Dark waters: Essays, Stories, and Articles

by Russell Chatham

Book by Chatham, Russell

Genres: Nonfiction

205 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1988

About the author

Russell Chatham (October 27, 1939 – November 10, 2019) was a contemporary American landscape artist and author who spent most of his career living in Livingston, Montana. The artist was the grandson of landscape painter Gottardo Piazzoni, though he was essentially a self-taught artist. His work has been exhibited in over 400 one man shows and in museums and galleries over the last five decades

Reviews

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Now for something completely different.

Chatham was a landscape painter, sportsman and foodie, these stories deal with either fishing or hunting with digressions on food, philosophy, life and art. Most of these would've shown up in magazines like Field and Stream or Sport's Illustrated. This sportsman sub-culture has shrunk quite a bit, so it's also a cultural history.

My parents met fishing, my mother also hunted and was an amateur painter. My grandparents and other relatives fished and hunted and one of my brothers was a part-time commercial salmon fisher. I have fond memories of fishing as a kid, though with overfishing, many of the places I went to as a kid have few fish. Now I limit my fishing habit to stores, occasionally buying some anchovies, herring and sardines.

[Jared]

Chatham is not your normal outdoor writer and I really enjoy him for that. His stories involve not only huge fish in remote places, but fishing underpasses and going after bass every day for a whole year. During that time he sometimes would cut off his hooks and just fish with the fly, getting the fish to chase but never hooking them. This book revels the obsession that is fishing in a very clear way and in doing so, finds kindred spirits in reader.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Found this book after reading a big pile of Jim Harrison's work. Chatham's writing on the sporting life certainly lives up to everything I would expect from someone who spent so much of his life haunting the same landscape as Harrison. Beautiful stuff.

[Rafael · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book for fishermen, hunters, or displaced country boys.

[Ron Patch · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you flyfish...

[Bob Peru · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars for the famous first essay alone, "the great duck misunderstanding". if you're even a little bit of a fisherman or shooter, this is a great great collection.