice work if you can get it). This marvelous volume offers a full creel of Hemingway's best writing involving fishing gleaned from his fiction and nonfiction along with a foreword by son Jack, an introduction by editor Lyons, and 32 monochrome images. More than merely fishing stories, this collection shows Hemingway's progression as a writer: the early journalistic dispatches are fairly rough, while the later pieces are Nobel Prize-winning perfection. The book also evidences the author's keen scientific mind, and his observations on the biology of the marlin are icthyologically advanced. Hemingway was also an innovative angler who helped develop tackle and methods still used in deep sea fishing. But mostly these samples from his early Nick Adams stories and selections from The Sun Also Rises, the underrated Islands in the Stream, and The Old Man and the Sea are beautiful to read and remind you of just how adept an observer Hemingway was and the powers he had to describe events so exactly yet so simply as to put you there in his story and to make his emotions yours. Hemingway on Fishing is a trophy-sized catch to enjoy in and out of season, so grab yourself a cold one, get comfortable, and go fishing with Papa! Highly recommended. Michael Rogers, "Library Journal"
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Customer Reviews

Excellent collection of Hemingway's best at fishing...
Ernest Hemingway, beside being the premier American author of the twentieth century, also fished quite avidly. The assorted writings in "Hemingway on Fishing" range from articles written for magazines, to portions of books such as "The Sun Also Rises" and "Old Man and the Sea." One of the stories rivals the Old Man and the Sea when it comes to futility and heartbreak in fishing for marlin. Excellent book: if you enjoy Hemingway and the fish of the sea, get your hands on a copy.

Please -- no more literature critics....
This book is a "matter of fact" gathered from the thoughts of a fellow who enjoyed the outdoors more than his own life. Within the pages of this 'compilation' a person can understand a little more about a poet that was not revealed through many of the original passages. As I have personally read, many of Hemingway's articles, short stories and novels are written from hindsight and many personal experiences, albiet great compositions; there was a literate outcome and method.
Nick Lyons is a great writer on his own and he has had much of a collection to work with in preparing this book. His [Lyons] piecing of this puzzle has made good sense and his additions have overwhelmed the possibilities.

Hemingway on Fishing
This is an excellent collection of Hemingway's writings about fishing, each taken from a larger work. It is a great introduction to Hemingway if your new to him, and a great refresher to him if you've been away for awhile. Read this book and you won't be disappointed, but please do each work the respect of reading the book it came from, and experience each work in it's original context.