Who are your favorite authors? - Page 2

JoeLyons · #16 02-24-2010, 10:54 AM

Yes. Dr. Post had the benefit of access to some truly remarkable and highly accomplished angler/characters which to that point had been largely untapped.

If a writing project were to be compared to a cooking a meal, Dr. Post's ingredients were of top quality and very fresh. That's so huge - to be first with a good idea.

The writing must have come easy.

clambellies · #17 02-24-2010, 04:55 PM

One of my favorite fishing books is The Philosophical Fisherman" by Harold F. Blisdell. So I guess that makes him one of my favorite authors. He only wrote a couple of books, but this one is a gem. Mostly fly fishing for trout, but a wry and witty look at fishing and our perception of it, and of the importance we place on the sport.

Chris Garrity · #18 02-24-2010, 10:19 PM

It's not fishing related, but Raymond Chander, to me, just keeps getting better and better. I've read The Big Sleep and The Long Goodbye at least 20 times apiece, and they get better and better with each reading. It's extremely difficult for a novel to be both commentary on its era and timeless, but Chandler pulls it off, and it seems effortless. It's good stuff.

PlugDog · #19 02-24-2010, 10:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by clambellies

One of my favorite fishing books is The Philosophical Fisherman" by Harold F. Blisdell. So I guess that makes him one of my favorite authors. He only wrote a couple of books, but this one is a gem. Mostly fly fishing for trout, but a wry and witty look at fishing and our perception of it, and of the importance we place on the sport.

I recall reading Harold Blaisdell's "The Art of Fishing with Worms and Other Live Baits". This book too was a gem, a lot of Harold's observations about what works and why written in the style of a native Vermonter fishing his home waters. I'm going to try and locate and read Philosophical Fisherman. -Reading Harold you got the feeling that you were actually on a fishing trip with one of your uncles who really knew what he was doing and was sober.

Frank Daignault · #20 02-25-2010, 04:09 PM

"one of your uncles who really knew what he was doing and was sober." A rare bird in deed!

clambellies · #21 02-27-2010, 09:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PlugDog

I recall reading Harold Blaisdell's "The Art of Fishing with Worms and Other Live Baits". This book too was a gem, a lot of Harold's observations about what works and why written in the style of a native Vermonter fishing his home waters. I'm going to try and locate and read Philosophical Fisherman. -Reading Harold you got the feeling that you were actually on a fishing trip with one of your uncles who really knew what he was doing and was sober.

PlugDog, You'll enjoy the book , I'm sure. I found one on ebay not too long ago for a friend. You nailed it about his native Vermont Yankee take on things. Maybe that's what appealed to me so much.

Frank Daignault · #22 03-01-2010, 02:39 PM

There has always been a lot of hoakum over the Yankee take on things. It has always made me wonder why the world is different through their eyes. Rules about the honest country boy make my eye-balls click. "Folks from away", or selling lobsters at a lower price without saying that the lobsters had no claws. There has to be a better way to write books. I see us all as pretty much the same.

Not Blaisdell necessarilly but the "I'm different idiosyncratics."

Frank Daignault · #23 03-10-2010, 03:38 PM

An interesting writer you are going to hear more about is C.J. Chivers. An X-Marine officer, he is presently a war correspondent in Afganistan for the New York Times. I read a piece of his on a recent battle there only about a week ago. We met him when he was doing a piece on me, back when he was nobody writing about nobody. He is a very savvy guy who really gets around and has a writer's mind and thurst for material that works.

JoeLyons · #24 03-11-2010, 09:41 AM

C.J.'s awesome. He works with the photographer Tyler Hicks sometimes - they're both gonzo....serious, old school journalists.

Frank Daignault · #25 03-11-2010, 11:34 AM

CJ was back in Rhode Island until recently. We traded e-mails and he was supposed to be going fishing locally. Then I saw a piece from Afganistan and figured he might still be there on assingment. Funny, how a person is developing before your eyes and we don't think much about it until much later. Ever wish you could buy stock in a person?

ragman · #26 03-11-2010, 02:37 PM

For those of you interested, I'm pretty sure he has a few articles posted on this site as Chris Chivers. I am by no means any literary giant, but his articles are well written and enjoyable. Check out the home/articles page. I'm not going to look back and post links, computer unsavvy and lazy..

Frank Daignault · #27 07-31-2010, 11:31 AM

How could this thread have ever been allowed to run out? Piscator, say something ....

biggestsquid · #28 07-31-2010, 02:47 PM

My OTHER favorite authors are Jeff Shaara, Zane Grey, Ernest Hemmingway and McCullough, the historian. Von Campen Hillner whatever did a nice job with his surf fishing books.

As for current vintage outdoor writers --- your work is most pleasant reading Frank. I tend to like the historical accounts and your market fishing on the surf is as good reading as anything out there.

If you want a good laugh Carl Hiaasen is hard to beat --- that guy writes some funny stuff. His book about the bass tournament is priceless and huis character "Skink" who lives in the swamp and wears a shower cap for headgear is one of my heros.

My reading incorporates history, outdoors, and modern political themes --- so I mix two to four books at a time to keep my interest. There is one of your books that I just sat down and read cover to cover.

I have talked to a number of oldtimers whose stories are soon to be lost forever --- and I often thought somebody needs to turn those words into ink.

SALMONMEISTER · #29 07-31-2010, 04:12 PM

I've talked with Art Lee a couple of times and like most of us, he's a bit of a character. His books on fly fishing, the riffling hitch and Hemingway (he's friends with Jack Hemingway) are beautifully written.

Frank, your comments on this site and a few in your books crack me up. Again, another character with a nice writing style. I mean how many authors ever say "my dear, sweet reader?"

Piscator · #30 07-31-2010, 08:22 PM

Hey, Frank...
I've not done a whole lot of reading this summer, been busy with tons of promises. I am still reading, Fly Fishing the Striper Surf. I don't know where the notion that it was poorly organized came from. I think, from what I've read so far, that it's very well thought out and organized and has tons of useful info. As far as the section on sweet-water salmon fishing goes (I believe you said they thought it was fill?), well I skipped ahead to read that section first because I'm also a landlocked salmon and trout junkie. I've never caught the return from sea, silver missiles that you and Joyce had the pleasure of tangling with, but I really loved that chapter. As far as other reading goes, I'm getting itchy for hunting and I've dug out Lawrence R. Koller's, Shots at Whitetails with the intro by O'Connor again and started reading it. I'm actually trying to put together a Labor Day bear/bow hunt in Pittsburg, NH. The cool air and the sound of cicadas in the trees at night always gets me antsy for hunting, and I long for September way too soon, what with the best bassing yet to come. Peter Hathaway Capstick's Death in the Long Grass will be dug out next, a traditional perennial deer stand read.