I’m sure we’ll receive a raft of emails from outraged fans of William Humphrey’s work, but the Washington Post’s book critic (Johnathan Yardley) singled out the late Mr. Humphrey as a “Great Writer That Got Away.”
Odds are you’ve never heard of William Humphrey, much less read one of his several books, an unhappy reminder that even the best of writers — and from the publication of his first book in 1953 until his death in 1997, Humphrey was indeed one of the best — have a terribly hard time finding the readers they deserve.…
So to make up for that, here are two exercises in what Humphrey called “the literature of angling”: “The Spawning Run” (1970) and “My Moby Dick” (1978). They really are longish essays disguised as books, padded out with large type and lovely illustrations, both having fewer than 100 pages, all of which merely goes to show that small is, or can be, beautiful.
I admit it; I hadn’t read either of Humphrey’s essay books. Have the Undergrounders?
See you at the library, Tom Chandler.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Read both TSR and MBD when they were published again when he died in the nineties. They’re good fun. Just finished Datus Proper’s “What the Trout Said”, another really good now mostly forgotten writer. hdw(Quote)
As I recall, “My Moby Dick” is a summer-long quest for a large, one-eyed trout in a New England stream – wonderful read. I can’t quite remember the central theme of “A Spawning Run” (age?) other than it was great writing. Both are in storage up in the barn until I can get a little library set up in the cabin. This is a great reminder to pull his delightful, little books out and re-read them.
Dan Dan Hayes(Quote)
Read the Spawning Run away back when, and, as I faintly recall, it’s more about the, um, human urge to spawn than about piscatorial pursuits. I do remember reading a review of the book in one of the fly fishing magazines perhaps about the time it was published, and the reviewer didn’t quite have a clue as to why it was sent to him for review. I’d send you my copy but just scanned the shelves and it seems to have disappeared. six6ex(Quote)
“My Moby Dick” takes up an extremely narrow place on the angling bookshelf.
Fun little piece that can be read in about the time it takes to evacuate a slaw dog. Sully(Quote)
Yes, “My Moby Dick” is well worth a read, never read the other ‘un. Philip(Quote)
I read My Moby Dick, not long after its release, as I sat in the fly shop I worked at during college. One of the few books in the pile of fly fishing titles that probably crosses over the bar into the realm of literature. Well worth the time. Rick(Quote)