Category Archives: Books For The Sportsman

WORDS ON PAPER – CELEBRATING THE OUTDOOR EXPERIENCE

The Borzoi Books for Sportsmen by M. L. Biscotti

The Borzoi Books for Sportsmen by M. L. Biscotti. With information on the evolution of the modern sporting book, publishing histories, the sporting titles of the Penn Publishing Company, Borzoi titles, the authors and the illustrators, sporting books by Knopf, book values, and more.

Russell Chatham Signed Books – Angler’s, Dark & Silent

From wikipedia:

“Russell Chatham (born October 27, 1939) is a contemporary American landscape artist who spent most of his career living in Livingston, Montana. The artist is the grandson of landscape painter Gottardo Piazzoni, though he is essentially a self-taught artist. His work has been exhibited in over 400 one man shows and in museums and galleries over the last five decades. Notable art critic Robert Hughes is numbered one of Chatham’s collectors and there are others as diverse as Paul Allen and actor Jack Nicholson. Chatham’s work eschews the narrative tendency of much western art and presents landscapes that stand in intimate relationship towards the human figure even in the absence of it. In the early 1980s Chatham began making lithographs and now stands as one of the world’s foremost practitioners of that craft.

In addition to Lithography, Chatham also produces original oil paintings. His oil paintings currently sell for tens of thousands of dollars, and there is a multi-year waiting list for commissions, but according to his dealers, he prefers printing lithographs as the more challenging art form. (Longtime Livingston residents can recall a time when early in his career Chatham traded his canvases for essential services in a barter arrangement.) Despite being a print, Chatham’s lithographs have little to do with modern process lithography, which always starts from a photograph and typically only uses 4 colors. His art lithographs may have 30 or 40 different layers of color, all of which have to be hand drawn on to the printing plate, and the colors selected for the final effect. To see some of the early proofs of one of his prints is to see a study in vivid and unusual colors from which it is almost impossible to conceive of the final subtle shadings and quiet colors.

In addition to his work as a painter, Chatham has also published a series of short stories “Dark Waters” in which he details the exploits of his hunting friends, like the author Jim Harrison. ..

Many of Chatham’s painted works have adorned the covers of Harrison’s works.” – Wikipedia

Below are some selected offerings from Michael Patrick McCarty, Bookseller:

 

The Angler's Coast by Russell Chatham. Signed by Russell Chatham

The Angler’s Coast by Russell Chatham.  Hard cover. Clark City Press, Livingston, Montana. First Clark City Press Printing ,1990, 163 pages. Very good in very good dust jacket. A light bump to upper corners, and a slight dent to lower cover edge. Else in Very Good+ condition with like dustjacket, which has some light edgewear. Signed “Russell Chatham 1991” on half title page. Autographed copies of this title rarely offered.

Russell Chatham Autograph Signature. The Angler's Coast.

$195 plus $4 shipping (in U.S.).

 

“Everything in nature is essentially inscrutable,” claims Russell Chatham in The Angler’s Coast, but his written observations of the world around him are as evocative as his painted landscapes. First published in 1976, this new edition has been expanded to include photographs of the great fishermen and rivers of the West Coast.” -Publisher’s Synopsis

Silent Seasons: Twenty-One Fishing Stories by Thomas McGuane, William Hjortsberg, ,Jack Curtis, Harmon Henkin, Charles Waterman, Jim Harrison & Russell Chatham. Signed by Russell Chatham

Silent Seasons: Twenty-One Fishing Stories by Thomas McGuane, William Hjortsberg, Jack Curtis, Harmon Henkin, Charles Waterman, Jim Harrison & Russell Chatham. Clark City Press, Livingston, Montana. Stated First Printing, 1988, 205 pages. Softcover, in Fine Condition with Fine Dustjacket. Signed “Russell Chatham, 1990” on half-title page; scarce thus.

$95 plus $4 shipping (in U.S.).

