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Just Before Dark: A Classic American Writer's Essays―Twenty-Five Years of Passions from Ice Fishing to Nouvelle Cuisine
Jim Harrison's essays and articles have been selected from twenty-five years of work, from venues as diverse as PLAYBOY, THE NATION, OUTSIDE, and the AMERICAN POETRY REVIEW. They explore the passions and concerns of a classic American writer: ice fishing and bar pool, nouvelle cuisine and night walks.
- GenresEssaysNonfictionOutdoors
336 pages, Paperback
First published May 28, 1993
80 people are currently reading
588 people want to read
About the author
Jim Harrison
185 books1,490 followersJim Harrison was born in Grayling, Michigan, to Winfield Sprague Harrison, a county agricultural agent, and Norma Olivia (Wahlgren) Harrison, both avid readers. He married Linda King in 1959 with whom he has two daughters.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
His awards include National Academy of Arts grants (1967, 68, 69), a Guggenheim Fellowship (1969-70), the Spirit of the West Award from the Mountain & Plains Booksellers Association, and election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2007).
Much of Harrison's writing depicts sparsely populated regions of North America with many stories set in places such as Nebraska's Sand Hills, Michigan's Upper Peninsula, Montana's mountains, and along the Arizona-Mexico border.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
His awards include National Academy of Arts grants (1967, 68, 69), a Guggenheim Fellowship (1969-70), the Spirit of the West Award from the Mountain & Plains Booksellers Association, and election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2007).
Much of Harrison's writing depicts sparsely populated regions of North America with many stories set in places such as Nebraska's Sand Hills, Michigan's Upper Peninsula, Montana's mountains, and along the Arizona-Mexico border.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
January 5, 2021
https://rogueliterarysociety.com/f/ju...
...I have a good memory, though good is somewhat questionable, since there is a tendency to over-remember life rather than to look for new life to be lived…I value my memory and find it as fascinating as life in the present; they mix together, coexist, live a comfortable life, confuse each other, and finally, have a sweet and permanent marriage…
Jim Harrison often repeats himself. He cannot help it. He did not use a computer, he wrote freehand or typed one-finger on an old typewriter. He claims he never revised. He had women transcribe his rough work into manuscript form. But his memories are sublime and I do not mind a bit of repetition when reading this great American icon.
...There are the ghosts of those I cared for who did not survive the behavior the rest of us survived…
Harrison had so many great friends. For a recluse, the measure of a Jim Harrison type, he managed to find ways to connect with a vast array of very interesting people.
...A number of years ago, I had the notion that I wished to write a poem as immediately fascinating as a recipe or a dirty picture…You must often hate poetry in order to write good poems…
Hating poetry, just as I do, unfortunately did not seem to assist Harrison in writing his own poems. He did have the occasional “good one” but generally they were minor works compared to his fiction and essays. He did however consider himself a poet first and was recognized as a gifted one. Just not my cup of tea.
...Tom McGuane, the novelist, said to me about the Midwest, “Mortimer Snerd must have bred five thousand times a day to build that heartland race.” True, but the land as I find it, and daily walk it, is virtually peopleless, with vast undifferentiated swamps, ridges, old circular logging roads; a region of cold fogs, monstrous weather changes, third-growth forests devoid of charm, models, and actresses, or ballerinas, but somehow superbly likable...I prefer places valued by no one else…
I too grew up in northern Michigan and can relate wholeheartedly to Harrison’s premise. My stomping grounds were in the northeast along the pretty much vacant beaches of Lake Huron and inland sand trails of the Huron National Forest. I have yet to find a forest more comfortable to walk in. The scenery is poorer on the east side of northern Michigan as are the residents. But I find both more amenable to my tastes. Probably why I appreciate Jim Harrison as much as I do. He said he shoveled snow for a dime an hour, and washed cars for a quarter, and came to hate both jobs so much that as an adult he quit doing both for the rest of his life.
...Much of life seems to be a blind date...There is a banality in the antithetical thinking that says one doesn't deserve to be quite happy quite often. Leopards don't sing arias except their own and toads are poor dancers...Dread and all her improbabilities are an inevitability we must make our lover…
I never had a life playbook or a manual either. I had nobody offering any meaningful direction best suited to me, my temperaments, or my skill level. In fact, there was nobody who ever really noticed me. It was as if I were invisible. I fumbled around, took many wrong forks, got lost a few times. And paid with my share of consequences. Harrison was not only luckier than I but he was more courageous. Luck happens more often to those who religiously practice.
