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The Sporting Road: Travels Across America in an Airstream Trailer--with Fly Rod, Shotgun, and a Yellow Lab Named Sweetzer
More than just a "man and his dog" hunting adventure, The Sporting Road is a book about the land and man's place in it.
It is also, in many ways, a book about relationships; with nature, animals, and the people with who live around us. As Rick Bass says in his introduction, Jim Fergus is a man for whom "The common denominator is not geographical, but internal; here is a man who belongs intensely to the living. And slowly, gradually --essay by essay--you become aware of the the fact that he fits a diminishing time, a diminishing space, and a diminishing code of manners. That he always puts others before him; that he considers and respects his friends, his prey, his dogs, and the landscapes that engage these things."
It is also, in many ways, a book about relationships; with nature, animals, and the people with who live around us. As Rick Bass says in his introduction, Jim Fergus is a man for whom "The common denominator is not geographical, but internal; here is a man who belongs intensely to the living. And slowly, gradually --essay by essay--you become aware of the the fact that he fits a diminishing time, a diminishing space, and a diminishing code of manners. That he always puts others before him; that he considers and respects his friends, his prey, his dogs, and the landscapes that engage these things."
- GenresTravel
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1999
7 people are currently reading
113 people want to read
About the author
Jim Fergus
36 books1,125 followersJim Fergus was born in Chicago on March 23, 1950. He attended high school in Massachusetts and graduated as an English major from Colorado College in 1971. He has traveled extensively and lived over the years in Colorado, Florida, the French West Indies, Idaho, France, and Arizona. For ten years he worked as a teaching tennis professional in Colorado and Florida, and in 1980 moved to the tiny town of Rand, Colorado (pop. 13), to begin his career as a full-time freelance writer. He was a contributing editor of Rocky Mountain Magazine, as well as a correspondent of Outside magazine. His articles, essays, interviews and profiles have appeared in a wide variety of national magazines and newspapers, including Newsweek, Newsday, The Denver Post, the Dallas-Times Herald, Harrowsmith Country Life, The Paris Review, MD Magazine, Savvy, Texas Monthly, Esquire, Fly Fisherman, Outdoor Life, Sports Afield, and Field & Stream. His first book, a travel/sporting memoir titled, A Hunter's Road, was published by Henry Holt in 1992. Writing in the Los Angeles Times, Jonathan Kirsch called A Hunter's Road, "An absorbing, provocative, and even enchanting book."
Fergus' first novel, One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd was published by St. Martin's Press in 1998. The novel won the 1999 Fiction of the Year Award from the Mountains & Plains Booksellers Association, and has become a favorite selection of reading groups across the country. It has since sold over 250,000 copies in the United States. An international bestseller, One Thousand White Women (Milles Femmes Blanches) was also on the French bestseller list for fifty-seven weeks and has sold well over 400,000 copies in that country.
In 1999, Jim Fergus published a collection of outdoor articles and essays, titled The Sporting Road. And in the spring of 2005, his second novel, The Wild Girl: The Notebooks of Ned Giles was published by Hyperion Press. An historical fiction set in the 1930's in Chicago, Arizona, and the Sierra Madre of Mexico, The Wild Girl has also been embraced by reading groups all across the United States. Winston Groom, author of Forrest Gump called it, "an exhilarating and suspenseful tale that makes the heart soar."
In 2011, Fergus published a family historical fiction in France entitled, MARIE-BLANCHE. The novel spans the entire 20th century, and tells the devastating tale of the complicated and ultimately fatal relationship between the author’s French mother and grandmother. The American edition of MARIE-BLANCHE will be published in the United States in 2014.
In the spring of 2013, Fergus published another novel in France, CHRYSIS: Portrait d’Amour, a love story set in 1920′s Paris and based on the life of a actual woman painter, Chrysis Jungbluth. Reviewing CHRYSIS in French ELLE magazine, Olivia de Lamberterie,wrote: “This novel is an arrow through the heart.”
Chrysis has just been published in America with the title THE MEMORY OF LOVE.
Jim Fergus divides his time between southern Arizona, northern Colorado, and France.
http://jimfergus.com/bio/
Fergus' first novel, One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd was published by St. Martin's Press in 1998. The novel won the 1999 Fiction of the Year Award from the Mountains & Plains Booksellers Association, and has become a favorite selection of reading groups across the country. It has since sold over 250,000 copies in the United States. An international bestseller, One Thousand White Women (Milles Femmes Blanches) was also on the French bestseller list for fifty-seven weeks and has sold well over 400,000 copies in that country.
In 1999, Jim Fergus published a collection of outdoor articles and essays, titled The Sporting Road. And in the spring of 2005, his second novel, The Wild Girl: The Notebooks of Ned Giles was published by Hyperion Press. An historical fiction set in the 1930's in Chicago, Arizona, and the Sierra Madre of Mexico, The Wild Girl has also been embraced by reading groups all across the United States. Winston Groom, author of Forrest Gump called it, "an exhilarating and suspenseful tale that makes the heart soar."
