Books, Poetry, and An Esquire HIS IS AN EXCITING ISSUE we've studying and collecting older tackle. And as a note and apology, in the put together, rich, it seems, with In his poem "Why Should Not Old conversion of the final proofs of our Tpeople and books, fine writing Men Be Mad?" the great Irish poet W. B. Winter issue of The American Fly Fisher and poetry, old photographs and Yeats wrote, "Some have known a likely to the printed magazine, a naughty sketches. It will arrive during the heady lad1 That had a sound fly-fisher's wrist1 computer gremlin came in and mischie- rush to enjoy spring's divine gifts. Turn to a drunken journalist." Sounds vously swiped some type. The headline We are most pleased in this issue of as if he knew what he was talking about "Trustees" was dropped from the mast- The American Fly Fisher to introduce (the wrist, not the drunken journalist). head, and later on page 26 the name of our readers to member Warren Miller, Erudite member Gordon Wickstrom the object generously donated by trus- who is writing a biography of the color- chronicles for us Yeats's familiarity with tees Earl Worsham, Gardner Grant, and ful publishing and sporting figure our sport. The knowledge that Yeats fly Jim Taylor- a Billingshurst reel, 93.32.1 Arnold Gingrich. Gingrich, as most of fished will now inform my reading of -was inadvertently eliminated from the vou know., havvenedLA to be one of the his L,voetrv. list of 1993 donations to the collection. Museum's early supporters and first If you think about nineteenth-centu- Luckily our trustees are of a nature that presidents. This biography affords us a ry America and the spread of sporting they don't get too whipped up about a fascinating window into the work and knowledge, you might just wonder how computer malfunction. We'll seek to psyche of a very intriguing man- I pre- western folk learned the fancy art of rein in the little devil who's trying to get dict you will not be able to put the mag- casting. In this issue Warren Vander Hill us in trouble next time. azine down as you spend a busy morn- and David Wheeler look at how people We are excited by your recent re- ing, circa 1968, with America's Esquire. learned to cast, especially in the remote search and contributions to The Ameri- Old friend (and fine rodmaker from areas of the western wilderness. The im- can Fly Fisher, both of which further the Maine) Dave Klausmeyer brings us up to age of rough frontier settlers, soldiers, body of knowledge about this sport. date on recent publications with a cowpokes, and landed gentry flailing Please contact me with your ideas and look at rod books for flv rod lovers and their rods and hooking" bushes iust as thoughts. We love to hear from you. collectors. The literature, he shows, is we all did when we learned to handle a MARGOTPAGE trying to keep pace with the interest in fly rod is, well, endearing. EDITOR THEAMERICAN MUSEUM OF FLYFISHING Preserving a Rich Heritage for Future Generations TRUSTEES E. M. Bakwin Woods King 111 Michael Bakwin Martin D. Kline Foster Bam Me1 Icreiger 2 William M. Barrett Ian D. Macltay A Morning in the Life of America's Esquire. ......... Bruce H. Begin Malcolm MacIcenzie Warren D. Miller Paul Bofinger Robert E. Mathews I1 Lewis M. Bordeil I11 Bob Mitchell Donn H. Byrne, Sr. Wallace J. Murray 111 W. B. Yeats and the Fly. .....................lo Roy D. Chapin, Jr. Wayne Nordberg Gordon M. Wickstrom Michael D. Copeland Leigh H. Perkins Peter Corbin Romi Perkins Thomas N. Davidson 0. Miles Pollard Books about Fly Rods, Fly Rod Makers, and Charles R. Eichel Susan A. Popkin Fly Rod Lovers. .........................U G. Dick Finlay Dr. Ivan Schloff Auduil Fredrikson Stephen Sloan David R. Klausmeyer Arthur T. Frey Arthur Stern Reed Freyermuth John Swan Notes & Comment: Larry Gilsdorf James Taylor Gardner L. Grant Richard G. Tisch Fly Casting Instruction Reaches the Terry Heifernan James Mr. Van Loan American Frontier .......................18 Curtis Hill San Van Ness James Hunter Richard J. Warren Warren Vander Hill and David Wheeler Dr. Arthur Kaeininer Dickson L. Whitney Robert F. Kahn Earl S. Worsham Off the Shelf: TRUSTEES EMERITUS Frontispieces ..........................20 W. Michael Fitzgerald Leon Martuch Robert N. ]ol~nson Keith C. Russell Gallery: Theodore Gordon Collection ............22 David B. Ledlie Paul Schullery Edward G. Zern Letters ................................23 OFFICERS Chairman of the Board Foster Bam Museum News. ..........................26 President Wallace J. Murray 111 Vice Presidents William M. Barrett Contributors. ...........................28 Arthur Stern Treasurer Wayne Nordberg Secretary Charles R. Eichel ON THE COVER: Arnold Gingrich was a publishing and sports icon, well known in the middle of this century. He also happened to be one of the STAFF Museum's ardent