...There is insufficient street experience to see how bad the bad guys are. They forget it was greed that discovered the country, greed that propelled the westward movement, greed that shipped the blacks, greed that murdered the Indians, greed that daily shits on the heads of those who love nature. Why are we shit upon, they wonder...It is amusing to think that the God I thought had ruptured my eyeball and propelled me into the dark is now, evidently, a mascot of the Republican party. Times change…
We have had plenty of bad examples during this four-year Trump fiasco rolling over the country. Via Trump, the crazies were certainly let out of their black holes, encouraged to speak and act again inappropriately, and the question remains whether or not the good guys can sufficiently return them to their caves.
...I find that I have to spend a great deal of time alone in the natural world to be of use to anyone else...
Jim Harrison remains for me one of my favorite writers of all-time. Not to mention how much I like him as a person of interest. He is an American treasure. And I am not ashamed to say I love him with all my heart.
...I have a good memory, though good is somewhat questionable, since there is a tendency to over-remember life rather than to look for new life to be lived…I value my memory and find it as fascinating as life in the present; they mix together, coexist, live a comfortable life, confuse each other, and finally, have a sweet and permanent marriage…
Jim Harrison often repeats himself. He cannot help it. He did not use a computer, he wrote freehand or typed one-finger on an old typewriter. He claims he never revised. He had women transcribe his rough work into manuscript form. But his memories are sublime and I do not mind a bit of repetition when reading this great American icon.
...There are the ghosts of those I cared for who did not survive the behavior the rest of us survived…
Harrison had so many great friends. For a recluse, the measure of a Jim Harrison type, he managed to find ways to connect with a vast array of very interesting people.
...A number of years ago, I had the notion that I wished to write a poem as immediately fascinating as a recipe or a dirty picture…You must often hate poetry in order to write good poems…
Hating poetry, just as I do, unfortunately did not seem to assist Harrison in writing his own poems. He did have the occasional “good one” but generally they were minor works compared to his fiction and essays. He did however consider himself a poet first and was recognized as a gifted one. Just not my cup of tea.
...Tom McGuane, the novelist, said to me about the Midwest, “Mortimer Snerd must have bred five thousand times a day to build that heartland race.” True, but the land as I find it, and daily walk it, is virtually peopleless, with vast undifferentiated swamps, ridges, old circular logging roads; a region of cold fogs, monstrous weather changes, third-growth forests devoid of charm, models, and actresses, or ballerinas, but somehow superbly likable...I prefer places valued by no one else…
I too grew up in northern Michigan and can relate wholeheartedly to Harrison’s premise. My stomping grounds were in the northeast along the pretty much vacant beaches of Lake Huron and inland sand trails of the Huron National Forest. I have yet to find a forest more comfortable to walk in. The scenery is poorer on the east side of northern Michigan as are the residents. But I find both more amenable to my tastes. Probably why I appreciate Jim Harrison as much as I do. He said he shoveled snow for a dime an hour, and washed cars for a quarter, and came to hate both jobs so much that as an adult he quit doing both for the rest of his life.
...Much of life seems to be a blind date...There is a banality in the antithetical thinking that says one doesn't deserve to be quite happy quite often. Leopards don't sing arias except their own and toads are poor dancers...Dread and all her improbabilities are an inevitability we must make our lover…
I never had a life playbook or a manual either. I had nobody offering any meaningful direction best suited to me, my temperaments, or my skill level. In fact, there was nobody who ever really noticed me. It was as if I were invisible. I fumbled around, took many wrong forks, got lost a few times. And paid with my share of consequences. Harrison was not only luckier than I but he was more courageous. Luck happens more often to those who religiously practice.
...There is insufficient street experience to see how bad the bad guys are. They forget it was greed that discovered the country, greed that propelled the westward movement, greed that shipped the blacks, greed that murdered the Indians, greed that daily shits on the heads of those who love nature. Why are we shit upon, they wonder...It is amusing to think that the God I thought had ruptured my eyeball and propelled me into the dark is now, evidently, a mascot of the Republican party. Times change…
We have had plenty of bad examples during this four-year Trump fiasco rolling over the country. Via Trump, the crazies were certainly let out of their black holes, encouraged to speak and act again inappropriately, and the question remains whether or not the good guys can sufficiently return them to their caves.
...I find that I have to spend a great deal of time alone in the natural world to be of use to anyone else...
Jim Harrison remains for me one of my favorite writers of all-time. Not to mention how much I like him as a person of interest. He is an American treasure. And I am not ashamed to say I love him with all my heart.
