Hemingway on Fishing [Paperback]

Ernest Hemingway (Author), Nick Lyons (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 22, 2002

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.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

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 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Scribner (October 22, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 074321918X
• ISBN-13: 978-0743219181
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #186,566 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Ernest Hemingway ranks as the most famous of twentieth-century American writers; like Mark Twain, Hemingway is one of those rare authors most people know about, whether they have read him or not. The difference is that Twain, with his white suit, ubiquitous cigar, and easy wit, survives in the public imagination as a basically, lovable figure, while the deeply imprinted image of Hemingway as rugged and macho has been much less universally admired, for all his fame. Hemingway has been regarded less as a writer dedicated to his craft than as a man of action who happened to be afflicted with genius. When he won the Nobel Prize in 1954, Time magazine reported the news under Heroes rather than Books and went on to describe the author as "a globe-trotting expert on bullfights, booze, women, wars, big game hunting, deep sea fishing, and courage." Hemingway did in fact address all those subjects in his books, and he acquired his expertise through well-reported acts of participation as well as of observation; by going to all the wars of his time, hunting and fishing for great beasts, marrying four times, occasionally getting into fistfights, drinking too much, and becoming, in the end, a worldwide celebrity recognizable for his signature beard and challenging physical pursuits.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Papa at his finest, October 30, 2000

By 

P. Bonoff "Yaleman" (Scarsdale, New York USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hemingway on Fishing (Hardcover)

For Papa fishing was an act of love and worship. It was pure. It was simple. And the earth always moved. Enjoy this definitive collection of his most heartfelt writing. This is the core of Hemingway. It is a pathway to nobility and wisdom. A reader of these pieces can only shake his head in dismay at politicians and heroes in today's culture who even utter the word "character". If you need to talk about it, you don't understand it. Reading this book is a rite of passage. Thanks, Papa.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hemingway on Fishing, October 2, 2001

By 

M. Boutte (Houston, Tx United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hemingway on Fishing (Hardcover)

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.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gathers Hemingway's writings about angling, April 29, 2001

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Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hemingway on Fishing (Hardcover)

Hemingway On Fishing gathers Hemingway's writings about angling, and while it fits into our 'literature' section quite neatly with its flowing prose and evocative descriptions, it's the fisherman who will appreciate Hemingway's passion for the sport. Nick Lyons edits the presentation and provide an introduction, Jack Hemingway the foreword in this classic treatise.