supporters and an early president. In this Spring issue, Executive Director Donald S. Johnson biographer Warren Miller gives us an inside look at a most interesting Executive Assistant Virginia Hulett writer, fly fisher, and the founding editor of Esquire magazine. Photograph Curator Alanna D. Fisher courtesy of the Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan. Registrar Jon C. Mathewson Development Coordinator Lynda C. Kinney Research/Publicity Joe A. Pisarro The Amel->canFly Fisher~spubhihrd Editor Margot Page toor times a year by the Museum at PO. Box 42, Manchrster, Velmont 05254. Publication datcs are winter, spnng, summer, and f,,ll Mcrnbershlp ducs include the ruat of a one-year Art Director Randall R. Perkins subscrrpt~on($20) and are tax deductible as provided for by law Membership rates are listed In the bark of each Copy Editor Sarah May Clarltson Issue. All letters, manuscripts, photographs, and material\ ~nlendedfor publication in the ~ournalshould be sent to the Muse~ull.The Museum and journal arc not responhlble tor unsolicited manuscripts, drawmgs, photographic Publtcatzons Coordinator Alanna D. Fisher material, or memorabilia. The Museum cannot accept respolislbility for stateluenta and interpretations that arc Offset Printing The Lane Press, Inc., wholly the author's. Unsolicited manuscripts cannot be rcturncd unless portage is proviiled. Contributions to The Burlington, Vermont American Fly Fisher are to be cona~drredg~aluitous and the property of the Museum unless otheiw~rrrrquesled by the contributor Articles appearing m th~slourndl are abst~actedand indexed in H~stoiicnlAbitiacts and America. Histor>, and Life. Copyright 0 1994, the Amencan Museu~uof Ply F~shing,hlanchestcr, Vermont 05254. Orrglnal materlal appearing may not be reprinted without prior pcrmisaion. Second Class Perm~tpostagc paid at Manchestcr Accwdltod by tho ~rnedmnASSOCI~IO~ Vcrmont 05254 and add~tionaloffices (USPS oi7qio). ?he Amencan FIT Fisher (ISSN 0884-3562) qMu5ourns r o s r h.1 A s T F R : Send address changes to The American Fly Frsizer, P.O. Rox 42, Manchester, Vermont 05254. SPRING 1994 A Morning in the Life of by Warren D. Miller ARNOLD GINGRICH was one of the long after Roosevelt closed the banks in Great Depression to dominate the Museum's first presidents (1974-1976). His 1933, yet it was an immediate commer- world's economic and military order, he cial hit. Later, Esquire, Inc., became one remained consistent and centered. His literarv renown as the editor of, EsauireL of the first media conglomerates to go refined sensibilities were Esauire's ~ri- magazine and his sporting allure lent this . fledgling museum the credibility and ex- public. mary strength. When American stan- posure it needed. Gingrich's biographer, Gingrich's career was extraordinarv. dards of taste and conduct steadily de- member Warren Miller, has pieced to- ~urinihistenure with Esquire he edit& clined in the 1960s, Gingrich's Renais- gether a partial mosaic of this private and the work of fifteen Nobel Prize laureates sance Man became an anachronism. Es- fascinating man's life by juxtaposing biog- and fifty Pulitzer Prize winners. From quire's style had less and less in com- raphy with excerpts from Gingrich's own Hemingway in the magazine's October mon with American men. In 1979 two writing. We are pleased to be the first to 1933 launch through contributors such young businessmen from Tennessee ~ublishada~ted material from Miller's as Updike, Bellow, and Tom Wolfe in bought the magazine for a pittance work-in-progress, America's Esquire: The the 197os, the magazine was a consistent barely three years after his death. Life and Times of Arnold Gingrich. reservoir of som;of the best writing in Gingrich's personal life and habits EDITOR America. Ginerich's" columns and arti- were a paradox. Descended from fore- cles appeared in over 400 issues of Es- bears who had founded the Mennonite N THE MIDDLE THIRD ofthiscen- quire until his death on July 9, 1976. His Church. and born in Gerald Ford's tury three editors dominated Ameri- old friend and angling companion, hometown of Grand Rapids twelve days Ican magazine journalism: Henry Charles Ritz, died four days later. before the Wright Brothers' 1903 flight Luce of Time, Harold Ross of The New Like legendary editor Max Perkins, at Kitty Hawk, he was a philanderer Yorker, and Arnold Gingrich of Esquire. Gingrich understood writers. He felt the who married three women a total of five Of the three, Gingrich was arguably the isolation our art imposes. He was kind, times. He and his first wife, Helen-Mary best editor and had the greatest cultural generous, compassionate, and resource- Rowe, married three times - once when influence, yet until now biographers ful, but he was no patsy. One example: they eloped as college seniors in 1924 have overlooked him.