DeMott's schrijven duikt in het rijke tapijt van het vliegvissen, waarbij hij de filosofische en praktische dimensies ervan met een ervaren hand verkent. Zijn proza vangt de stille contemplatie en de elementaire verbinding die op het water te vinden zijn, en onthult een diep begrip van zowel de sport als de diepgaande impact ervan op de menselijke geest. Door zijn meeslepende verhalen nodigt hij lezers uit om de lokroep van de worp en de subtiele schoonheid van de natuurlijke wereld die hij zo levendig portretteert, te ervaren.
Each of these hybrid "proems," inspired in part by Audubon's great book, attempts to combine the amplitude and spaciousness of prose with the compression and focus of poetry. In traveling into darkly intertwined spaces of personal geography, memory, emotion, and loss, as well as into wild nature, each piece surrounds its lyrical moment in a context of details, imaginings, and resonances with which to express its dramatic occasion.
“From the very first, it seems, fishing was a respite and a therapy along with all of its other potentially redemptive qualities.” —Robert DeMott Spanning more than forty-five years, Angling Days is a collection of Robert DeMott’s numerous journal entries, each a small essay in itself, jotted down during the placid moments of fishing in and along the streams and rivers of North America. Through his journaling, DeMott carries on the angling tradition of channeling the tranquility of fly fishing into creative endeavors, whether by painting, sketching, fly tying, or writing. For him, it was writing—something he did whenever he could, whether in the midst of fishing or during a break away from the water. Angling Days is a lifetime of work, a chronicle of what it is to be an angler seeking the most pristine waters and the smartest fish. It is a collection of entries and musings in the vein of DeMott’s literary hero, Henry David Thoreau, and promises to shine a new light on the art and joy of fly fishing.
In Monterey, on the California coast, Sweet Thursday is what they call the day after Lousy Wednesday, which is one of those days that are just naturally bad. Returning to the scene of Cannery Row--the weedy lots and junk heaps and flophouses of Monterey, John Steinbeck once more brings to life the denizens of a netherworld of laughter and tears--from Doc, based on Steinbeck's lifelong friend Ed Ricketts, to Fauna, new headmistress of the local brothel, to Hazel, a bum whose mother must have wanted a daughter. This Penguin Classics edition features an introduction and notes by Robert DeMott.