In 2011, Fergus published a family historical fiction in France entitled, MARIE-BLANCHE. The novel spans the entire 20th century, and tells the devastating tale of the complicated and ultimately fatal relationship between the author’s French mother and grandmother. The American edition of MARIE-BLANCHE will be published in the United States in 2014.
In the spring of 2013, Fergus published another novel in France, CHRYSIS: Portrait d’Amour, a love story set in 1920′s Paris and based on the life of a actual woman painter, Chrysis Jungbluth. Reviewing CHRYSIS in French ELLE magazine, Olivia de Lamberterie,wrote: “This novel is an arrow through the heart.”
Chrysis has just been published in America with the title THE MEMORY OF LOVE.
Jim Fergus divides his time between southern Arizona, northern Colorado, and France.
http://jimfergus.com/bio/
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
October 27, 2018
Lu en version française.
Ce livre est, heureusement pour moi, plus qu’un simple récit de chasse. C’est surtout un journal de voyage, où le narrateur nous raconte ses rencontres avec ses collègues chasseurs, tous plus ou moins « exotiques ». A travers le sujet de la chasse au gibier à plumes, il aborde le problème de la conservation des espèces et leur habitat naturel, souvent menacé par l’urbanisation, la surexploitation agricole ou la chasse trop intense. Le narrateur se retrouve dans un paradoxe, il adore chasser, mais participe ainsi potentiellement à la réduction des espèces, bien qu’il ne tue que pour manger.
En lisant ce livre, j’ai appris beaucoup de choses sur les différentes espèces de bécasses, bécassines, cailles, sur les fusils, les chiens et les techniques de chasse, qui m’ont intéressée plus que je ne l’aurait cru, sans parler des paysages traversés qui font rêver.
Bien que les parties de chasse soient un peu répetitives à mon goût, j’ai apprécié le sens de l’humour du narrateur qui ne se prend pas trop au sérieux. Il est aussi fin gourmet, mais je ne peux pas m’empêcher de penser que ce ne doit pas être si drôle de manger du gibier tous les jours.
Ce livre est, heureusement pour moi, plus qu’un simple récit de chasse. C’est surtout un journal de voyage, où le narrateur nous raconte ses rencontres avec ses collègues chasseurs, tous plus ou moins « exotiques ». A travers le sujet de la chasse au gibier à plumes, il aborde le problème de la conservation des espèces et leur habitat naturel, souvent menacé par l’urbanisation, la surexploitation agricole ou la chasse trop intense. Le narrateur se retrouve dans un paradoxe, il adore chasser, mais participe ainsi potentiellement à la réduction des espèces, bien qu’il ne tue que pour manger.
En lisant ce livre, j’ai appris beaucoup de choses sur les différentes espèces de bécasses, bécassines, cailles, sur les fusils, les chiens et les techniques de chasse, qui m’ont intéressée plus que je ne l’aurait cru, sans parler des paysages traversés qui font rêver.
Bien que les parties de chasse soient un peu répetitives à mon goût, j’ai apprécié le sens de l’humour du narrateur qui ne se prend pas trop au sérieux. Il est aussi fin gourmet, mais je ne peux pas m’empêcher de penser que ce ne doit pas être si drôle de manger du gibier tous les jours.
April 29, 2014
I thought this was a great book. It told about a man and his past experiences of hunting and fishing. My favorite part is about when they are hunting quail in the desert. He explained the process of how one hunts quail with his dogs. The writers style of writing it was factual, he also wrote column's for the newspaper. The books strong point was the author's passion for dogs. He loved working and training his dogs to retrieve and track birds. I would strongly recommend this book to anyone that is interested in hunting or fishing because it gives you a great amount of information about hunting and fishing.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 3, 2012
I found this book a couple years after finishing Fergus' book "A Hunter's Road." I really enjoyed the first book, so when I found this one, I was sure I would love it. Moving across the country got in the way, however, and I didn't find this book again until years later, after I had gotten into hunting again, after a 3 year break. Like his other book, this one was a great read. It's a pity he hasn't written more books in the same vein.
April 16, 2015
I like the idea of this book. A series of trips looking into natural history of birds. But this one is not as good as the first issue of this series. The author seems to be worrying about his age and retirement problems and not dealing with the topics of interest to his followers.
October 8, 2007
Jim Fergus lives the dream life, and he writes well enough to make us appreciate it more than just be envious of it!
October 29, 2012
More of a guy's book, but with hunters in my family, I could relate to some of the author's stories. He loves his dogs and tells a touching dog tale.
November 18, 2012
This book is different than A Hunter's Road, but it contains some great stories, some which really cause you to stop and think.
January 11, 2014
Possibly the reason why I hunt over Labradors. Fantastic book...
February 26, 2014
Des histoires de chasse et de pêche made in USA, où priment les rapports humains, l'amour de la nature, le voyage etc ...
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews