Books

Item Description

Autographed by author Paul Schullery and illustrator Marsha Karle.

In this superb collection of essays, Paul Schullery, prolific and award-winning nature writer and lifelong angler, celebrates the lore, the lure, and the legends of fly-fishing.

From his insightful questioning of whether the first book on fishing was indeed written by a woman, to the nostalgic comparison of the rods and flies of yesteryear with today's high-tech gear, it is Paul Schullery's passion for the sport that is most apparent.

Written with grace, humor, and intelligence, Royal Coachman is an irresistible book for anyone who revels in or is a part of the culture of fly fishermen. Most important, it is a thoughtful explanation of the devotion so many have to a sometimes-frustrating sport and, as Schullery writes, "this great adventure we have in a thousand little episodes."

Item Special Note

At various times since 1972, Paul worked for the National Park Service in Yellowstone as a ranger-naturalist, historian-archivist, environmental protection specialist, senior editor in the Yellowstone Center for Resources, and chief of cultural resources.  He retired from the National Park Service in 2008, but continues to write, publish, and speak on a variety of topics. He is the author, co-author, or editor of 45 books about nature, conservation, and outdoor sport, including The Bears of Yellowstone; Mountain Time; Searching for Yellowstone: Ecology and Wonder in the Last Wilderness; America's National Parks: The Spectacular Forces that Shaped Our Treasured Lands; Real Alaska: Finding Our Way in the Wild Country; and Lewis and Clark Among the Grizzlies: Legend and Legacy in the American West. He has written for many publications, ranging from the Encyclopedia Britannica Yearbook of Science and the Future and BioScience to The New York Times and Outdoor Life. Paul is the recipient of an honorary doctorate from Montana State University (1997), the Wallace Stegner Award from the University of Colorado Center for the American West (given for "a sustained contribution to the cultural identity of the American West,"1998), and a Panda Award from Wildscreen International (2002) for his script for the ABC/PBS film "Yellowstone:  America's Sacred Wilderness," which he wrote and narrated. 

Paul served as an advisor and interviewee for the Ken Burns film "The National Parks" (2009). He has been honored by the U.S. Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee for his work in grizzly bear conservation, and in 2011 he was honored by the George Wright Society for his "outstanding contributions to conservation history, national park policy, and the understanding of wildlife, which have significantly advanced science-based resource management" in the national parks. He has served on a variety of advisory boards and groups, and is currently scholar-in-residence at the Montana State University Library.

In the field of fly fishing, Paul was executive director of The American Museum of Fly Fishing, in Manchester, Vermont, from 1977 to 1982, and editor of The American Fly Fisher, the museum's journal, from 1978 to 1983.  At various times he has been a columnist for Trout, Sporting Classics, and American Angler magazines.  He has dealt with many of the central topics of fly fishing in a series of books of history, essays, memoir, and fiction, including American Fly Fishing: A History (1987); Royal Coachman (1999); The Rise: Streamside Observations on Trout, Flies, and Fly Fishing (2006); If Fish Could Scream: An Angler's Search for the Future of Fly Fishing (2008); Fly-Fishing Secrets of the Ancients: A Celebration of Five Centuries of Lore and Wisdom (2009), and the forthcoming The Fishing Life (2012).  For his work as a writer on angling lore and history, the Federation of Fly Fishers presented him with the Roderick Haig-Brown Award (2006).

Paul lives in Bozeman, Montana, with his spouse, the artist Marsha Karle. Paul and Marsha have collaborated as author and artist on six books, a series of sets of interpretive fine-arts cards, and other projects.

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