June 11, 2012
Absolutely love Jim Harrison! Such a "real" feeling to the man in him. Phrases made me burst to laughter with an intense renewal to loving life- again.. There is so much being said about "less is more" these days, I hear it in painting, in new "flash-fiction"- Harrison thinks "To be frank, this is not the time for the "less is more" school when it comes to eating. The world as we know it has always been ending, every day of our lives. Good food and good cooking are a struggle for the appropirate and, as such, a response to the total environment. Anyone who has spent an afternoon in New York has seen the sullen and distraught faces of those who have eaten julienned jicama with raspberry vinaigrette and a glass of European water for lunch." To continue plus tard with "Reach into your memory and look for what has restored you, what helps you recover from the sheer hellishness of life...". to end with "The world seemed new again---like a warm rain after a movie." I feel so alive when I read Jim Harrison; so much excitement is going on in this book - Just a pure delight!! Most certainly, this book IS one of my favorites! Along with "Carry Each his Burden" by James Goertel.
June 21, 2016
That was thirteen years ago when I taught at a university. I try to avoid universities now, thinking of them as producing bung fodder for a strung-out economy.
Jim Harrison, "Just Before Dark"
Jim Harrison, "Just Before Dark"
September 27, 2014
I found this book on the $1.00 shelf of a used bookstore. The purchase turned out to be one of the best $1.00 I ever spent.
The book is filled with so much, a variety of subjects and topics, yet all coming more or less from the author's same worldview/philosophical underpinnings. This is what makes the collection so very interesting to read, the way the author writes about such various things with a cohesiveness that draws them all together to give a finely-etched portrait of the man and his life. Reading this book, I felt rather like I was on one of those 27,000-mile long car trips with Jim Harrison.
Also, Harrison has a way of dropping little jewels of sentences or short paragraphs that seem to glow on the page. These are two of my favorites:
-"A lovely girl in a mauve shirt was riding a horse across a limitless pasture in the twilight. Beyond her in the darkening landscape two coyotes were calling out to each other. It was a scene of unpardonable beauty, and as far away from everything I didn't like as I could possibly get."
- "And if in weak moments you hope for heaven, you want to see the bittersweet surrealism of Crazy Horse riding double with Anne Frank on Ruffian, riding through the cosmos from the Southern Cross to Arcturus, from Betelgeuse to the morning star."
The book is filled with so much, a variety of subjects and topics, yet all coming more or less from the author's same worldview/philosophical underpinnings. This is what makes the collection so very interesting to read, the way the author writes about such various things with a cohesiveness that draws them all together to give a finely-etched portrait of the man and his life. Reading this book, I felt rather like I was on one of those 27,000-mile long car trips with Jim Harrison.
Also, Harrison has a way of dropping little jewels of sentences or short paragraphs that seem to glow on the page. These are two of my favorites:
-"A lovely girl in a mauve shirt was riding a horse across a limitless pasture in the twilight. Beyond her in the darkening landscape two coyotes were calling out to each other. It was a scene of unpardonable beauty, and as far away from everything I didn't like as I could possibly get."
- "And if in weak moments you hope for heaven, you want to see the bittersweet surrealism of Crazy Horse riding double with Anne Frank on Ruffian, riding through the cosmos from the Southern Cross to Arcturus, from Betelgeuse to the morning star."
July 18, 2022
Somewhere on the jacket, Jim Harrison is described as "one of the last high-test males." Maybe so . . . he certainly seems to have lived life fully . . . but his writing is too self-consciously rich and full of detail, as if he is trying to impress, and it rather put me off. To be fair, I will read some of Jim Harrison's fiction . . . this book is a collection of non-fiction essays and may not be representative of his fiction. But when someone brags about hiking to a remote cabin in the woods alone in order to make himself a wild game dinner featuring a sauce made from the reduction of a bottle of burgundy and the blood of 18 ducks, I cannot help thinking he's showing off writing about it, and want to say "Couldn't you have just eaten the one duck, asshole?"
December 30, 2020
"Life is too short for me to approach a meal with the mincing steps of a Japanese prostitute"
"We must eat well to dig the graves of stock brokers"
-Harrison>>>Mcguane
-Last section of the book which mostly concerns itself with literary criticism by Harrison isn't quite as good as the food and sporting sections but isn't wholly without merit
-The only real shame is that Jim Harrison is not a big game hunter
September 5, 2007
This book is absolutely one of the best books EVER! Jim Harrison writes with such passion and humor. The quote at the beginning of the book is "The worst of all things is not to live in a physical world," and he doesn't have to worry because he is all there. Just read the first paragraph of the first story which is "Sporting Food," and I swear you will be hooked forever.