 

“This is probably the best assembly of fine writers who happen to be fisherman that you’ll find; you don’t even have to be a fisherman to enjoy it. You won’t learn much about how to fish but I promise that you’ll discover many of the reasons that sensient, articulate and thoughtful people want fishing to be part of the fabric of their lives.” – Gene Hill

 

Dark Waters: Essays, Stories and Articles by Russell Chatham. Signed by Russell Chatham

Dark Waters: Essays, Stories and Articles by Russell Chatham. Clark City Press, Livingston, Montana. Stated First Printing, 1988, 205 pages. Softcover, in Fine Condition with Fine Dustjacket. Signed “Russell Chatham, 1990” on half-title page; scarce thus.

$95 plus $4 shipping (in U.S.). [SOLD]

 

“In Dark Waters you will find no bilge, no pap, little that you’d expect, feasts you’ll never forget, sights and smells that only an artist’s antennae could catch…this book is bold, outrageous, wise, independent, wrong-headed, delicious, pugnacious, and lots of fun.” – Nick Lyons

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Offered by Michael Patrick McCarty

Please email us at huntbook1@gmail.com

Availability Subject to Prior Sale

Books Spoken Here – and Writing Too!

See our Catalog of 10,000 Used, Collectable, and Rare Books HERE

You can search by author, title, or keyword, and more. (Scan the complete list HERE).
Still can’t find it? Please let us know. We may have it, in the backroom. 

The Analysis of The Hunting Field – A Rare Foxhunting Book

Robert Smith Surtees (1805-1864) was an English editor, novelist and sporting writer. Henry Thomas Alken. worked in both oil and watercolor and was a skilled etcher.
In The Analysis of the Hunting Field, Surtees offers wry, fatherly advice in this satiric romp through the key archetypes of the fox hunt. As Lord Denham says in his introduction, “this should be required reading for anyone connected with hunting.

 

Photo of front cover and spine of The Analysis of The Hunting Field By Robert Smith Surtees. Illustrated by Henry Thomas Alken. First Edition, 2nd Issue, 1846.
Sporting Lore Galore, With Gilt Decorations and Hand Colored Plates

 The Analysis of The Hunting Field; Being A Series of Sketches of the Principle Characters That Compose One. The Whole Forming a Slight Souvenir of The Season, 1845-1846

By Robert Smith Surtees. Illustrated by Henry Thomas Alken. 

Published by Rudolf Ackermann; Cook and Co., Printer and Engravers, London (1846).

First Edition, Second Issue.

In Good condition. No dust jacket as issued. Some wear and short tears to cloth at end of spines, and a light and short split to cloth at backstrap. Top edge darkened, with some browning to pages and some occasional light foxing. With titles and preface dated 1846.

There are 6 hand colored plates (including frontispiece), and a hand colored title page. Plates 2, 3, and 4 are dated Nov. 19th. In original maroon cloth, with gilt front and spine decorations.The First Printing is quite scarce in any condition.

Her Offered at $350 postpaid in U.S. (Subject to Prior Sale)

 

The Analysis of The Hunting Field - A Rare Foxhunting Book by Surtees and Alken
The Plates:1. Frontispiece – The Meet.2. Engraved title.3. Getting Away.4. Full Cry.5. The Check.6. The Leap.7.

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Robert Smith Surtees (1805-1864) was an English editor, novelist and sporting writer. Thackeray envied him his powers of observation, while William Morris considered him ‘a master of life’ and ranked him with Dickens. In The Analysis of the Hunting Field, Surtees offers wry, fatherly advice in this satiric romp through the key archetypes of the fox hunt. As Lord Denham says in his introduction, “this should be required reading for anyone connected with hunting. From the right sort of Master to the wrong sort, from the hunting nobleman to the whip and from the blacksmith to the braggart with horses to sell we find the people ‘pon the ‘orses are much the same as today.”

