Robert S Dieter, MD RVT ALM
Packing for a hunt or fishing trip frequently requires trying to parse down our equipment to shave weight so that we can maximize the value of what we bring and transport. This is important and thankfully, our gun makers, scope and optics craftsman and even clothing outfitters are cognizant of the goal to carry more for less weight and it is because of these intense industry pressures that we are allowed to wonder what books belong with us in the field, on the water, or back at camp. In modern times, there really isn’t much written about the outdoorsman’s travel library, maybe because we keep searching for cell service where we really should be picking up a literary treasure that can add to our outdoor experience.
We’ve all sat in the blind, passing long cold hours having conversations in our heads, contemplating such paradoxes as why squirrels are so small yet so loud, or the uncanny intelligence and keen senses of a turkey once season opens and we have a shotgun laying across our lap, but let’s not overlook the ability of a book tucked into our pocket, being a welcome respite from those long one sided internal conversations. I have often found myself patiently waiting from pre-dawn hours to the closing light, thankful for the book I packed. One time I found myself in Alaska black bear hunting in a make shift chair hammock 30 feet above the ground listening to a digital book, eating a freshly smoked hooligan, while my hunting partner read Mark Twain’s The Innocents Abroad. Ironically, I was listening to David McCullough’s Americans in Paris.
Like so many things he did deliberately, Theodore Roosevelt recognized the necessity of bringing his own library on his hunting trips, whether he was at his Elkhorn Ranch, or in later days post presidency spending a year in Africa or renaming part of the Amazon River, a selection of his favorite novels always accompanied him. These were typically classics, but he was practical enough to understand that the books must be paired to the reader. For TR, “the literature should be reasonably heavy.” And the type of reading can be matched to the length of the trip. We should all be so lucky as to have a yearlong hunting trip sponsored by the Smithsonian! His sister even gave him his special bound, pigskin library (table).
Picking up a book while awaiting game or back at camp has remarkable power to transform the reader. CS Lewis wrote that “Literary experience heals the wound, without undermining the privilege, of individuality… in reading great literature I become a thousand men and yet remain myself. Like the night sky in the Greek poem, I see with a myriad eyes, but it is still I who see. Here, as in worship, in love, in moral action, in knowing, I transcend myself; and am never more myself than when I do.” An Experiment in Criticism (1961)
In this column, I hope to introduce you to some of the greatest literature to accompany the outdoorsman. We’ll cover some authors that you might not have heard before while others might instantly recall vivid memories of sitting outside with the feet up near a campfire, reading by lantern light. I’d also like to hear from you what’s in your travel library.