I've given this book to, I think, 12 people who have all really liked it (or, who have lied to me and told me they did). Like Slackjaw and The Real Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, I wouldn't have been interested in the topics, but the writing is so good I was sucked in.
The Food section is killer. I wasn't as into Travel & Sport, but even that section I liked which is saying a lot. The third section, Literary Matters is also quite good.
This is an author whose taste has been sharpened by loss, but who is also a total glutton. A great, great read.
I've given this book to, I think, 12 people who have all really liked it (or, who have lied to me and told me they did). Like Slackjaw and The Real Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, I wouldn't have been interested in the topics, but the writing is so good I was sucked in.
The Food section is killer. I wasn't as into Travel & Sport, but even that section I liked which is saying a lot. The third section, Literary Matters is also quite good.
This is an author whose taste has been sharpened by loss, but who is also a total glutton. A great, great read.
October 13, 2022
Essays read from Dec 11-14, 2021:
• Sporting Food (boastful, hilarious, names food I've never heard of)
• Meals of Peace and Restoration
• Canada
• Going Places
• The Snow Leopard
• The Dreadful Lemon Sky
• Letters to Yesenin, N0. 22 (poem)
• A Natural History of Some Poems
"What is"
hisses like a serpent
and writhes
to shed its skin.
—Robert Duncan quote Harrison uses that I love
I'll most certainly revisit this book down the road. Harrison's voice is muscular, full of rough timber and bravado, different than Dead Man's Float, his last book of poems. I have The River Swimmer out from the library as well—I may dip into that to get the full scope of his writing voice in different modalities. Leaning towards more ghost stories as we head into the holidays. We shall see.
• Sporting Food (boastful, hilarious, names food I've never heard of)
• Meals of Peace and Restoration
• Canada
• Going Places
• The Snow Leopard
• The Dreadful Lemon Sky
• Letters to Yesenin, N0. 22 (poem)
• A Natural History of Some Poems
"What is"
hisses like a serpent
and writhes
to shed its skin.
—Robert Duncan quote Harrison uses that I love
I'll most certainly revisit this book down the road. Harrison's voice is muscular, full of rough timber and bravado, different than Dead Man's Float, his last book of poems. I have The River Swimmer out from the library as well—I may dip into that to get the full scope of his writing voice in different modalities. Leaning towards more ghost stories as we head into the holidays. We shall see.
November 6, 2018
There are a lot of gems in this book, and I plan to re-read it. The arrangement is not ideal. It is arranged by theme, so that a certain amount of fatigue sets in, reading over and over again about hunting, or food, or writing. Perhaps a chronological layout would have been better. That said, it is ideal for dipping into an essay at a time, and I recommend it. I didn't know anything about Jim Harrison, but my interest was piqued when I read his obituary. Now I will read more.
August 28, 2020
In the 1970's and 1980's, Jim Harrison wrote non-fiction articles for a variety of publications including Playboy, Sports Illustrated, Esquire, The Nation and others. They are gathered in this wonderful collection to remind us of the poetic and powerful workings of his incredible mind and adventurous spirit. The essays are divided into three sections - Food, Travel and Sport, and Literary Matters. Highly recommended.
September 6, 2020
I read this collection of essays slowly, because this kind of writing needs to be savored. Aside from at times being hilarious, Mr. Harrison was a bon vivant and a lover of nature. Truly larger than life. If you love food, love the wilderness and are not squeamish about things like hunting...highly recommended.
March 27, 2020
The first two sections were my favorite. The last section property appeals to more literary-minded folks.
June 27, 2020
From Hoagland to McGuane, Michigan to Leningrad, Harrison's essays and articles will leave the reader thirsting for what drove his beautiful mind.
December 27, 2023
Typical Harrison. Very good.
September 19, 2009
I had been saving this until I had time to give it the attention it warranted, and I am glad I did. I had been aware of Jim Harrison's work, and had read works by his literary colleagues and friends, such as Doug Peacock and Rick Bass, knowing that Harrison loomed large (in many ways). This is a collection of essays, loosely organized into sections on food, sport and literature. A writer of prodigious gifts and equally prodigious appetites, these essays are best enjoyed as one would a great Bordeaux. Harrison's talent for metaphor, description and wit are top-notch. Favorites in this collection include 'The Sporting Life', 'Don't Fence Me In' and 'Bird Hunting'. Part Hunter Thompson, part Hemingway (though the author will bristle at that one), and more than a little poetic, this is a great introduction to a living literary legend. I look forward to his memoir 'Off to the Side' and his many novels, including the modern classic 'Dalva.' Highly recommended.
