The Best Environmental Journalist

The Insightful Sportsman
Ted Williams
Down East Books, $14.99, paper, ISBN 0-89272-383-1

If there has been some confusion over the years as to whether this book's author is the same one that played baseball, this Ted Williams has climbed out from under that shadow.

In the world of conservation writing, this Ted Williams has become as well regarded and as skilled at his craft as was the ball player at his best. And, nothing reflects his skill more than does The Insightful Sportsman.

This has been no easy task. If there has been some backlash in recent years against the environmental movement, it is largely because it comes across as dour, humorless, doomsaying. That there is often good reason for such perpetual frowning isn't the point. If the public is going to comprehend and act upon important environmental issues, it must first be cajoled into wanting to hear about it, and then enraged enough to act.

This is Williams's forte. This book, which consists of articles reprinted from Trout, Fly Rod & Reel, Atlantic Salmon, and Atlantic Salmon Journal, and other magazines, both entertains and angers. Williams accurately and skillfully dissects complex issues and quickly identifies the good, bad, and ugly players. The quality of his investigations is reflected in the fact that none who have sought to sue Williams for libel has come near to winning.

There is much to like about this book. Williams has an acerbic wit, and isn't afraid of letting the dim-bulb resource rapists hang themselves with ropes twisted from their own words. His insights are direct, often couched in humor, and always in defense of nature. Perhaps most importantly, Williams has been one of the few voices in the "hook-and-bullet" press who doesn't talk down to hunters and anglers when addressing environmental issues.

Fly anglers have benefited much by Williams's articles, but perhaps we haven't stopped to think of the effects of his writings. He helped cajole Maine into better protection for its wonderful brook trout resource--at the time of his expose, it was basically a catch, kill, and cook fishery. His articles on Atlantic salmon have exposed many abuses. Today, the future of Atlantic salmon is brighter than it has been in decades.

Williams has taken gene-polluting hatcheries to task, and has blasted the Indians, government agencies, and corporate greed for the demise of Pacific salmon and steelhead (an unresolved issue, sad to say). His defense of those in government service who dared to stand up to bosses, congressmen, and bullies, trying to stop them from protecting our natural resources has helped save their jobs and allowed them to continue to do what we have hired them for.

All of this is balanced by the sheer wordcraft at work here:

The ancient cedar raft hovered over Secret Pond's air-clear spring hole; Maine's endless, silent forest and its reflection above, below, and all around; in my hand, a wild brook trout. The fish, perhaps three-quarters of a pound, was immense by our standards. The markings on the green back resembled grub trails on the inside of dead elm bark. Chestnut flanks were spattered with scarlet flecks, each ringed with an azure halo, bottom fins trimmed with ivory, belly brighter than a New England sunset. It was the most beautiful fish or, for that matter, creature I had ever seen.

No, The Insightful Sportsman isn't "fireside" reading. But reading it is some of the most important and rewarding non-fishing hours an angler can spend. RWOL

Michael Furtman is a freelance writer and a regular columnist for Midwest Fly Fishing magazine. This review first appeared in the Summer 1996 issue of MWFF. It is used here with permission. © Michael Furtman, 1996.

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