The books ‘Travers Corners’ and ‘Return to Travers Corners’, I believe, are a collection of short stories that center around a rural town in Montana. I didn’t know there was a connection to John Voelker.
For those that are unfamiliar with John Voelker . . . he wrote several books under the name Robert Traver. He lived most of his life in Ishpeming, MI, a small town in Michigan’s Uppper Peninsula. Although his passion was fishing, he had a successful career in law that included a stint on Michigan’s Supreme Court. Three of his books were specifically about fishing (the full title for one is, “Trout Madness, being a dissertation on the symptoms and pathology of this uncurrable disease by one of its victims”), but he also wrote several that were not. One of these, “Anatomy of a Murder”, was a national best seller that was produced as a movie with the same name (starring Jimmy Stewart). The movie was filmed near Voelker’s home town of Ishpeming, which, at the time, was a very big deal for this neck of the woods.
A few years ago, Nick Lyons put together a collection of John’s stories in a book entitled “Traver on Fishing”. Each year, Fly Fisherman magazine gives a short-story award in his name.
Charles Kuralt once called John Voelker, “the nearest thing to a great man I have ever known”. Impressive, when you think of the people Charles Kuralt knew in his life.
In so many ways, Voelker was the real deal. From the intro to “Trout Madness”,
“This book is the story of a lawyer gone wrong; of a man possessed of a fourteen-caret legal education who has gaily neglected it to follow the siren call of trout. It has been wisely observed that many lawyers are frustrated actors, but I know of one, at least, who is simply an unfrustrated fisherman. For lawyers, like all men, may be divided into two parts: those who fish and those who do not. All men who fish may in turn be divided into two parts: those who fish for trout and those who don’t. Trout fisherman are a race apart; they are a dedicated crew – indolent, improvident, and quietly mad.”
I encourage you to pick up one of his books. Nick Lyons put it this way, “John’s themes are especially poignant and challenging today, when fly fishing has become so high-tech, such big business: keep your private pond unimproved, respect the myriad mysteries of the natural world, avoid cities, avoid deceit and pretension, don’t put too much trust in technology, lie only to protect your favorite spots.”
I hope this post will motivate at least one person to discover John’s works.
Cheers!
