A River Trilogy: A Fly-Fishing Life

Description

For the first time together, A River Trilogy combines three classic works on fly fishing by W. D. Wetherell. Contained here are some of Wetherell's most poetic pieces, a combination of spontaneous journal entries, reflections on contemplative excursions, and outright fishing tales. Each passage is filled with moving imagery describing the beauty of the river and the natural world that surrounds it. The first book in the collection, Vermont River, is an elegy to the author's love of fly fishing in his native Vermont. Selected by Trout magazine as one of the thirty finest works on fly fishing, Vermont River will move readers with its radiant descriptions of Wetherell's beloved sport and region. In Upland Streams, Wetherell explores the meandering streams and crooked creeks that dot New England's landscape, the mighty rivers that flow through the Southwest, and the crags and lochs that fill the countryside of Scotland. Conveyed with characteristic humor and introspection, Upland Streams chronicles moments of life lived close to nature in all its majesty. One River More, the final volume in the collection, begins as a traditional chronicle of trout fishing in Vermont and Montana. It quickly, however, becomes a rich exploration of some of the most essential human experiences: love of nature and love of family.

W. D. Wetherell is a novelist, story writer, and essayist who has published more than twenty books. His World War I novel, A Century of November, was published to wide acclaim, praised as "a small classic of language and emotion" (San Francisco Chronicle). Wetherell has published five previous books from Skyhorse/Arcade, including On Admiration, Soccer Dad, The Writing on the Wall, Where Wars Go to Die, and his latest nonfiction work, The Summer of the Bass. His website is wdwetherell.com. He resides in Lyme Center, New Hampshire.

"W. D. Wetherell is a good fisherman, a better writer, and a most agreeable companion who has a deep feeling for the natural world in which his quarry swim." -Chicago Tribune "Wetherell writes about fishing with an angler's love for the sport and a novelist's eye for detail."-John Gierach, author of All Fisherman Are Liars "Wetherell defends the plain pleasures of his sport and the environmental purity to sustain it, as well as what he, a novelist, calls 'the wild upland province of words.' He moves naturally from the beauty of a Copper Run trout to Beauty itself . . . He has a naturalist's eye, glorying in the things mankind has not yet sullied, grieving for those we have."-New York Times "Wetherell has better than any writer I know caught the character of Eastern fly-fishing: the energetic personalities of its seasons, geographies, politics natural and unnatural, and inhabitants both civilized and wild. These books have been provided us courtesy of an artist unwilling to concede that there is a distinction to be made between what is said and the manner of its saying."-John Engels, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for poetry "Vermont River is one of those rare instances when fly-fishing writing overflows its banks and spreads freely into the fields of literature."-John Merwin, founder of Fly Rod & Reeland author of Stillwater Trout "These are bold little gleeful books by a writer I've admired for years that should endear themselves to everybody who likes streams and woods and country as well as simply to other fishermen, who will find them both astute and lyric."-Edward Hoagland, author of In the Country of the Blind "Immensely readable books by a young fisherman-writer equally obsessed by the twin pursuits of the elusive trout and the elusive word. I both love and envy them." -Robert Traver, author of Trout Magic "Wetherell understands the currents that flow through a fly-fisher's soul and he taps into them with rare wit and grace. One of the most talented voices to be heard in angling literature in a long while. I found myself wishing for at least one page more, or one chapter more, and one book more. So will you."-Steve Raymond, author Trout Quintet "Delightful books that impart the soul of the river the angler, and the surrounding countryside." -Ted Giddings, journalist "This is my idea of what fishing books should be-and too seldom are. Like fly fishing itself, the books sooth the soul and answer more than a few questions all of us have asked of a day, a river, or a trout."-Gene Hill, former columnist for Field & Stream "Deeply felt yet resolutely unsentimental, consistently generous yet unflinching in its allegiances, Wetherell's is a voice of sanity and sense for our increasingly virtual age. Reading him is like coming home."-Mark Slouka, author of Nobody's Son and recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship "Literary gems."-Paul Marriner, author Atlantic Salmon: A Fly Fishing Primer "Wetherell is the ideal armchair companion-an elegant writer, a fastidious, observant angler, a charming streamside companion."-J. Z. Grover, writer for In-Fisherman "W. D. Wetherell is a good fisherman, a better writer, and a most agreeable companion who has a deep feeling for the natural world in which his quarry swim." -Chicago Tribune "Wetherell writes about fishing with an angler's love for the sport and a novelist's eye for detail."-John Gierach, author of All Fisherman Are Liars "Wetherell defends the plain pleasures of his sport and the environmental purity to sustain it, as well as what he, a novelist, calls 'the wild upland province of words.' He moves naturally from the beauty of a Copper Run trout to Beauty itself . . . He has a naturalist's eye, glorying in the things mankind has not yet sullied, grieving for those we have."-New York Times "Wetherell has better than any writer I know caught the character of Eastern fly-fishing: the energetic personalities of its seasons, geographies, politics natural and unnatural, and inhabitants both civilized and wild. These books have been provided us courtesy of an artist unwilling to concede that there is a distinction to be made between what is said and the manner of its saying."-John Engels, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for poetry "Vermont River is one of those rare instances when fly-fishing writing overflows its banks and spreads freely into the fields of literature."-John Merwin, founder of Fly Rod & Reeland author of Stillwater Trout "These are bold little gleeful books by a writer I've admired for years that should endear themselves to everybody who likes streams and woods and country as well as simply to other fishermen, who will find them both astute and lyric."-Edward Hoagland, author of In the Country of the Blind "Immensely readable books by a young fisherman-writer equally obsessed by the twin pursuits of the elusive trout and the elusive word. I both love and envy them." -Robert Traver, author of Trout Magic "Wetherell understands the currents that flow through a fly-fisher's soul and he taps into them with rare wit and grace. One of the most talented voices to be heard in angling literature in a long while. I found myself wishing for at least one page more, or one chapter more, and one book more. So will you."-Steve Raymond, author Trout Quintet "Delightful books that impart the soul of the river the angler, and the surrounding countryside." -Ted Giddings, journalist "This is my idea of what fishing books should be-and too seldom are. Like fly fishing itself, the books sooth the soul and answer more than a few questions all of us have asked of a day, a river, or a trout."-Gene Hill, former columnist for Field & Stream "Deeply felt yet resolutely unsentimental, consistently generous yet unflinching in its allegiances, Wetherell's is a voice of sanity and sense for our increasingly virtual age. Reading him is like coming home."-Mark Slouka, author of Nobody's Son and recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship "Literary gems."-Paul Marriner, author Atlantic Salmon: A Fly Fishing Primer "Wetherell is the ideal armchair companion-an elegant writer, a fastidious, observant angler, a charming streamside companion."-J. Z. Grover, writer for In-Fisherman