Hemingway on Fishing (Hardcover)

~ Ernest Hemingway (Author), A. E. Hotchner (Introduction), Jack Hemingway (Foreword)
Key Phrases: reserve coils, striped marlin, meat line, Thomas Hudson, Signor Tenente, Gulf Stream (more...)

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.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 296 pages
• Publisher: The Lyons Press (October 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1599211084
• ISBN-13: 978-1599211084
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 7.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #269,247 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #62 in	Books > Literature & Fiction > Authors, A-Z > ( H ) > Hemingway, Ernest
  #73 in	Books > Literature & Fiction > Classics > United States > Hemingway, Ernest

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 21 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.

7 of 7 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.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Marlin Reality, January 17, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Hemingway on Fishing (Hardcover)

The best descriptions of marlin fishing I have ever read. Papa get to the essence of the experience;not overdone. Beautifully and unhurriedly transmitted to the reader.Other excerpts are edited perfectly. A great book.