Tales of the Chase: Hound-Dogs, Catfish, and Other Pursuits Afield [signed]

A Literate, Thoughtful, and Sometimes Humorous Look at Running Dogs, Rural America, and Angling for Fishes Big and Small In this collection of twenty essays and five pieces of short fiction. M.H. Salmon recalls a life of sport in which he seldom casts a fly and rarely swings on a bird. Instead, he roams the Southwest, Midwest, and the north woods in search of what William Faulkner called the ancient and unremitting context, which is the pursuit of game with hounds. Along the way he reflects on mountain men, wilderness, urban blight, and hunting ethics; mules, trotline fishing and other scenes in a vanishing rural America; and some great game fish, like Smallmouth Bass, his dream fish, and the surprising catfish, which ultimately offers both a lively challenge and a metaphor for life itself. Finally, in Home with the Hounds, there is the all-day pursuit of a forty-pound Brush Wolf, and the ambivalence any sentient hunter feels on killing an animal that has provided all you could ever want of game. Tales of the Chase is outdoor writing with a mainstream scope and offers up a whole platter of sport the Hook & Bullet press never knew.