No Fishing

JOHN MERWIN (1946-2013) embraced fishing, looking across a stream or out a window, thinking, musing and writing. Neighbors and acquaintances, mostly unaware of John's legendary angling prominence, looked forward to his columns in Stratton Magazine, 1989 to 2006. Laced with droll countryman wit, dozens expound on rural Vermont life. More or less. As his editor, Marsha Norman, once teased,"He said all his stories are true stories. Mostly." At deadline with manuscript absent-Marsha occasionally ran a reprint and captioned, "John Merwin is on vacation." Not so. Instead, in those years he was fishing editor at Field & Stream magazine--too much to do and too little time. But even then, as F&S colleague and friend Dave Hurteau remembers in the foreword, "No Fishing" (i.e., musing) was just as important to John as fishing. While not fishing John had made time to write these Stratton columns. Missing him and his stories, readers and anglers asked for this collection, and kept asking.... So here it is: No Fishing.