Stuff keeps falling out as I reread old books. Angus Cameron, author of the LL Bean Game & Fish Cookbook and Jack O’Connor’s editor at (ahem) Knopf, sent me a copy of this exchange over The New Yorker review of O’Connor’s… The Rifle Book! Click to enlarge:Jack also got an obit in the NYT. It …
Tag: Writing
Agenda?
My more fanatic readers might know that, years ago, I published several articles in The Atlantic, most importantly a cut from Eagle Dreams that was later selected for Best American Travel Writing of 2002. Shortly thereafter, the magazine was sold to new owners, and I received a correct but cool letter informing me that my …
Grooms’ Gun: Mostly a Guest Post
Steve Grooms, the man who wrote the book on pheasants, is reluctantly giving up his gun.He writes: “It is an “Ithaca” Model 600 made by SKB and imported by Ithacagun around 1976. I’m the only owner. “12 gauge with 2 3/4″ chambers, 26” barrels bored improved cylinder and modified. The barrels (at least on the …
George Kimball, 1943- 2011, RIP
Tom Russell emailed to say that George Kimball, our greatest boxing writer and a damn brave fighter himself, died the night before last after a seven year battle with cancer, during which time he wrote or edited five books. I most recently linked to his website and books in this post here (scroll down). Like …
The provincialism of sophisticates
I was reading an article in Slightly Foxed, an excellent English quarterly devoted to neglected writing, and I came upon this quote from Marghanita Laski’s 1949 Little Boy Lost that both amused and chilled me because it is still so true: “To him it was inconceivable that an intelligent man should be happy to live …
Money, Writing For…
What is it Dr Johnson said? Tom McIntyre wrote this week, in a note: “Money, money, money, yes. It may not be able to buy you happiness but poverty sure as hell can’t either. I would just like to have the time (which means the money) to write only what I want, not what I …
On taking Kipling seriously
Kipling, perhaps because of his (perceived) politics, still “can’t get no respect” from middlebrow critics and the kind of hacks who enjoy making up dismissive one- liners. He has fewer problems with actual readers– he is never out of print– or serious critics; in addition to the ones mentioned below, good recent essays on him …
Whoops– Lost and Found
My old friend Steve Grooms, author of two fine books on pheasants (here and here), as well as ones on wolves and cranes, called today. We probably haven’t talked in over twenty years. After much catching up, he gave me an email for more– but it keeps bouncing! He has a good- gun- and book …
Good News!
If given my many hints and more it IS news. I have just signed a contract for, not one, but two books with Globe Pequot Press! The first, The Eagle’s Shadow, is virtually done: a natural and cultural history of All Things Eagle, with over 100 already- acquired illos from petroglyphs and shamanistic religious objects …
Radio
An interview with Guy de la Valdene, on The Fragrance of Grass, in which among many other things he says good things about writing by me, Joe Hutto, and Joel Vance, as well as his better- known hunting friends McGuane and Harrison. A cheerful reminder of why his book is so good…