The Fly Fisher and the River: A Memoir

by Maxine Atherton, Catherine Varchaver (Editor)

Overview

On angling as a woman in the first half of the twentieth century.

Like fast moving currents, the fishing tales in The Fly Fisher and the River move us through a selection of Max Atherton’s experiences both within rivers’ waters as well as at their outer edges. They remind us that alongside the (then-) radical environmentalist-explorer part of her, there was a playful joie de vivre, someone who appreciated the company of good-looking, intelligent outdoorsmen. Even before her husband’s death, Max enjoyed the attention she got as a fisherwoman. While she cherished a few female friendships, Max held the opinion that women did not generally engage their minds as much as they could and tended to settle for less in their lives than she was willing to. The men she liked—educated, with leisure time to fish—had more freedom and could have adventures and talk about ideas, politics, and the intricacies of fly fishing. This refined form of angling provided an escape from the mundane, and Max enjoyed the adrenaline rush of fishing and camping in the great outdoors as much as the meditative quiet time in nature. Her expertise provided the entrée she needed to thrive in a man’s world—a fact reflected in her writing about the joys of casting her lines into one river after another.

This timeless memoir published alongside The Fly and the Fish, John Atherton's, her husband's, memoir on angling and fly tying.

Skyhorse Publishing is proud to publish a broad range of books for fishermen. Our books for anglers include titles that focus on fly fishing, bait fishing, fly-casting, spin casting, deep sea fishing, and surf fishing. Our books offer both practical advice on tackle, techniques, knots, and more, as well as lyrical prose on fishing for bass, trout, salmon, crappie, baitfish, catfish, and more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to publishing books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked by other publishers and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781634506472
Publisher:	Skyhorse
Publication date:	03/15/2016
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Maxine Atherton learned to fish with her father and attended the California School of Fine Arts (now the San Francisco Art Institute) where she met her future husband, John Atherton, the renowned painter and illustrator—and avid angler. After John’s untimely death in 1952 while fishing on the Miramichi in New Brunswick, Max embarked on an extended angling adventure in France and Spain that led to many more adventures over the next four decades. In 1962 Max published Every Sportsman’s Cookbook. She spent her last years writing in Manchester, Vermont, and died in January 1997.

Catherine Varchaver is the granddaughter of Maxine Atherton and senior stewardship officer at World Wildlife Fund’s headquarters in Washington, DC where she writes extensively about global conservation programs to inspire individual philanthropy. Catherine received her bachelor’s from Oberlin College in Ohio, master’s in teaching from the School for International Training in Vermont, and certification as a holistic nutrition counselor at the Institute of Integrative Nutrition in New York. Catherine and her son, Sasha Tidwell, live in Takoma Park, Maryland.

Table of Contents

Foreword ix

Chapter 1 Heritage 1

Chapter 2 Eastern Sierra Trout Stream. California 9

Chapter 3 Lake Tahoe, California 19

Chapter 4 Little River, Deep in the Sierras 31

Chapter 5 Muir Woods Trout Stream, Northern California 43

Chapter 6 The Neversink River, New York 57

Chapter 7 Magalloway River, Maine 67

Chapter 8 On the Battenkill (Vermont) and Miramichi (New Brunswick) 79

Chapter 9 Rivers from Vermont to California, from Oregon, and New Brunswick 89

Chapter 10 Chalk Streams, France 99

Chapter 11 Charentonne and Risle Rivers, Normandy 109

Chapter 12 Saja River, Spain 117

Chapter 13 Nansa River, Spain 125

Chapter 14 Tonnes River, Madrid and Salamanca 139

Chapter 15 The Anglers' Club and My Hewitt Reel, New York 147

Chapter 16 Adlatock River, Labrador 159

Chapter 17 Little River between Lakes, Labrador 171

Chapter 18 Rivers and Lakes, the Laurentian Club, Canada 179

Chapter 19 Matane River, Gaspé 189

Chapter 20 Petite Canada 195

Chapter 21 St. Anne River, Gaspé 203

Chapter 22 Matapédia River, Québec 211

Chapter 23 Chalk Streams Ireland 219

Chapter 24 The Driva, Norway 227

Chapter 25 Rivers and Reveries, Canada's Arctic 233

Chapter 26 Back to the Miramichi 239

Afterword 245

Editorial Reviews

"Maxine was well loved and respected by the fly fishing community. She helped pave the way for women anglers who came after her." —Joan Wulff

"Anglers of a certain age are likely familiar with artist John Atherton, his elegantly impressionistic dry flies and his elegant 1951 book The Fly and the Fish. Far less familiar is the elegant writing of his wife Maxine, a gifted angler in her own right, a friend of George La Branch and Edward Hewitt, and after John’s death an intrepid and often solo traveler, whether pursuing salmon and trout throughout Ireland, Norway, and Spain via train or into remote Labrador via ice breaker. With her candor, environmental insights, and sharp eye for the telling detail, Max Atherton can go head to head with any of today’s wide-traveling fly-fishing essayists. And she was doing it before most of them were born." —James R Babb, Editor Emeritus, Gray’s Sporting Journal

"Because of the The Fly Fisher and the River , we can now finally witness that Max was a kick-ass trailblazer . . . Max's voice is silenced no longer." —The American Fly Fisher

"Maxine was well loved and respected by the fly fishing community. She helped pave the way for women anglers who came after her." —Joan Wulff

"Anglers of a certain age are likely familiar with artist John Atherton, his elegantly impressionistic dry flies and his elegant 1951 book The Fly and the Fish. Far less familiar is the elegant writing of his wife Maxine, a gifted angler in her own right, a friend of George La Branch and Edward Hewitt, and after John’s death an intrepid and often solo traveler, whether pursuing salmon and trout throughout Ireland, Norway, and Spain via train or into remote Labrador via ice breaker. With her candor, environmental insights, and sharp eye for the telling detail, Max Atherton can go head to head with any of today’s wide-traveling fly-fishing essayists. And she was doing it before most of them were born." —James R Babb, Editor Emeritus, Gray’s Sporting Journal

"Because of the The Fly Fisher and the River , we can now finally witness that Max was a kick-ass trailblazer . . . Max's voice is silenced no longer." —The American Fly Fisher

From the Publisher