Hemingway on Fishing

By Ernest Hemingway

From childhood on, Ernest Hemingway was a passionate fisherman. He fished the lakes and creeks near the family’s summer home at Walloon Lake, Michigan, and his first stories and pieces of journalism were often about his favorite sport. Here, collected for the first time in one volume, are all of his great writings about the many kinds of fishing he did—from angling for trout in the rivers of northern Michigan to fishing for marlin in the Gulf Stream.

In A Moveable Feast, Hemingway speaks of sitting in a café in Paris and writing about what he knew best—and when it came time to stop, he “did not want to leave the river.” The story was the unforgettable classic “Big Two-Hearted River,” and from its first words we do not want to leave the river either. He also wrote articles for The Toronto Star on fishing in Canada and Europe and, later, articles for Esquire about his growing passion for big-game fishing. Two of his last books, The Old Man and the Sea and Islands in the Stream, celebrate his vast knowledge of the ocean and his affection for its great denizens.

Hemingway on Fishing is an encompassing, diverse, and fascinating assemblage. From the early Nick Adams stories and the memorable chapters on fishing the Irati River in The Sun Also Rises to such late novels as Islands in the Stream, this collection traces the evolution of a great writer’s passion, the range of his interests, and the sure use he made of fishing, transforming it into the stuff of great literature.

Anglers and lovers of great writing alike will welcome this important collection.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Scribner
• Release date: May 22, 2014
• ISBN: 9781476770468

Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway did more to change the style of English prose than any other writer of his time. Publication of The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms immediately established Hemingway as one of the greatest literary lights of the twentieth century. His classic novel The Old Man and the Sea won the Pulitzer Prize in 1953. Hemingway was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954. His life and accomplishments are explored in-depth in the PBS documentary film from Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, Hemingway. Known for his larger-than-life personality and his passions for bullfighting, fishing, and big-game hunting, he died in Ketchum, Idaho on July 2, 1961. 

Reviews for Hemingway on Fishing

[madepercy-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is an enjoyable collection of Hemingway's many descriptions and depictions and also his knowledge of fishing. Although many of the passages are from Hemingway novels and novella I have already completed, the Nick Adams and various Esquire, Vogue and Holiday magazine articles dating from the 1930s through to the 1950s are well worth having in one collection. I was particular enthralled by the Esquire article where Hemingway outlines the story of the Old Man and the Sea, back in 1936. It makes sense of his theory that the best writing is based on truth but it is completely made-up. Regardless, this book has inspired me to go fishing more often, and I have decided to learn how to fly-fish at the next opportunity.

[alanteder · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Even for a Hemingway fanatic like myself who already has the primary sources, this anthology collection of stories, articles and novel excerpts was an enjoyable read. It places the writing in roughly chronological order with the fishing sketches from the late Paris memoir "A Moveable Feast" becoming part of the first section with the short stories from the early years that relate to fresh water fishing. The Star & Esquire articles in the middle provide a transition from rivers & lakes to deep-sea fishing. The 3rd and final part provides excerpts from the late novels.There are many reasons to enjoy this collection as separate works from the source material. The masterpiece 2-part short story "Big Two-Hearted River" is a pleasure to read at any time. Being able to read the Irati River passage excerpted from "The Sun Also Rises" emphasizes its joyous nature even more than when it is the respite in the middle of the love & death dance of the novel. Having the several-hour struggle by middle son "David" (a roman-a-clef stand-in for real son Patrick) with a gigantic marlin excerpted from "Islands in the Stream" rescues the best passage of that otherwise relatively weak novel. 32 pages of photographs greatly adds to the atmosphere.Sadly, in what is packaged as a deluxe edition, there were still typos in something as often printed as "The Old Man and the Sea" e.g. <"Come on, fish," he sid. But the fish did not come.> on page 234. So points off for that.