NOT FAR FROM THE RIVER.
By DanaS. Lamb '21. Barre (Mass.): Bane Publishers, 1967. 101 pp. $10. Limited edition, $25.
Man is a fisher and hunter. This book is a rich insight into the ancient mystery which has surrounded these pursuits. But herein are no cavemen. The cult has come into the hands of subtle gentlemen, canny yeomen, happy boys. The variety is as infinite as the race. Modern man wisely renews himself by returning to the old ways. The rewards are richly presented in this book of recollections and sketches.
This happy old fisherman knows what he is doing. This is his fourth work written for a no-doubt widening circle of friends. His readership would center among the brothers of the angle but inevitably embraces those who know the vicarious joys of the armchair.
Lamb's tales range from sea marsh to Catskill stream, eastern upland and the Atlantic salmon country. He touches base at warm firesides in well-kept camps and at old clubs in the city. He mines rich traditions. A lifetime of filial affection is compressed into a short reminiscence of his father's preparation each spring to fish in the Catskills. Eventually he is taken along for his first real fishing trip. He recreates in a line or two the joys of the train trip (including billboards extolling Rough on Rats), arrival, the farm, dinner on corn-fed Plymouth Rock well stuffed with sage and homemade bread, coffee laced with yellow cream from sweet-breathed Guernseys in the barn. He lets us hear with him and his father the robins and orioles next morning. We inhale the fragrance of the lilacs by the kitchen door. His father seems to know and love each rock and channel in the river. They fish their way along to the little country inn where, at lunch, kind acquaintances are renewed. Add to these pleasures the joy of the rising trout and you understand with the author why his father prepared so happily each year for his spring journey.
Lamb provides us with a few O. Henryesque surprises and some sessions of thought, jokingly spicy or rich in poetry, that flavor his latest concoction deliciously.
The book pleases the eye. It is visually decked with vignettes of trout and salmon flies. The minimal occurrence of typographical error is no mar, even if it minutely appears in Oscar Wilde's magnificent paean to the oneness of Being that opens the volume. Mr. Lamb, sportsman, will forgive us if we remind him that it was Wilde who said a poet can survive everything but a misprint.
All royalties are for the benefit of the Quebec-Labrador Mission Foundation. What easier way to help than to acquire this charming volume?
Son-in-law of L. H. Bankart 'lO, Mr. Sylvester, Columbia Law School '40, an ardentoutdoorsman, is an Assistant Attorney General of the State of New York.
