Fly Rod Crosby: The Woman Who Marketed Maine

by Julia A. Hunter, Earle G. Shettleworth Jr

Cornelia Thurza Crosby's remarkable life (1854-1946) gave rise to a certain amount of she was the first woman to legally shoot a caribou in Maine, held the first Maine Guide license issued, caught (but probably didn't release...) 200 trout in one day, and was rumored to have shot against Annie Oakley in a sharpshooting competition. Julia Hunter's insightful biography separates fact from fiction while exploring the career of a woman who worked tirelessly to promote the sporting life in Maine at the turn of the century. Miss Crosby was an articulate writer herself, and her column, "Fly Rod's Note Book," was syndicated throughout the eastern United States. The Maine Central Railroad employed her to travel to expositions and fairs, where in her outdoor dress of dark green doeskin with a scandalously short skirt, she stood in front of a small log camp decorated with the paraphenalia and trophies of the sporting life, spoke with passersby about the delights of Maine, and showed them her scrapbook of photographs—enticing them to travel the rails to the woods. Many of the photographs in her album were taken by E. R. Starbird, a commercial photographer specializing in Maine woods views. Nearly a hundred images—of hunting and fishing, sporting camps, lakes and streams and rivers, are reproduced in the second half of this book, along with an essay on Starbird's work by Earle Shettleworth. Excerpts from Fly Rod's writings add to this fascinating picture of the Maine woods at the turn of the century and provide further insight on the unusual life of this remarkable woman.

210 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2000

Reviews

[Debbie Zapata · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book, I truly did. I like to learn about any person who dares to live outside the boundaries of what society considers normal. Here is Cornelia Thurza Crosby, six feet tall in her stockings, a woman who loved to fish and hunt in the masculine days of late 1800's Maine. I thought getting to know about this woman would be fascinating.

So what went wrong? For me it was a combination of two things. The main turn-off for me was, I am sorry to say, the writing style. The book reads like a summary of every society page that ever mentioned Crosby: from this date to this date she was here, from that date to that date she was there, in this month there was no mention of her at all, etc. A very little bit of this goes a very long way. Then there were the many times when a piece of Cosby's writing was referred to, but instead of quoting it, the author simply summarized: she said this, that and the other. After a few chapters without much variation from these routines, and without Fly Rod coming to life on the page, I began to skim.

My other problem turned out to be with Fly Rod herself. She never believed in voting rights for women, claiming that she "did not want to vote and that when the time came the 'lords of creation' could not run the old ship of state, I did not care a dime, no not a copper, if it went to smash." 'Lords of creation'?! Piffle.

I noticed some other odd tidbits about Crosby as well. Mainly that she was supposedly registered as a Maine Guide, but when she set records for catching fish, whether for numbers or for weight, it was always with the help of a guide. If she was a Maine Guide herself, knowledgeable about everything outdoorsy the way they are reputed to be, why did she need help to find the best fish?

The second half of the book features photos that were collected in an album belonging to Crosby. Each one is accompanied by a sample of her writing. This part of the book was a bit better (hence the second star), but even Fly Rod could not quite escape the Society Page feel in her work. Who was visiting which camp, which people caught the most fish and how much those fish weighed and other such details, and again I began to skim. She did tell a few funny stories about camp life, but overall I would think the only people who would truly enjoy Crosby's essays and articles would be the other fishermen who spent time in the area and helped to develop Maine into the rich sportsman's getaway it became. Of course those people were her target audience, they and other potential tourists. So maybe I should not complain, right?

Oh, and remember, these pictures are of hunting or fishing camps, so they are full of dead animals (deer, caribou, moose, trout, salmon) and the happy amateur outdoorsmen who bagged them all. The landscapes can be impressive, but the photos of the cabins themselves made me feel sad. They are usually built rough (especially in the earlier photos), just logs stacked together, and while they can look charming, on page 134 is a shot captioned 'The Pond Camps', a desolate clearing rimmed with skeletal trees showing behind the cabins, and the center area full of tree stumps. It looks depressed.

Which is pretty much the way I felt when I finished this book.

[Gail Roy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful account of life of Cornelia "Fly Rod" Crosby. She marketed Maine sporting camps and hotels to people in Boston, NY, and Philadelphia. Encouraged Maine tourism to Rangeleys and other areas of Maine. This book is a wonderful account of her life and contributions to Maine tourism. Many incredible photos by E. R. Starbird throughout the book.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

The biography of Crosby's life includes so much of what the Maine woods' life used to be. The photographs included in the work take one back to the 1890s with beautiful descriptive captions.