Alken worked in both oil and watercolor and was a skilled etcher. His earliest productions were published anonymously under the signature of “Ben Tallyho”, but in 1816 he issued The Beauties & Defects in the Figure of the Horse comparatively delineated under his own name. From this date until about 1831, he produced many sets of etchings of sporting subjects mostly coloured and sometimes humorous in character, the principal of which were: Humorous Specimens of Riding 1821, Symptoms of being amazed 1822, Symptoms of being amused 1822, Flowers from Nature 1823, A Touch at the Fine Arts 1824, and Ideas 1830. Besides these he published a series of books: Illustrations for Landscape Scenery and Scraps from the Sketch Book of Henry Alken in 1823, New Sketch Book in 1824, Sporting Scrap Book and Shakespeare’s Seven Ages in 1827, Sporting Sketches and in 1831 Illustrations to Popular Songs and Illustrations of Don Quixote, the latter engraved by John Christian Zeitter.

Alken provided the plates picturing hunting, coaching, racing and steeplechasing for The National Sports of Great Britain (London, 1821). Alken, known as an avid sportsman,is best remembered for his hunting prints, many of which he engraved himself until the late 1830s. (Charles Lane British Racing Prints pp. 75–76). He created prints for the leading sporting printsellers such as S. and J. Fuller, Thomas McLean, and Rudolph Ackermann, and often collaborated with his friend the sporting journalist Charles James Apperley (1779–1843), also known as Nimrod.[9] Nimrod’s Life of a Sportsman, with 32 etchings by Alken, was published by Ackermann in 1842. In many of his etchings, Alken explored the comic side of riding and satirized the foibles of aristocrats, much in the tradition of other early 19th century caricaturists such as Thomas Rowlandson and James Gillray. One of his best known paintings, “The Belvoir Hunt: Jumping Into And Out Of A Lane”, hangs in the Tate Britain and shows one of the oldest of the great foxhound packs in Leicestershire.  A collection of his illustrations can be seen in the print department of the British Museum. – From wikipedia

 

The Analysis of The Hunting Field by Surtees and Alken. With 43 wood engraved text illustrations by Cook and Company.
With 43 wood engraved text illustrations by Cook and Company.

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See a list of our other hunting books here.

You Might Also Like To View Some titles By Russel Chatham

A Taste of High Country Summer

A fisherman poses with a stringer full of brook trout, caught while flyfishing on a high mountain stream in colorado in the summer.
Brook Trout Put A Smile On Your Face. Photo Courtesy of Rocky Tschappat, Aspen, Colorado

 

Few things go as well together than brook trout and a clear mountain stream, unless of course it is a hot cast iron pan and some freshly caught fillets.

I am told that these beauties had perfect, firm flesh and that beautiful orange color of wild fish. Apparently, these brookies  never saw any wrapping paper either.

Makes my mouth water just thinking about it.

Thank God For Summer!

 

RECIPE FOR COLORADO COWBOY TROUT

  • 8 small trout
  • 3 apples, sliced thinly
  • 1 sliced onion
  • honey
  • 3 slices of precooked ham, chopped
  • cinnamon
  • salt
  • pepper
  • lemon

Stuff trout bodies with apple, onion, and ham. Drizzle some honey on stuffing; add lemon juice and season to taste. Seal in doubled-up heavy-duty foil and cover in hot campfire coals. Bake for about 30 minutes. Serves four.

Keep in mind that if you are making this recipe, you are definitely doing it in the right place and are probably in a fine state of mind.

Enjoy!

*Adapted from The All Trout Cookbook by Rick Taylor. It is a great trout cooking recipe book, and I highly recommend it if you can find a copy.

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Flyfishing The High Country by John Gierach.
It’s Definitely Worth the Walk

Flyfishing the High Country by John Gierach. With Chapters on the high lakes, beaver ponds, the high streams, tackle and flies, the Frying Pan River, and more.

We generally have copies of this in stock, as well as other John Gierach books. Please email for availability and price.

Hope To See You In The High Country Soon!

Posted by Michael Patrick McCarty