The Tattered Autumn Sky: Bird Hunting in the Heartland [Hardcover]

Tom Davis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2004

A lively new collection of essays about sporting life, dogs, and the natural world.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This collection of essays focuses on Davis’s enthusiasm for bird hunting and the people and places, sights and sounds he associates with his sport of choice. These essays transcend the sometimes mundane "see it, shoot it" nature of nonfiction hunting stories. Instead, with their lyrical prose, subtle morality and bittersweet endings, Davis’s essays are reminiscent of Hemingway short stories. Having read his Hemingway, Davis knows that to be a hunter one must come to terms with the paradoxical nature of a sport that embraces the beauty of nature while at the same time seeking to destroy it. Davis’s ability to convey his love and understanding of the woods and animals as well as communicating the thrill of the hunt and the beauty of a bird he has just shot is the literary representation of this paradox. The cyclical nature of hunting seasons (along with Davis’s obsession with his setters) does make the essays repetitive in parts, but the repetition is more of a reaffirmation of Davis’s beliefs than an annoyance to the reader. As a hunter, Davis says he is "grateful for whatever portion, meager or generous, comes his way," but his readers will find this collection leans heavily towards generosity. Illus.
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From the Back Cover

In these fine essays, Tom Davis lyrically reflects on gundogs and gamebirds; on the prairies, fields, and woodlands where they meet; on the delights of upland bird hunting and the dilemmas posed by the summons of blood. Far more literary than most chroniclers of the sporting experience, his work stands squarely in the tradition of outdoor writing
represented by such greats as Aldo Leopold, Gordon MacQuarrie, Gene Hill, and Robert F. Jones.

More than recounting the highlights of a sporting life, these twenty-five essays, spanning two decades, act as a finely etched memoir. We come to know the bird dogs that have been central to Davis’s life, including the irrepressible Maggie in “Blood,” an endearing yet doomed English setter pup with the distinct aroma of a chicken. We meet family and friends, observe a marriage and its dissolution, and join in the resumption of life and love. With Davis, we are swallowed up by the immense prairies of Nebraska and South Dakota; awed by the late afternoon light in the Wisconsin northwoods; and moved by the devotion of an old dog on point. Through Davis’s deft pen, we, too, are bone weary at the end of a long day afield, and we, too, feel the elemental connection a hunter has to wild birds and the unspoiled places they inhabit.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Lyons Press; 1st edition (August 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1592283799
• ISBN-13: 978-1592283798
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #827,653 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Multi-layered view of upland wingshooting, February 26, 2006

By 

Kenneth D. Gartrell "www.kengartrell.com/BLOG/" (Boston, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Tattered Autumn Sky: Bird Hunting in the Heartland (Hardcover)

I strongly recommend this book to anyone looking for the meaning of shooting sport in a world increasingly hostile to it and other elements of tradition and style. Upon reflection, this is a deeply enjoyable book. It conveys a hidden wealth of knowledge and experience about upland wing shooting.

As part of a broader quest for enduring personal style, I am embarked on a systematic program to flesh out a philosophy of contemporary wingshooting. In context, this book is both inspirational and educational. My 4 star rating is provisional and based, knowing myself as I do, on a prediction that I will find more value in a few unread books above this one on my list. Candidly, I still have lots of reading and hunting to do. So, I don't want to finalize any assessment until I complete my reading list entitled "The Upland Road: Wingshooting with Style and Class" and transition it to more a carefully reasoned guide by the same name.

The Tattered Autumn Sky is a collection of personal essays working together to convey a growing sense of sportsmanship and style through the medium of upland wing shooting. Mr. Davis could have called the book, "How To Be a Better Sport". But, I'm sure he would consider that presumptuous. An essential value of the book is that Tom Davis never preaches about sportsmanship. He illustrates it in a background of personal growth, providing a rich context for readers to choose for themselves what, if any, philosophy they would like to bring to/from the field.

In addition to subtle penetrating philosophy, there are also several practical levels on which this book succeeds. First, it excels as a simple survey of game birds and hunting situations in the United States. Second, it provides valuable insights into gun dog training, development and performance. Third, it reveals the sophisticated world of gourmet cooking embedded in the sport. Finally, it offers insight into the social clashes caused by re-gentrification of the, heretofore, widely egalitarian nature of American upland shooting descending from its historical connections to the self-sufficient family farm.

My only complaint about the book (and really it is a small one) is that it is few degrees too personal and too sentimental. I admit this criticism may be unwarranted and only a by-product of my own stoicism. It is understandable, after all, that anyone who enjoys a "social" sport like shooting, fishing or golf would want to relate emotionally to the personalities they have enjoyed in a lifetime of sporting activity. But, it is very easy (as I believe happens in this book) to slip into personal sentiment so far that the readers end feeling deprived of helpful insights that they cannot so easily reproduce for themselves by substitute means.

Back on the positive side, I learned a great deal from this book about the relative merits of the variety of American upland game birds. I share Mr. Davis's enthusiasm for the woodcock, and so, I appreciate his many insights about this elusive game bird. I also enjoyed his insights about the demands of hunting the prairie chicken and sharp-tail grouse. I have, indeed, been looking for an excuse to visit Nebraska, Kansas, South Dakota and Iowa. His stories about both the prairie grouses and pheasants give me direction and inspiration for the fall seasons ahead.

The coverage of the hunting for quail, grouse and waterfowl in this book is less than that of pheasant, woodcock and prairie grouse. The coverage, nevertheless, is insightful and helpful as it reinforces the value of a good pointing and retrieving dog. The overall cross-comparisons also bring into perspective the interesting contrast in hunting conditions, shooting technique and cooking tastes.

My personal interests run towards the fusion of American enthusiasm and practicality in sport with received European style and sensibility. I prefer, for example, to hunt in a Barbour coat, a tattersall shirt, a tie, a pair of knee pants and a pair of Le Chameau St, Hubert boots. But, I wear bright orange baseball cap and I enjoy fighting in the thickets to flush the woodcock and climbing the Sand Hills of Nebraska walking the miles needed to track down the elusive sharp-tail.

Intentional or otherwise, Tom Davis succeeds to a high level in conveying useful concepts for anyone searching the woods of life for personal style and philosophy. He achieves this while also conveying an abiding sportsmanship institutionalizing respect for the land, the game, the dogs and the people who converge on this tributary to the search for the good life.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for bird, dog and nature lovers, December 26, 2005

By 

Neal S. Mcmanus "crazy horse" (Cooperstown, N.Y. USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Tattered Autumn Sky: Bird Hunting in the Heartland (Hardcover)

I purchased this book as a gift for my father, a lifelong bird hunter,though not with pointers. My wife and I read chapters at random, we were so touched by the first one chosen we couldn't stop reading. The descriptions of days afield were poignant and touching. This compelling book made us both laugh and cry. We enjoyed every page and felt we had lived these experiences in the author's own boots. I would compare this author to Spiller, Mcquarrie and Hill. I felt as though I had found a new hunting companion in Davis.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book!!!, October 5, 2007

By 

R. Dufresne (Southern NH) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Tattered Autumn Sky: Bird Hunting in the Heartland (Hardcover)

If you love upland game and man's best friend you must buy this book. Mr. Davis shares with his readers a personal side of his life while clearly describing some of the ephemeral reasons why modern man MUST hunt. In this collection of his short stories, you learn about a man passionate about bird hunting and intimately connected to the dogs he takes to the field. The book is well written and unlike some sports writers who feel they must apologize for their sport, this gent understands hunting is as important to his life as the blood that courses through his veins.