February 9, 2011
I sat and devoured the first two thirds of this book like Orson Welles (who shares a meal with Harrison in one essay) set in front of a honey baked ham. These essays contain the best reflective writing on fly fishing, food, and the outdoors that I have read.
I had a harder time getting into the last section of the book on poetry and literature, taking me about a week to get through. The constantly resurfacing theme of native americans got a bit tiring and much of the writing/poetry was too abstract for me, but the Food and Sport sections more than made up for my lack of enthusiasm for the last third of the book.
This was my first venture into the work of Jim Harrison, motivated by his proximity to me in Southwestern Montana, and I hope I enjoy his fiction as much as I did this collection of essays.
I had a harder time getting into the last section of the book on poetry and literature, taking me about a week to get through. The constantly resurfacing theme of native americans got a bit tiring and much of the writing/poetry was too abstract for me, but the Food and Sport sections more than made up for my lack of enthusiasm for the last third of the book.
This was my first venture into the work of Jim Harrison, motivated by his proximity to me in Southwestern Montana, and I hope I enjoy his fiction as much as I did this collection of essays.
September 6, 2016
hmm.a very mixed review. to begin, the organization of the book doesn't make much sense. the essays written over twenty plus years are organized into three themes. for, hunting and fishing, and literature. but this has two main disadvantages. first, the essays often have whenever's of all the themes. second, his opinions change over time and he appears to contradict himself because you treat essays in the wrong order.
the other issue I have with this book is that i liked the author and his life style less and less as I read. in the end he seemed self-important and self-indulgent. and, frankly, boring.
finally, I did like the fire section a great deal.
the other issue I have with this book is that i liked the author and his life style less and less as I read. in the end he seemed self-important and self-indulgent. and, frankly, boring.
finally, I did like the fire section a great deal.
July 24, 2016
This 1992 selection of reviews and essays by Harrison is fascinating.
The epigraph is by Wallace Stevens: "The worst of all things is not to
live in a physical world." Harrison very much lives in the physical
world with his love of the natural world, birds, dogs, fishing and
hunting and a Zen attitude toward all living things. Some of the pieces
are very early on in his career and already portray his lifelong concerns.
The last section is about literature and poetry specifically and is
great reading. Inspiring.
The epigraph is by Wallace Stevens: "The worst of all things is not to
live in a physical world." Harrison very much lives in the physical
world with his love of the natural world, birds, dogs, fishing and
hunting and a Zen attitude toward all living things. Some of the pieces
are very early on in his career and already portray his lifelong concerns.
The last section is about literature and poetry specifically and is
great reading. Inspiring.
July 10, 2010
I am re-reading these are essays mostly about upper Michigan. I love Jim Harrison's non-fiction; because he celebrates the outdoors, solitude, food, dogs and is brutally honest where most of us write with filters so as not to offend. These writings take place primarily in the 1980s and it is interesting to read 20 + years later; and note the changes in some of the authors favorite places.
December 30, 2011
Something in here for everyone. Harrison's style sweeps you through each essay. Sometimes funny, sometimes poignant, the essays in this collection are a must-read for fans of literary nonfiction. I'm looking forward to reading some of his fiction.
May 30, 2009
I like his non-fiction better than his fiction. He grew up in Michigan and his descriptions fo the characters and landscape of Michigan, esp the Upper Pen, are dead on.
August 24, 2009
short essays by Jim Harrison. Excellent!
January 16, 2011
It's so refreshing to read something honest. There is no such thing as perfection in this world and yet Jim Harrison will remind you that-without going too zen on you-it is perfect, just as it is.
January 24, 2012
This passage about a beached whale rocked my fucking world.
January 9, 2013
Vintage Harrison...brilliant, simply brilliant...the last few chapters on poetry alone are worth the price of the book.
January 31, 2025
Essays on food, travel, and outdoor adventures. By the master. Classic.
March 17, 2013
Excellent. If Jim Harrison had a more interesting name, I'd name my child after him.
April 21, 2013
This man's writing is invaluable to me as a writer. His essay "The Natural History of Some Poems" alone changed my life.
January 11, 2014
One of Jim's best works.
December 25, 2016
Jim Harrison writes no wrong.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews